Our View: Libraries’ renaissance a bright spot in tough times

Fri., Aug. 22, 2008

Fast Facts:

Students who reported having all four types of reading materials – books, magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias – in their home scored higher on reading tests than those who reported fewer reading materials.

Only 53 percent of preschool-age children are read to daily by a family member. Children in families with incomes below the poverty line are less likely to be read aloud to every day than are children in families with incomes at or above the poverty line.

Children without some basic literacy skills by the time they enter school are more likely to drop out later.

In the United States, 44 million adults can’t read well enough to read a simple story to a child.

See the long lines at the library checkout. Wow. See the faces of the smiling librarians. Wow again. People are returning to their libraries. Once upon a time, before cable TV, before the Internet, before Amazon.com, men, women and children crowded into libraries for “entertainment.” They checked out books. They read them. Children joined reading contests in the summer.

But in recent years, libraries struggled with identity crises. People could find so much on the Web. People stopped reading as much, especially our younger folks, “Harry Potter” notwithstanding. Taxpayers kept paying for libraries, but hours were slashed when city budgets grew thin. Libraries seemed, to some, not just an endangered species, but a fossil. Alas.

But libraries always gain in popularity during tough economic times, according to the American Library Association. We now have science-fiction-style gas prices. Discretionary money is disappearing faster than old library card catalogs. And so people are returning to their libraries, where books, videos and Internet use don’t cost a dime.

Participation in youth summer reading programs is up in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. Checkouts are up 12 percent in the city of Spokane, 5 percent in Spokane County and an amazing 73 percent in Coeur d’Alene, because, in part, of an amazing new library.

These hard economic times shall pass. But those who value literacy should hope that the residents who rediscovered libraries, perhaps after long absences, will remain constant visitors when things look up.

Libraries remain vital only when residents use them. Libraries are important egalitarian public places. People of every age, and from every socio-economic class, stand in line together to check out books. Homeless folks peruse books in the same aisles as homeschooling moms.

The national narrative about the summer of 2008 contains chapters filled with anxiety. Will we keep the mortgaged house? Keep the job? Keep up with the cost of everything?

The fact that libraries experienced a renaissance this summer is a bright spot. Celebrate by visiting your local library. See those long lines. Wow.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics and National Adult Literacy Survey

Our View: Libraries’ renaissance a bright spot in tough times

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