My hometown station, FOX Chicago, recently dared to question what is perhaps America’s most sacrosanct institution: the public library. Are libraries a waste of taxpayer money?, the station asked, managing to irritate people on both sides of the aisle.
You know they’re on a no-holds-barred offensive on big government when they go for your local library. When the internet is everywhere and paperbacks are cheap, who needs a library anymore?
FYI, FOX Chicago. Not everyone has home access to the internet. I know, it’s a surprise, given the hoards of people navigating downtown Chicago in Brooks Brothers suits with only their iPhones as company, but much of the city and the nation still doesn’t have internet access.
Among Chicagoans, 40 percent of people don’t have regular access to the internet. Of those, 25 percent have no access at all. In a time where people’s wallets are getting thinner, the internet can be one of the first things to go.
Take a look at this riveting investigative journalism:
Want to pay a bill? Find a job? Look for an apartment? Apply for public housing? Find a day care center? You need the internet. More and more, services are moving online. It does make it convenient — no more waiting in long lines after a trek to your bank branch or service provider. But it also means that if you don’t have the internet, those services move farther and farther from your grasp.
Chicago’s Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey responded to the report with a scathing letter of her own, stating that the library provided 3.8 million one-hour internet sessions to people last year (as well as almost 10 million books borrowed).
“There continues to exist in this country a vast digital divide. It exists along lines of race and class and is only bridged consistently and equitably through the free access provided by the Chicago Public Library and all public libraries in this nation,” says Dempsey.
“Some 60 percent of the individuals who use public computers a Chicago’s libraries are searching for and applying for jobs. We’re proud to continue to be able to use our resources to help them do so.”
And those empty bookshelves? Dempsey says FOX’s cameras were focused on the periodical reference section, a part of the library where you can’t even check out books. Go to the the circulating collection, she says, and you’ll see people finding the information they need.
With most states and cities in such severe financial crises, we’re used to questioning every expense on a government budget sheet. But cutting off libraries would only further divide the people in our nation who are desperately seeking opportunity through learning, jobs, higher education and knowledge, not to mention remove a much-needed haven for the homeless.
Cutting libraries? The price is just too high, according to Walter Cronkite, who once said, “Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”
Photo credit: striatic
