Public Libraries

Cleveland Public Library. "The People's University". Fulton Road.

I have just read a recent essay on the attack on public libraries. The author traces this back to the privatisation endemic to reaganism. In 2008 Ft. Worth, Texas removed the word 'public' from Fort Worth Library. This was financed by the philanthropy of an oil drilling company. This 're-branding' was done to get rid of a word that has 'negative connotations', well in Republican, oil country anyway. I suppose, people are lucky if there are any public libraries at all in Texas.

Public libraries began in the mid-nineteenth century. Technology and industrialisation, and spreading democracy, allowed for a greater dissemination of knowledge. The public library was the institution to do so widely. Early on it was accepted as 'the people's university'.

Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate who squeezed millions of dollars out of oppressed workers, had used his father' tradesman subscription library in Scotland. It was one of the few things he gave of his largesse years later. Eventually over two and an half thousand public and college libraries were partially built with some of his money. He produced a formula, "industrious and ambitious; not those who need everything done for them, but those who, being most anxious and able to help themselves, deserve and will be benefited by help from others", for his grants. The community would have to come up with the land, and most of the money. His money would trickle out along a schedule. He was a canny, wee lad.

Some extreme libertarians/capitalists object to libraries altogether. They detract from private sellers of books and other materials, when such are 'socialistically' or 'communistically' loaned. Of course there are others that object to the public's right to know. Librarians are (generally) champions of the First Amendment. In less affluent neighborhoods, take a look at the bumper stickers that arrive in the parking lot. They may hint why 'some' are against libraries.

Many people are disgusted with tax levies, but tax levies for libraries have a high rate of passage. People are willing to fund libraries with their increased property taxes. To end their existence will not be that easy.