The Wonderful World with Libraries

With school starting in Oak Park this week, the library's summer reading program is concluding.  It has been another wonderful summer to engage the youth in Oak Park to read and have fun.  Encouragement to participate in the program was the crux of a piece in the Summer 2017 edition of The Storyline, the Oak Park Public Library's quarterly newsletter, written by three now-6th graders who, last school year as 5th graders, won the fall 2016 Reading Olympics competition.  They spoke very well about how reading helps maintain brain power over the summer, and is a great way to engage the imagination and a fantastic means of recreation.  (If you want to read the piece, go to this link, and use the arrows to go to page 12.)

Earlier this summer, Chicago was a focus point of the library world with the Annual Conference of the American Library Association, which was held at McCormick Place and nearby venues in late June.  One of the sessions I made a point of attending featured teens from Chicago area libraries sharing their opinions about books nominated for an award for young adult fiction.  I was very pleased to see teens from a group at the Oak Park Public Library share their feedback on the books so thoughtfully at that session.  They were part of the Teen Summer Volunteer program, which engaged teens in a variety of different projects.

One person with a prominent presence at the conference was Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress.  She even received the 2017 Melvil Dewey Medal award, one of many announced at the awards ceremony--and I was pleased to see her in person when I attended it.

Dr. Hayden appears in the center of the picture, and on the left in the black outfit is Dr. Julie Todaro, who recently finished her 2016-2017 term as President of the ALA.  The photos above and below were taken by me.

After the awards, another notable name came to the stage: Ron Chernow, author of the biography Hamilton that served as the basis for the Hamilton musical.

Ron Chernow appears at the podium, just right of center.

He talked about his new biography on Ulysses S. Grant, which is scheduled for release in October.  He started by discussing the notion posed by the question, "Who wrote Mr. Grant's memoirs?"  He learned it started as some kind of witty statement in a Groucho Marx routine.  As part of his research, Mr. Chernow went to look at the actual handwritten manuscripts of Mr. Grant's memoirs--I think he mentioned they were at the Library of Congress.  He then remarked that we need librarians as the arbitrators of truth, especially with the rise of the concept of "fake news".  And he definitely relied on libraries in completing his very large Grant biography, which is hundreds of pages long.  Following his presentation, I had the chance, after waiting nearly an hour in line, to have the pleasure of having him autograph two of his books, including my copy of Hamilton, the first Nativity Day gift jointly given to me by my brother and sister-in-law.

Another prominent figure who spoke at the conference was Hillary Clinton, the featured speaker of the closing session.  I watched her speech later in the week after she gave it.  You can watch the speech on YouTube--it's about 26 minutes long.  Or, you can read the transcript.

I was impressed by the words she spoke in commending the importance of libraries, with her three main points all resonating with my understanding of the role of libraries.  By providing books, libraries encourage people to read.  She notes how wonderful it was to read to Chelsea as a girl, and now to her granddaughters.  Reading also helps develop the brains of children.

But besides being places with books, libraries also bring people together to engage in a variety of activities, like discussions, forums, classes to learn essential skills, and even business people doing entrepreneurial work.  In fact, in this day and age, I see that aspect of libraries becoming increasingly more prevalent.  Libraries are one of those institutions in communities that provide spaces for people from the public to come together.  (The recent solar eclipse viewing event at the Oak Park Public Library underscores how versatile libraries have become in how they use space and in the kinds of programs they can offer in those spaces, not to mention how they even partner with other organizations to serve their communities.  And it certainly brought many people together and got large number of them using the library.)  Indeed, spaces in libraries are resources as important as print and digital materials.  And providing these resources is important to the community, especially to underserved areas where residents would not be able to access them otherwise, which is a major concern in the library world because the Trump administration's budget proposes cuts to funds that go to libraries.

All the resources libraries provide help people be critical thinkers, which Mrs. Clinton noted are more important now than ever, echoing what Mr. Chernow said.  Providing access to resources helps people become more informed, which enhances their ability to engage in the important conversations that take place in a democratic society in the United States.  And from my experience, part of becoming informed is knowing how to evaluate information, especially with the profusion of information available in this day and age.  We can think in terms of just how the internet had deluged us in information, and librarians are the ones who give people floaties to navigate all of it.  Indeed, libraries have so much going for them, and it makes me all the more eager to keep proclaiming the significant contribution they make to society and, in the spirit of the 2017 summer reading program theme, in making a better world.