Cobb County is proposing closing of all but four of its libraries as early as May 1. It is easy to dismiss what a library is and its importance in our society. It is easy to say that just four branches can handle what 17 used to, especially if you don’t use them.
The world of the Internet has changed the game. Want to read a hot new book? Just download it to your electronic device. Need to know what the state flag of Scotland looks like? Do a Google search. Everything about the world is right at your fingertips. Who needs a library?
Ask that of the man who has a family but lost his job two years ago and no longer has a car because he couldn’t keep up the car note. But he can walk to his local library to fill out job applications on the Internet.
Ask that of the young mother who realizes that it is never too early to start her children on the path of thought, wonder and imagination and takes her children to her library for story hour.
Ask that of the young child whose life at home is difficult sometimes, but she finds peace and solace sitting in the children’s corner reading a book at her local library.
Ask the little girl who discovered the joy of reading at the age 5 when she was given her first library card and grew up to become a best-selling author because of her discovery.
Ask me.
I was that little girl who, through stories and words, my dreams became bigger than myself. I was that little girl who loved going to my local library to roam the stacks, breathing in the smell of dusty old books as I browsed title after title, thrilled at the idea of what new journeys I would discover. I was the child whose deep love of reading turned into a deeper desire to write stories and went on to become an author.
You see, a library is more than books. It is more than the people who staff them, and the rows and rows of tomes that fills its space. Libraries are refuge for the overwhelmed mind and respite from a technical age. Libraries are lifelines to the outside world and the hope for a better life. Libraries empower the spirit and uplift the soul. Libraries educate and liberate. They are as essential as the air we breathe.
As the powers that be hold hearings about closing 13 of Cobb’s 17 libraries; as they speak of budget gaps and all those numbers that have brought them to this abyss, I ask that they keep in mind what a library is.
I ask that they remember that man, out of work for two years with a family to support, using his local library to put in job applications. I ask that they remember the children who look forward to story time and that youngster who finds solace in the pages of a book in the children’s section.
Lastly, I ask that they envision just four branches servicing a clientele of more than 380,000 who borrowed nearly 2.9 million books last year. I ask that they remember all of this.
A society without adequate libraries is a society that is denying itself a vital future. That is my quote. And while it is simple to say that four branches can do the job that 17 branches did, it is not realistic, especially if you have no means to get there.
Margaret Johnson-Hodge is the author of “In Search of Tennessee Sunshine” and other novels. She lives in Kennesaw.
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