Where dreams start - a personal tale of public libraries.

Yesterday I took my daughter on a business opportunity related reconnaissance. It’s the summer holidays in our neck of the woods and juggling is required. As we sat in a local café and I drank my contemplative coffee, we chatted happily and randomly, as we do, until I recognised someone arriving at the next table.

Two years ago, prior to my daughter starting nursery school, we would spend three half-days a week enjoying baby and toddler sessions organised by the public library service. In the schedule of her two year old life, Wednesday’s was ‘lady with a monkey’, Thursdays’ was [name of librarian] class and Friday was ‘man talking’. We library hopped, taking advantage of the free rhyme-time or story sessions. My daughter loved them and they were an invaluable part of her development. She learnt songs and rhymes she still sings today and the video of her practicing 'wind the bobbin up' could melt any frozen heart. All were sessions I could have not justified had they been fee-paying.

In the months that led up to her scheduled start at nursery, revised council budgets and library cutbacks were announced. So was the announcement of the closure of a local council-funded museum, where we attended another weekly class. The museum class had been fee paying, but at a nominal rate compared to the usual cost of similar ‘classes’ and groups. So, in one fell swoop, all but one of her fun group learning sessions were axed. I felt gutted for those that would follow on behind us but also relieved that we would not need the services in the future - nursery and school would very soon to be upon us. I signed the petitions. I emailed the council. Libraries were not dusty old rooms full of books that no one read. In the year I had been using them, I had sight of that so very clearly. There were regularly days we had to squeeze in at the back and go searching for extra chairs.

In the end, the collective voices of community discord did not reverse the budgetary decision. It did lessen the implementation of it for some of the libraries, but those that did remain open were on limited hours and limited services. We rolled on into nursery and school life. We read books gifted at birthday and Christmas and also those passed on from friends. We read the stream of books that are regularly sent home from school. She learns songs in assembly and for school shows. We were so lucky in our timing.

Yesterday, as we sat in that café, as we came face to face with the smiling lady from the Thursday library class, my daughter beamed. Memories flooded back for her and, as we said our polite goodbye’s, she asked if we might cross the road and visit the library. Just look. She couldn’t quite remember what it was like. She knew she’d been there, many times, but two years was a long time. The door was already open. Could we just have a look?

How I wish I had filmed that first moment as she stepped in to the children's area of this tiny local library. Her beautifully expressive face exploded with joy and wonder as she was met by wall upon wall of sparkling wordy treasure. Shelf after shelf of glittering gold. I actually shed a tear. One of those ones that leaks out when they get a line in the school show. She has clearly inherited my love of books. She bounced excitedly from one to another, leaving paper and cardboard on my lap with no patience to read beyond the first few words before she was off exploring again. No ‘candy shop’ would have had the same effect on the face of this kid. I’m guessing it’s what my face would look like faced with a fully stocked wine cellar.

Amidst my joy at seeing her so drenched in amazement, the reality of the recent twitter storm over the now retracted Forbes article (advocating for replacing public libraries with an Amazon Book service) hit me hard. Yes, she could be sent book after book in the post and she would learn, but she would not have ‘that’ experience. That truly awesome experience of realising you had the opportunity of so many adventures neatly laid out before you.

Yes, she could stand in similar awe in a physical bookshop, but not every book would be within our budget to purchase. Learning, and her desire to learn, would be limited. Not by having to wait until someone else had finished with it, that’s just patience, but by how much money the parent could spare. I don’t know many bookshops that would be ok with her sitting at a little red stool and reading book after book for hours, or taking one or two away with her to borrow for free, without paying for the pleasure.

Those two years ago, we didn't have to register to attend any of the classes. So we never did. To this day, we are not members of our public libraries. It dawned on me that I had potentially been an unwitting influence on the council decision. There would be no record of us as users of library services. They always took a headcount in the class for their records, so we had ‘counted’ in some way, but had it been meaningful enough? As this was an unplanned trip, the parking ticket would not allow us to become members today. I am, however, being held to the promise that we will return next week. We will borrow books. We will attend the scheduled holiday events. She will inevitably glow.

When someone tells you that books are cheap now, so you don’t need to use libraries, they are forgetting that working families today are using food banks, experiencing period poverty, and even in the UK, which is so very blessed to currently have a National Health Service (NHS), parents are not even going to NHS funded dentists, opticians and doctors when they need to, because they can’t afford the ‘small’ charge associated with the service or prescription. Every coin counts. In a world of medicine vs. books, medicine will always win out. Sometimes the question is food vs. medicine, so though you may well be able to get a book for a few pounds or Euro's or dollars, that one book investment alone won't continually educate and inspire a growing child. Children who are avid readers will read a book, or more, a day and school books aren’t always the ones that fire the imagination. I know, because I’m reading them daily with her at the moment as a requirement of her ‘reading record’. The amount it adds up to a month is not a viable option for the majority of families, especially not when your focus is on keeping a roof over your heads and food in your bellies.

When they tell you that ‘people don’t use libraries anymore’, and ‘people can buy books cheaply now’. They mean ‘some’. Some people don’t use libraries anymore. Some people can buy books ‘cheaply’ now. That’s true. That’s privilege.

Where does the job seeker print out the application when they don’t have a computer or internet access? Where does the person who was adopted try to find records of their family? Where does the Open University student do research for their paper? Where does the single parent who can’t afford childcare and has no family support get an hour of help, where someone else is in charge of entertaining their child, for a change? At one group, I watched over the weeks as one family moved from the periphery of the class to front and centre on the rug. Week by week, chair by chair, they stopped being strangers in a new town, a new country, and joined a community. Weekly, I would see a man in his 80’s pop in to pick up a new book and have a brew and a chat with the librarian. He regularly admitted that this was the only company he had every week. He cried when they confirmed the closure. I can’t believe he was the only one.

I probably have a million tales of its ‘hidden value add’ because of that year, but it is mainly hidden in todays society. Whilst it is always good to celebrate what we do have, it is too often too common to sweep under the carpet those things we still need so desperately to keep working on. We have become to lazy in our love of the services we should be proud of. I am guilty of this as much as anyone. The public sector has been taken for granted for too long and it is coming back to bite us in the bum. The thought of them disappearing, not being there for the next generations, is heart breaking.

I am in a position of privilege, and so my daughter is privileged. We do not currently need the library services. That does not mean they are not needed. Every child, privileged or not, should have the opportunities to learn and develop. For me though, I also want every child to have the opportunity to wear that look my daughter had yesterday. That’s where a lifetime of dreams start.

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#highcroftwriting #words #publiclibrary #publiclibraries #publicservices

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If you are in the UK and want to support and celebrate your local public library services, go here for more information : UK - https://www.gov.uk/local-library-services