On Libraries
By: John Thomas
Tags: Books, Reading, Libraries, Summer, Culture

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

The school year has ended and that can only mean one thing: library season is upon us. If you are of the persuasion that libraries are dying out in our digital age you might be surprised to know that the opposite is in fact true. According one librarian, though funding libraries is always an issue, library use has actually been on an upward swing over the last decade. And while libraries are changing, a fact that is the source of worthwhile debate on what the role of libraries in society should be, they are still a popular institution that 94% of people think improves the quality of life in a community.

An article in the Atlantic even highlighted the important role libraries play in the wake of tragedy, likening them to what the writer called “second responders.” For example, “In Orlando, after the nightclub shootings, the library hosted an art gallery for those who made art as a way to express and share their reactions.” While first responders provide necessary help in an emergency, second responders, i.e. libraries, provide a space for people to work through the pain of experiencing trauma.

For me, when summer comes around, I get nostalgic for libraries. To be sure, my mom would take issue with this point, arguing that I didn’t like them as a child. Perhaps it was the awkward programs the local library put on for kids that we frequented, or being that I was the oldest child in our family, my problem was that I had outgrown them. But in my memory, the library has always been a refuge, almost a sacred space. In high school I would often hop on my bike and ride to our local branch to check out titles I knew were important; books by Heller, Baldwin, and Bradbury, among others.

A friend of mine and his family had a particular library tradition in the summertime. Each week they would go to the library with a tub and fill it to the brim with books. At the end of the week they would return all the books and fill the tub again.

I’ll never forget the day, when another friend of mine, my best friend, shared with me one of his most personal secrets: he loved to read. For an athlete that was an astonishing, almost shameful idea. But for me it was freedom, knowing that it was ok that I loved reading too.

America has over 100,000 libraries, more than 16,000 of those being of the public variety. Each and every one of them is a blessing to the community it serves, something not to be taken for granted. Unfortunately, many do. I once had a disheartening conversation with a family member who saw the public library as a waste of real estate and tax-payer dollars.

I now live in a country that only has 1100 libraries, 1 for every 70,000 people. The lack of libraries is sorely felt by our family on a weekly basis. Not having access to books changes a culture.

Christians are, to borrow an Islamic phrase, “people of the book” and I would add, not “people of the screen.” Of course this label is in reference to our commitment to the Bible, but because God’s message comes to us as a book and not a movie or tweet, we do well when we have a vibrant reading culture in our cities and homes. For us “people of the book,’ the public library is a type of Noah’s ark. It preserves some of our culture’s most cherished artifacts, books, from the rising flood of a banal social media culture.

Though I won’t be able to bring my tub to the local library and fill it to the brim with books this summer, I hope you will. In the words of J.K. Rowling, “When in doubt, go to the library.” SDG

John Thomas is a freelance writer. His writing has appeared at Mere Orthodoxy, Christianity Today, and Desiring God. He writes regularly at medium.com/soli-deo-gloria.

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