12.03.08
Obama Invokes Libraries at Governors Conference
“Forty-one states are likely to face budget shortfalls this year or next, forcing you to choose between reining in spending and raising taxes,” said President-elect Barack Obama at the National Governors Association meeting December 2 in Philadelphia. “Jobs are being cut. Programs for the needy are at risk. Libraries, parks, and historic sites are being closed,” he observed. “Right here in Philadelphia, over two hundred workers are being laid off, and hundreds more unfilled positions are being eliminated.”
Immediately, the ALA Council’s electronic list lit up with the news. “He said ‘libraries’!” everyone seemed to be saying. “He said libraries!” And, yes, it is a good thing that libraries are already on our new president’s radar. The governors meeting is intended to be a bipartisan delegation, and Vice President-elect Joseph Biden welcomed Alaska Governor and former election rival Sarah Palin by saying, “And Governor Palin, your being here today sends a powerful message that when campaigns end, we are all partners in progress. Thank you.”
It’s going to take all the bipartisanship the Obama team can muster for the new administration to reverse the cascading effect the economic meltdown of 2008, a cascade that threatens library funding across the nation. Obama told the governors, “We’re going to have to make hard choices in the months ahead about how to invest precious tax dollars and how to save them.” He asked for the governors’ cooperation in designing a recovery plan. “If we are listening to our governors, we’ll not only be doing what’s right for our states, we’ll be doing what’s right for our country.” And by implication, for our libraries.
Meanwhile, I think librarians need to take an different approach from those institutions standing in line with their hands out. We should concentrate on the myriad ways in which libraries are already a part of the solution to the economic crisis. I am composing an open letter to send to the president on Inauguration Day. So far, it goes something like this:
Dear President Obama,
As you become the 44th president of the United States of America, probably the last thing you need is more people telling you what they want you to do for them. From the Headquarters of the American Library Association in Chicago, it looks to me as if everybody is asking you for something, and librarians, of course, don’t want to miss the boat. But before we get in line with our demands, let me offer one modest suggestion for how to deal with this profession: Let us show you what we can do for you.
In 2005, before you keynoted the American Library Association’s Annual Conference here in Chicago, I sidled up to you in the green room with a tape recorder and asked you to talk about libraries. You focused thoughtfully on my questions, one of which was, “Can you tell us more about the effect libraries have had on you?” You answered that although people tend to think of libraries in terms of just being sources for reading material or research, it was a librarian at the New York Public Library in Manhattan who helped you find the community organizing job you were looking for. “I probably would not be in Chicago were it not for the Manhattan public library,” you said, adding that the librarian had identified lists of potential employers and, “I wrote to every organization; one of them wound up being an organization in Chicago that I got a job with.”
People all over the country are using libraries in larger numbers than ever before, partly for reading and research as they always have but also because libraries have become community solution centers where people are learning new skills, meeting their neighbors, and getting practical help with some of life’s essentials, such as managing their dwindling finances or, like you, finding a job.
Following our brief interview, you went on to deliver a keynote speech so clearly tailored to librarians that we immediately asked your staff for permission to adapt it as a cover story in the August 2005 issue of American Libraries. In it you said, “More than a building that houses books and data, the library represents a window to a larger world, the place where we’ve always come to discover big ideas and profound concepts that help move the American story forward….” Many of us walked away from that speech already saying, “Yes we can.”
We can continue to be the “sanctuaries of learning” that you remember. We can foster literacy, what you called “the most basic currency of the knowledge economy.” We can produce the highest achieving students when they attend schools with good library media centers. We can help parents prepare children for the workforce and for a lifetime of reading and learning. Libraries are central to community development, civic engagement, and scholarly excellence. Therefore, the librarians of this nation ask not what you can do for libraries but what libraries can do to help you solve the daunting problems we all face. We’re at your service.
Dee Brennan said,
December 3, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Leonard, it is so cool that he found his job through a library!
Sam Simon said,
December 3, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Dear Leonard,
Thank you for your open letter to President-elect Obama. I think copies of it should be sent to the Governors of every state and state legislators. I had the pleasure of hearing Senator Obama speak at the Chicago conference. Little did I know that in 2008, my wife and I would be working on his presidential election campaign. Our expectations for President-elect Obama are great. I can only hope that even though our economy is in shambles, that Mr. Obama will remember how valuable libraries are to our nation.
Pam Jaskot said,
December 4, 2008 at 8:19 am
Thank you for this insight. So often we as librarians lament our woes. I have worked with librarians across NC to encourage just this type of conversation - share what you can do to address the problems of your community. We are so often a solution to a problem.
Ann Fuhrman said,
December 4, 2008 at 9:46 am
Brilliant!
Thank you!
AL Inside Scoop » Working in Beta: Library Web Labs Let Users Shape Service said,
December 4, 2008 at 2:12 pm
[...] getting started right then. Much of what we post here (including this post and Leonard Kniffel’s open letter to President-Elect Obama yesterday) will eventually be adapted to the print magazine, and some will [...]
Celeste Zygmont said,
December 5, 2008 at 8:50 am
Your reference to Kennedy’s quote is a nice theme.
Keep it. He’ll probably appreciate it too.
Gloria Waity said,
December 5, 2008 at 11:21 am
Great letter. I appreciate your sending of a positive and proactive message about our profession’s service. As a long time member of ALA it is good to have our profession described in this way. Thank you for expressing my opinion so eloquently.
Gloria Waity,
Diane Chen said,
December 7, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Great Letter! I hope you distribute this widely. We have so much to offer.
He said libraries!!! « sex drugs and intellectual freedom said,
December 7, 2008 at 5:45 pm
[...] 08, 6:44 pm Filed under: access, libraries Prez-elect Obama said the word libraries…and librarians everywhere freaked out (in a good [...]
Lynn Elam said,
December 8, 2008 at 11:25 am
I have sent a letter to our state and federal legislators with the same message. We are here and we are ready to be part of the solution.
Theresa C. Trawick said,
December 12, 2008 at 8:50 am
I am a librarian, wife and mother and all fronts believe passionately in what libraries do for communities. Society throws around words, such as life-long learning, critical thinking, global perspective, cultural awareness but libraries bring life to those words. Leaders need to speak everywhere and all the time about the importance of libraries and need to back those words with support.
Esther Guedea said,
December 19, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I haven’t heard anything so uplifting and heartening since this past election night, and it feels SO GOOD to not only be appreciated for what I do when working at the library of Goshen College [IN], but to feel that I may even be able to help with necessary solutions, both big and small!
Kimbre Chapman said,
December 20, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Thank you so much for this letter. I’m a children’s librarian in a Title 1 community. We work with closely with the schools on behalf of our under served children. As someone who works with kids, I can say that our kids do read and many are heavy readers due to our outreach programs. Our parents come when their children are little to learn about pre reading skills to better prepare their children for school, kids come for homework help and after school card games, and we also provide extensive cultural programming to open a world to our children that they would likely have no access to. Our library is popular. We have a small staff, and we are swamped all the time; even more so now that the economy is hurting.
Kathy Chick said,
December 22, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Thank you for the comments you are planning on relaying to President Obama. I recently had a visit with the chairman of our library board about the stability of the library in the community while we are experiencing the financial cuts that are here and are yet to come. I was informed that the library (county district) could not be closed! But I view things differently. If we do not make a stand as to the value of a library in a community, those making the cuts will not understand that value to the citizens of the library’s population whether it be a city, county, state, or nation. Every library brings opportunities and resources to the community it serves that may not or cannot be obtained easier any other way. We need our libraries to support our communities, to help the schools, to assist the parents, to be the information center for all kinds of knowledge. Thank you, again, for taking a stand for our nation and the libraries in it.
anna koval =) said,
January 19, 2009 at 2:45 pm
dear mr. knifel,
your editorial was a total tear-jerker! your editorial made my day!
it made me not mind having to work another holiday weekend to get ready for another busy week of supporting my school’s awesome students and their talented teachers.
it made me not care that i had to share a banana with my husband at breakfast this morning because we had to dip into our meager monthly food bugdet to buy extra supplies for the library.
it made me proud to be a librarian. and it made me proud to be an american.
thank you!