What is a Library?

What is a public library? Merriam - Webster defines it as a place in which literary, musical, artistic or reference materials (as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films) are kept for use but not for sale. But is it really just a collection of books and other media available for use? Ben Franklin and his fellows thought it was more than that. They thought that they were so important they chose as the motto of the original charter of the first public library a Latin phrase which translates to "To support the public good is divine." And later Franklin said of the libraries which sprung up in the colonies copying his own: "these Libraries have improved the general Conversation of Americans, made the common Tradesman and Farmers as intelligent as most Gentlemen from other Countries, and perhaps have contributed in some Degree to the Stand so generally made throughout the Colonies in Defense of their Privileges."

I too think a library is desperately important, though I can't articulate it nearly as eloquently. For me, it is not only a place to get the most important item in the world -- books --for free mind you. It is a place to go; to be; to gather; to meet; to dream. In the first few days that we moved here, I was most concerned that we get a permanent address quickly so that we could a) get the kids enrolled in school and start them getting acclimated and b) get a library card. It took us ten days and let me tell you, for a woman who frequents her public library two to three times a week, it was a long ten days.

You are probably wondering why I am dithering on about libraries. On Monday, the Sumner library finally reopened after the earthquake. It was the last one in the entire city still to be closed. After a false start last week, when I was given bad information by the staff on the mobile library bus parked outside of the supermarket, and checked the website yet again to see that it said it would be closed "Until Further Notice", I was certain it was never going to reopen, and I despaired. I couldn't believe it. I was living in a town without a library. I wasn't certain how it happened, that we had moved half way round the world to a parched and barren place such as Sumner.

But now the town is in bloom with books again. There is an oasis by the sea. Words wash up on Sumner's shores. There is light and hope and lollipops.

So, what is a library to you? It is everything to me.