[While I'm busy scrubbing poop from diapers and other articles of clothing, several friends have been kind enough to provide content for this site, through a program we're calling Blogbaby. Today's contribution comes from my friend, local sustainability advocate Lisa Bashert.]
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.I was in the library today. In fact, I was in the library three times today. Generally, I go to the library a lot — rarely does a week go by when I don’t visit. Today, I stopped in to pick up a MelCat book. (If our library doesn’t have the book I want, there’s a program called Inter-Library Loan — the online version is MelCat — and that means I can borrow materials from, say, the Benzonia Library, or the Marquette Library.) I walked to the cafe next door and had lunch.
Then I realized that I had forgotten to pick up the next selection for the upcoming “Books & Brews” book club that our downtown library hosts at the Corner Brewery. Before biking home, I stopped in again and picked up The Member of the Wedding, by Carson McCullers. While there, Jerome (I know all of my librarians by name) informed me that my library card is about to expire.
I was aghast. I didn’t have my ID with me, so I’ll have to stop in again next week to renew my card.
Later still, I realized that I hadn’t dropped off the quarter page handbills I’d made to publicize the Sustainability Film Series, which will move to the downtown Ypsilanti District Library on the second Friday of every month beginning in January. I circled back around and dropped them off.
While I was visiting the library numerous times today, I took a good look around and choked up a little. You see, I love my walkable, sustainable, public, downtown, personal, activist, beautiful library. I saw moms with small herds of kids. I saw every computer occupied. I saw super cheap used books for sale near the checkout counter. I saw the beautiful historic stenciling that’s been restored encircling the lobby ceiling. I saw familiar friendly faces at the counter that have answered so many questions for me. I saw people from every kind of income bracket and ethnic group. I saw “the commons” in action.
Our library is a facet of the public commons that Mark mentioned awhile back in relation to an Occupy Ypsi gathering that took place on December 10. Mark linked the Wikipedia article on the concept of the public commons (an article that does not even mention the public library), defined as “resources owned in common or shared between and among community populations.” I was so glad that the commons was a topic discussed at Occupy Ypsilanti.
I was feeling particularly raw and particularly sad because, today, the Monteith Branch (and three other branches) of the Detroit Public Library closed their doors for the last time. (The report that ran on Michigan Radio can be found here.) At the Monteith, like at the YDL, many people use the public library as their only access to a computer for personal work and school, for access to all the information available online. There are martial arts classes at the Monteith; it is a refuge and a safe haven for kids, a beautiful old gothic building from 1926. It has an active Friends of the Library group — even a Junior League chapter that has adopted the building and lovingly cared for its historic infrastructure. Many of the library patrons used terms like “devastating,” “dismal,” and said the Monteith is like the Alamo, the last thing standing in this impoverished east side neighborhood.
Library Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch was quoted as follows, “We cannot operate based upon maybes right now. The city of Detroit, and particularly the library’s finances, are flying off of a cliff. So we have to make sound business decisions.”
But I thought as I listened — the library is NOT a business. It’s a public trust held in common to be protected for future generations. The current plan is for the Monteith and the other three branches of the Detroit Public Library to be boarded up. What a slap in the face to the patrons and children who use that library.
One of the ways I’ve described Ypsilanti in the past is to say “it’s got an intact infrastructure.” It is a complete community, not a suburb or exurb, with two vital downtown districts that still include independent businesses like the shoe repair, a hardware store, resale shops, small clothing stores, medical clinics, hair salons, bakeries, and the Food Co-op. To me, the public library is the beating heart of a true community. May we keep it forever safe.
I know many of Mark’s readers will have a much more educated point of view on the importance of the commons. I hope they will share their thoughts.
Speaking of the downtown library, would I be correct in the assumption that the building that it’s housed in is owned by the city, and could, therefore, be viewed by an incoming Emergency Financial Manager as an asset for possible liquidation? And, if so, might it be prudent if we somehow transferred ownership of the building to an independent entity of some sort? Or, has that already been done? I feel as if I should know that, but I don’t… And the last thing that I’d want to see is an appointee of the Governor coming into Ypsi and selling out library out from under us.