What is a Library?

At Our Core, What Exactly Are We Here For (Day 71)

My beautiful library in the snow…

The other day, a mom and her son came into the library looking for help. Her son, who was perhaps 10 or 11, was not reading. She wanted him to read. Can we help?

Not, can you recommend more by a favorite author. Not, he’s outgrown his age group, can we challenge him more. Not, he’s looking for a new genre or more of the same genre.

He doesn’t read. Can you help me get him reading?

And it occurred to me that in all the culture talk over what, exactly, libraries are supposed to be doing, here was a root problem showing up at our doorstep. This is easy to forget in a world where New Librarianship is expanding the resources, usage parameters and very definition of a library’s function.

The new library is an information center, entertainment hub, workshop location and community centerpiece, along with collections that are breaking down the expectations of what a patron can check out. Cake pans. Tools. Museum passes. Digital subscriptions.

If you walk in here and you need something, no matter what that something is, we will do everything we can to help you get it. Or find it. Or find someplace else to find it.

But this mom just wanted to get her kid to read. That was it. Nothing fancy or special. Nothing online. No gaming or coding.

Just reading. Our core value. Everything else could fall away and we ought to still have that.

Needless to say, the young man was set upon by our staff and children’s librarian like voracious book wolverines. They ran through his history. What do you like? What have you read? Has anything been recommended? Where are you in school? Have your teachers gotten involved?

This was a masterclass in librarianship. The young man walked out with half a dozen books, from across the spectrum. The key here, of course, is that, to his credit, he wasn’t resistant to reading. He wanted to be a reader. The mother was relieved to have a game plan and see some early signs of enthusiasm.

This all reminds me of a time a few years ago when I was showing my father my new smart phone. I showed him how email works, sent myself pictures and edited those pictures. I showed him all my apps and games. I looked up stuff on-line, a total walk through of everything that device could do.

When I was done, he took a deep breath and said, “This is a great, but can you make a phone call?”

This was one of the most important lessons, perhaps inadvertently, he ever gave me.

Remember your original design. Understand why you are… you, to begin with. Growth is critical, sure. Bells and whistles allow us to offer our community more resources, no doubt. We always must look into the future.

But, that boy wanted to read. Period. We helped him as best we could to get reading. Period. That’s ultimately why we’re here and will always be. Now, let’s go read!