I rarely tell personal stories in this space, but yesterday at the Camden County library branch at Rutgers-Camden I had an experience that reinforced for me the quiet, daily importance of institutions in our lives. I want to share that story, and my accompanying policy thoughts, with you:
For those of you who don’t know, the Camden City Library system was dissolved by Mayor Dana Redd in light of city budgetary concerns in 2011 in the aftermath of broad municipal cuts to funding by Gov. Chris Christie. The one remaining open branch, on Ferry Ave., was absorbed into the county system. Another was opened in the basement of Rutgers-Camden’s Paul Robeson Library, and is a public branch of the county library system for Camden residents to use.
I’ve found myself in that basement more often recently, first because the county system has access to Courier-Post archives, but more recently because I’ve been requesting a host of books for pleasure reading. Among those have been Orson Scott Card’s historical fantasy Alvin the Maker series.
Yesterday, I found myself in the Rutgers-Camden library branch picking up the last book in Card’s series: The Crystal City. I lamented to the librarian that I would have to find another series to read, and librarian’s face lit right up. She walked me to an aisle and picked a book right of the shelf for me, insisting that Daniel Wilson’s work Robopocalypse was among the most intellectual and interesting science fictions books she knew, and that, to top it off, it was written by a professor.
The recommendation made my day, but it also got me thinking. I often write about how important it is that communities have institutions, or that schools be institutions (rather than factories producing workers). And that is an academic way to talk about what happens in schools or libraries. But this smaller, kinder example of institutionalism is what makes these places so powerful. Imagine being a student. The ability of a librarian or a teacher to make a recommendation, or to make many over years, has so much potential. It gives students positive experiences with reading. It lets them find things that are interesting to them, rather than just curriculum they are forced to learn.
It also starts to establish relationships that can be valuable later on in life. Libraries are increasingly places that those without internet can apply for jobs. The role of librarians and teachers is not just to make recommendations, it’s to be a place that people want to come back to. A place where they want to read. Or know they’ll receive support when they apply for jobs. Making our public institutions into such friendly, supportive places provides the kind of network necessary to overcome challenges such as not having internet, not having a family that loves reading, and not having books in the home.
And that’s why it’s so sad to drive down Broadway and see a tree growing through the Carnegie library in Camden. The very places that most need these supportive institutions are the places that struggle to financially support them.
But it’s also why the library on Ferry Ave. and the branch in the basement of Rutgers-Camden’s Paul Robeson Library are such heart-warming stories. These librarians, and by proxy the institutions they represent, are reaching out and filling a need in Camden. For that, and for the book recommendation, I’d like to say thank you.
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Joseph, I share your outrage, in general, about some policies that have had an adverse impact on the citizens of Camden. However, you should visit this wonderful new library located on the Rutgers campus. Like our dear Professor Danley, I visit there often and do not feel demeaned by the fact that it is in a basement. The library is well-lit and cheerfully decorated. The librarians are top-notch.
That said, because libraries are open to the public, it has become a magnet for some street people who obviously have addiction and anger issues. Trust me, most of them are not using the computers to gain employment or educate themselves. On a positive note, some of these people have drifted into the computer classes and are truly interested in becoming computer literate.
In memory of Frank Fulbrook who was the lone public defender of the City Library system. Also their is an interesting story to tell in why the Carnegie library has not been redeveloped yet into a much needed adaptive reuse
Sad.
It says something horrible about us that we cannot even keep a community’s access to knowledge sacred. It saddens me every time I pass by the wonderful library building at 5th & Federal Streets closed down. To have to resort to robbing a community of a beacon like that is just terrible. It has to be alienating and demeaning for city residents to have to go into a basement at Rutgers for their library. It’s just another form of local injustice, I suppose, as surrounding communities like Cherry Hill build elaborate new libraries while Camden’s heritage crumbles.