In an ideal world, the printed word would still be treated with respect and not kicked around like some pesky fossil reminding us of a duller, slower age before hashtags. In that world, enraged citizens would pour into the streets, yelling creatively worded protest chants at the first hint of a threat to service at their beloved library system. The library is, after all—like the DMV or Target—the crossroads of society through which all people still pass; the sign of public trust that knowledge is for all to share regardless of income level.
But that’s not what happened when Sunday hours were eliminated in the Brooklyn Public Library system earlier this year, and the 60 or so branches in the borough narrowly avoided a major budget slash a few weeks ago that would have dropped Saturday hours too, not to forget an upcoming two-year closure of the Park Slope branch for renovations. If you have one of those “jobs” that requires you to be somewhere during weekdays, your window for getting to the library is shrinking.
But a group of people is out there fighting for your weekend access to books, computers, workshops and the other resources that make up the broke-person’s oasis known as the public library, that place that’s like the socialized medicine version of B&N. (more…)