Watching My Beloved, Once-Eclectic Library Become Just Another Bastion of OrthodoxyGreg Barkovich
06 Feb 2022
In 2018, the New York Times published an op-ed that illustrated the traditional conception of the public library. Under the headline, To Restore Civil Society, Start with the Library, sociologist Eric Klinenberg wrote:
For children and teenagers, libraries help instill an ethic of responsibility, to themselves and to their neighbors, by teaching them what it means to borrow and take care of something public, and to return it so others can have it too … Libraries stand for and exemplify something that needs defending: the public institutions that—even in an age of atomization, polarization and inequality—serve as the bedrock of civil society. If we have any chance of rebuilding a better society, social infrastructure like the library is precisely what we need.
Perhaps Mr. Klinenberg is still able to visit public libraries where these qualities remain dominant. But there are signs that this traditional conception of the public library is changing, as librarians are caught up by the same wave of “woke” progressivism that is affecting other sectors of society.
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The place that I settled at, Burnaby Public Library in British Columbia, was known for its varied and deep collection, and for exceptional public service. Several of our staff were ex-Americans who’d fled the Vietnam War draft decades earlier. And they, along with others, contributed to a heterodox atmosphere that was intellectually open. It was a fun and interesting place to work. Meetings were often lively, and discussions could at times get heated as staff expressed their opinions. Casual lunch-room discussions were wide-ranging and often funny.
This was a long way from the Burnaby Public Library that I left 24 years later, in March 2021. By then, we had moved from an intellectually pluralistic environment, with an effectively flat hierarchy and a climate in which discussions were largely free, to a top-down organization in which workers often seemed afraid to express their opinions, and meetings felt more like indoctrination sessions. This change in the institution’s culture was a significant reason for my early retirement.
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Source:
https://quillette.com/2022/02/06/watching-my-beloved-once-eclectic-library-become-just-another-bastion-of-orthodoxy/
