“In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.” ― Mark Twain
In 1731, Benjamin Franklin, the twenty-five-year-old American “Renaissance Man” helped found the Library Company of Philadelphia, with the progressive idea of lending books to the public, thus improving upon the classical ideal that comes down to us from antiquity, an institution designed to serve a class of elite scholars but closed to the masses.
Libraries have been part of the small-town mosaic for nearly two century’s, along with the town square, volunteer fire departments, and the small town diner. While the library here in Lovettsville doesn’t harken in style back to the 19th century, its charm makes up for its longevity.
As a child of the sixties and seventies, I have “baked-in” respect and reverence for libraries that just might be out of style, and I’m not sure I understand why. It seems that quiet public libraries have gone the way of typewriters and rotary dialed telephones. The problem is both cultural and technological.
In the bigger towns and cities, public libraries seem to be crowded with people who don’t have a clue as to the function of a library as envisioned by Benjamin Franklin. My forays into libraries in Rockville, Centreville, Purcellville, and Lovettsville left me with a wide gap of understanding.
In many places today, libraries function as daytime homeless shelters, video game arcades for youth, and craft fairs and vocational programs, all conducted at close quarters with thousands of unread books. Many, the classics of western civilization.
Think of an adolescent sitting at a desktop computer and engrossed in a mindless video game within sight of shelves containing the University of Chicago Great Books collection or the Library of America and ignoring them as if they were just part of the décor, eschewing Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Melville, Twain, et alia.
“The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man” ― T.S. Eliot
I guess the noise is the worst of it. No matter where they happen to be, people talk in elevated tones nowadays, whether it’s in the library, church, or theater. It’s somehow considered politically incorrect to insist on a silent atmosphere anymore. And this is much worse since the advent of the cellphone. People wander around the library making dentist appointments or boorishly yelling at their kids, while others are trying to read.
In the last few decades, public libraries have become havens for the homeless (tragic, as is homelessness itself). This is certainly true of urban libraries, and during the summer months, it is not unheard of in Lovettsville.
We are fortunate in Lovettsville to have such learned librarians. That is not a universal truth in libraries. My experience in the Rockville library last year included overhearing this exchange; “Do you have The Great Gatsby?” Answer: “Well, let me check our online file of books about magicians.”
Plato, Aristotle, and Milton are waiting for the mind looking for enrichment. Yes, they can be accessed on phones, Kindles, and Ipads. It’s not the same. I read books on those devices. I read the classics on paper.
Our smalltown library is an invaluable community resource. The books are waiting, but there are other activities. Family Story Time, Harry Potter Club and the Adult Book Club (not adult books, a club FOR adults) are fantastic ways to share a passion for reading with Friends and family.
Go to the library in 2019. Take the kids. Your friends and neighbors will be there. It may be a bit louder than when we were kids, but the library is still special. Be quietly reverent; maybe it will come back in style.
“The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.” ― Albert Einstein
NEXT WEEK: The Lovettsville Volunteer Fire Department
Lovettsville Life 
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