By the time my son learned to read, we had moved from Oregon back to Ohio. The closest library to us was Symmes Public Library, part of the Hamilton County system. After parking, I’d hold his hand as we meandered up the concrete walkway. The entrance to the library welcomed us with a quote etched into a band of limestone – and inscribed upon my heart.
“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden
His young brain would attempt to read the words, “books are,” “the world,” “fit…nations.”
It strikes me now to read those words as one broad-based notion: books, the world, the nation. We are at a tipping point of ridding our reliance on the written word, on history, on eyewitnesses to the past or idea-shapers of the future. We have before us an administration wanting to remove federal support for this wealth of information that has accumulated for centuries.
When I was about the same age as my son, my mother dragged my older siblings and me out the door to pile into the wood-paneled station wagon, and attend to our imaginary selves at Lorain, Ohio’s Public Library.
My mother was the daughter of Italian immigrants. To the detriment of our ancestry, her Italian language skills became a lost art, demanded as she was to learn English. But reading? Reading was everything to her. She was our first reader, our only reader, and the most critical one. She placed a high priority on not only pronouncing the words, but on understanding their significance and consequence. And losing yourself in them, when possible.
Lorain’s library was new, opening in 1957 with our visits taking place in the late 1960s. Its former library had been built with funds provided by the steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie, as had 1,688 other libraries throughout the United States. Imagine a tycoon gifting this freedom to explore, within the mind, to the masses.
Inside, we ran the joint. Five kids. Choose your adventure. Books to delve into. Hard to leave. “Mouse Tales.” “Nancy Drew.” “Little Women.” “Anne of Green Gables.” Multitudes of library lessons. On a more recent visit, the distinctive smells of a library remained: scents that could lift one out of depression, find a friend, support one’s success in a world that was often just as cruel to kids. And perhaps more so now.
Library visits became a pattern to pursue. Some people visit baseball stadiums when they travel; I take in a library. Library services literally do save jobs, lives, dreams. And through COVID, libraries saved many a soul.
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Now, comes the current administration’s signed executive order to eliminate, among others, the Institute of Library and Museum Sciences. The American Libraries Association gave this statement, which included:
“Americans have loved and relied on public, school and academic libraries for generations. By eliminating the only federal agency dedicated to funding library services, the Trump administration’s executive order is cutting off at the knees the most beloved and trusted of American institutions and the staff and services they offer,” services such as literacy development and summer reading programs for kids. High-speed internet, veterans’ telehealth spaces, STEM programs and small business support.
“As seedbeds of literacy and innovation […] libraries of all types translate 0.003% of the federal budget into programs and services used in more than 1.2 billion in-person patron visits every year, and many more virtual visits.”
Using some quick math and research, I discovered the 2024 IMLS budget allocation of $266.7 million. That was about a quarter per visit – a small price to pay for preservation of a future unconstrained.
Returning to Walden, I think about the rural schoolchildren whom this order will impact disproportionately. The administration is sending a message that libraries – and the knowledge and sanctuary they embody – are not valued.
*****
Are we still a “fit” nation? Those who live outside the United States would say we have an overinflated image of who we were – and are. Proof of our lack of fitness is that we’d rather drown our children in the proverbial swamp of hypocritical virtues to save those who float comfortably atop its surface.
Yes, we still will have libraries after this order takes its toll, but a lack of federal support will only widen the gaps in access and quality between libraries in richer communities and poorer ones. That is unacceptable. As a nation, we should feel a moral imperative to leave a fit inheritance of libraries filled with wonder and curiosity for the next generations.
Here’s a sampling of what I have learned or experienced lately from Cincinnati and Hamilton County Main Public Library:
- How hard it is to leave a marriage when one’s spouse is a verbal abuser – “Nesting” by Roisin O’Donnell
- The devastation to the Japanese who were interned and the towns the internment camps occupied during World War II – “Tallgrass” by Sandra Dallas
- George Washington married for wealth, more interested in securing land for himself, primarily Ohio Territory, than in creating a republic. The founding fathers wanted to preserve slavery – for themselves. They desired the king to abolish the international slavery trade so they might flourish at home in their domestic trade. – “Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis That Spurred the American Revolution” by Andrew Lawler
- Astronauts return from space and often experience an overview effect, a sense of viewing Earth from space with awe. There is also the ultraview effect, when astronauts experience the enormity of the universe and return home to feel how little present-day humans matter in the long line of historical events. – “The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution” by Frank White
Annette Januzzi Wick is a writer living in Over-the-Rhine. Learn more at annettejwick.com or follow her at annettejwick.substack.com.
The opinions expressed above are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those of M&M.
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