{"id":6520,"date":"2011-05-04T08:40:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-04T12:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theseasonforromance.com\/wordpress\/?p=6520"},"modified":"2011-05-04T08:40:01","modified_gmt":"2011-05-04T12:40:01","slug":"a-love-letter-to-libraries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/04\/a-love-letter-to-libraries\/","title":{"rendered":"A love letter to libraries"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Kat Latham<\/strong><\/p>\n

My father was laid off when I was 11.\u00a0 My mom had recently quit her job to train as a teacher.<\/p>\n

Being a worrisome child, my first fear was that we\u2019d lose our home. Mom reassured me that wouldn\u2019t happen. My second fear was that I wouldn\u2019t be able to buy books anymore. Mom said, \u201cHoney, I\u2019ll always buy you whatever books you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure whether she underestimated my voracious appetite for stories, or how long Dad would be unemployed, but we soon started frequenting the library instead of the bookstore.<\/p>\n

\"\"The library in our town was tiny. It didn\u2019t have much of a young adult section, and I was always worried I\u2019d get yelled at if I spoke out loud. It wasn\u2019t my favorite place to be, but it was my main connection to stories that helped me escape the toughest years of my life for a few hours at a time.<\/p>\n

Over the last year, there\u2019s been a lot of talk in the UK\u2014as I know there has been in the U.S. and other countries\u2014about saving public money by closing libraries. The arguments in favor of this seem beyond daft to me. How can you quantify all that we\u2019d lose if we lost libraries?<\/p>\n

On Sunday, London\u2019s Observer Magazine printed this fantastic article<\/a> about all the ways libraries and librarians serve their communities. It says, \u201cThe great untold truth of libraries is that people need them not because they’re about study and solitude, but because they’re about connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

I see this several times a week at London\u2019s Barbican Library<\/a>, where I spend my lunch hour writing. Part of an arts center that\u2019s home to the London Symphony Orchestra and also has a cinema and theater, the Barbican Library is far more than the sleepy seaside library of my childhood.<\/p>\n

In fact, watching people connect at the Barbican Library is sometimes much more interesting than the scene I\u2019m writing. There\u2019s often a large group of women knitting at the library. They look like they cover every age between 25 and 85. This isn\u2019t a silent library, so they chat as they knit, and their creations are spread on the table between them.<\/p>\n

I once saw an elderly man approach them, smiling. He said he loved seeing them there every week; it made him happy. They invited him to sit and talk for a while. Perhaps this won\u2019t seem strange to many of you, but in London I find it\u2019s very unusual for strangers to strike up a conversation with each other. It\u2019s far safer to pretend you\u2019re alone in this city, which can only make it a very lonely place, especially for people who don\u2019t have jobs or families.<\/p>\n

The article recognizes how vital stories\u2014especially happy stories and romances\u2014are for people whose lives are difficult. One of the librarians talks about taking a mobile library to deprived areas of London, and chatting with people about what kind of romance novels they liked. He said, \u201cThose books are almost a form of medication; I reckon we save the NHS [National Health Service] a fortune in antidepressants.”<\/p>\n

\"\"Last week I was in Sarajevo. I walked past the old Sarajevo library, which was shelled during the Balkans conflict. Over a million books were burnt to ash, but much more than that was lost when the library was destroyed.<\/p>\n

Nearly 20 years later, the building is covered in scaffolding. I don\u2019t know what library services Sarajevans have access to now, but I discovered this New York Times article<\/a> from 1996, less than a year after the end of the siege. It contains a quote from Enes Kujundzic, the library\u2019s director, which seems applicable to countries emerging from all kinds of catastrophes\u2014whether war or economic depression.<\/p>\n

Responding to people who thought the country had bigger priorities for reconstruction, he said, “People forget that this country can’t be rebuilt without resources of science and technology. People say you are a cultural institution. I say we’re also an educational and scientific institution that has to help this country compete.”<\/p>\n

And how many of us live in countries that no longer want to compete?<\/p>\n

What do libraries mean to you? What connections have they helped you make\u2014whether they connected you with people, new authors, or ideas? With so much information moving online, do you think libraries are a waste of public money, or are they still as vital for communities as they\u2019ve ever been? Comment and enter to win Rachel Gibson’s ANY MAN OF MINE <\/span>(I loved this book!!!)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click to read Top Pick review!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Katrina Crew<\/strong>, writing as Kat Latham<\/strong>
\nA blog for romance writers and readers: http:\/\/readericreatedhim.wordpress.com<\/a>
\nFollow me on Twitter: http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/katrinalatham<\/a><\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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