The importance of libraries in a recession
Published on 2009-03-31
This blog entry follows on naturally from the one below by my colleague, Boris, on the value of libraries. I have just come across an article from the back issues of the Library Review which highlights the fact that in the Great Depression of the 1930s public libraries were founded in 48 of the 50 US states. It concludes that this was not due to federal intervention or funding but to local communities deciding that libraries had an important social role to play.
This is a message which must have resonance for us today when the global financial crisis is producing an increasing number of people who are not in employment, education or training and when this is starting to be viewed by governments not just as a barrier to economic growth but as posing a real risk of social disruption and civil unrest.
Of course, we are better off than the citizens of the 1930s in many respects, not least because public libraries are, in most countries, funded under statute but few would argue that they are not operating under severe budgetary constraints. It is perhaps precisely now in this current harsh economic climate that they ought to be receiving additional investment, not being asked for budget cuts. Libraries are a relatively cheap public service and are well placed to serve their communities and, critically, their communities are perhaps more in need of them than at any other time since the 30s.
Reference: The American public library during the Great Depression, by Charles A. Seavey. Library Review, 2003, vol. 52, issue 8, pages 373-378
