To the Library, and Beyond!

How Libraries Can Help Us Discover New Horizons

February is National Library Lover’s Month, and y’all know me – I never want to miss an opportunity to talk about the incredible value of libraries and what makes them such crucial components of our modern communities. Today’s topic is reductionism, and how libraries – far too often – are reduced down to a very limited, one-dimensional preconception in modern society. As you can imagine, the opposite is true. Libraries today are far more dynamic than we often realize.

Flash back to myself a few years ago, attending a library leadership seminar, listening as the facilitator compared libraries to the space program. My wheels began to turn. Both are plagued by insufficient funding and unfortunate misconceptions in the public eye. The space program, because it can be hard to see the value vis-à-vis the staggering cost, and libraries, in large part because everyone these days has a smart phone in their hand. Yet it was the Space Age that made smart phones a technological possibility, and likewise libraries provide a universe of information, resources, and opportunities designed to improve quality of life in their communities. Yet in the popular consciousness, libraries are too often reduced down to a single, persistent object – you guessed it – the book.

Is this a bad thing? After all, libraries have been providing access to books for quite literally thousands of years. What is so wrong about being associated with this miracle of learning, creativity, and education?

Nothing!

What is problematic, however, is the public understanding of the book as an unchanging – and therefore irrelevant – item in our modern society, comfortably ignorant of numerous trends to the contrary. As we look back throughout history we see that society’s consumption of the written word has transitioned through a variety of successive formats – from chiseled symbols on walls and monuments to clay tablets to scrolls to the codex – and with the advent of the printing press, development and production of the book more or less as we know it today. Not one of these delivery formats threatened the existence or value of libraries as physical spaces where knowledge could be preserved and accessed, even as each format effectively disrupted continued use of the ones that came before.

Rather, libraries simply adjusted their collections and continued to serve their communities by providing uninterrupted access to the new – and more versatile – formats. This flexibility, in fact, is a key component of the modern library, as another recent presentation I attended powerfully captured. This past year I served as the President of the Arkansas Library Association, and one of our initiatives was to provide monthly webinars on a variety of topics for our members, in an effort to make quality professional development content available throughout the year, and not just at our annual conference.

In November our presenter focused on the basic concepts of permaculture and how libraries can bring in some of those concepts to help make their operations, their buildings, and their partnerships – essentially everything about the work that we do – more sustainable. One of the things she said really stood out to me, and that was the fact that “libraries remain relevant because of the ability to gracefully pivot in the way we provide access to materials and services to best suit our community.”[i]

Now, at this point we are all VERY familiar with the word “pivot.” As we look back over the past twenty-odd months or so, individuals and organizations throughout our community made the kinds of adjustments that were necessary to survive this very serious challenge we’ve all faced with the pandemic. As we all know, however, it’s not enough to simply survive through serious experiences. We must also thrive, and in this I believe that libraries are particularly well placed to navigate the future ahead. At the very least, the response of libraries across the country certainly fits into a pattern that those of us working in this profession have come to know very well – one of dedication, persistence, creativity, adaptability, and yes – graceful pivots when and where required.

This is due to the fact that – surprisingly for some – libraries are not about books, or computers, or resources, or even information. Libraries today are about people – promoting opportunity for individuals and progress for communities. People will ALWAYS need help navigating challenges that come their way or taking advantage of resources and opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive, and to me this means that libraries and the people who work in them have a key role to play, helping others harness the power of libraries to meet their personal, educational, or professional goals. If you think about it, this sounds a lot like lifelong learning, which is of course central to our mission here at South Arkansas Community College, and with countless other organizations around the world.

This professional ethos of librarianship, so to speak, the ability to gracefully pivot, is a crucial skill in our situation as a two-year college here at SouthArk, and it is what allows the SouthArk Library to be engaged, forward thinking, and responsive to the changing needs of those we serve. It is a mindset that we bring to the table when we are planning activities for students, or exploring potential resources that we can offer or services we can provide. It is a perspective that allows us to be student focused AND community focused, bringing together education, resources, and community in such a way that not only opens the doors to South Arkansas Community College, but also relevant cultural and educational opportunities to help move our community forward.

These are things that, as librarians, we are very passionate about, and these are all examples of actions that libraries all over the world pursue in support of their local communities. So for this year’s National Library Lover’s Month, I would like to challenge us all – next time you visit your library to check out a book or to take advantage of some other resource, lift your gaze towards the horizon, and take a moment to discover the fantastic offerings and opportunities your library provides. Much like the Space Race that produced our very own space program which gave us smart phones, freeze-dried ice cream, and a host of additional innovations, libraries exist as agents of change – ready and able to facilitate discovery, growth, and opportunity.

Let us go boldly to the library and explore.

[i] April Griffith, “The Permaculture Approach to Sustainable Library Solutions,” Lunch, Learning, and Libraries webinar series, Arkansas Library Association, November 16, 2021.