Libraries: Making reading ‘fashionable’
Little that cities do is as important as operating public libraries. Homes for books, computers, the internet, programs and classes, the libraries of Santa Fe and other cities bring the world to children and adults who otherwise might do without. They are places where a love of reading is nourished and civilization can flourish. And 10 years ago, Santa Fe had the good sense to open a library on the south side of town, in the neighborhood where more than 5,000 children lived within walking distance and seven schools were nearby.
This Saturday, Santa Fe begins celebrating the Year of the Library, starting with the 10th Year Celebration at the Southside Branch Library. (La Farge and the Main Library will celebrate this fall.) Activities will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the library, 6599 Jaguar Drive. Enjoy mariachis, Wise Fool acrobats, some 25 nonprofit booths and be sure to sign up your child for the Summer Reading Program.
That the library exists at all is a tribute to concerned citizens. A group collaborated with the Friends of the Library to survey the city about its library needs, discovering that the south side of Santa Fe needed community amenities, especially services for children. When library Director Patricia Hodapp came on in 2004, final funding was being collected to build the library, a task that took some $4.758 million from the city and another $2.075 million from the state.
Open seven days a week, the Southside Branch Library is a place where children and adults can come to find books, use computers for homework or to apply for jobs and enjoy special programs after school, at night and on weekends. Since it opened, the library has attracted some 1,596,734 visitors and checked out 1,822,997 books, DVDs and CDs. To say the library is popular would be an understatement.
Library services support pre-school education, with books for babies and bilingual materials available. To walk by the children’s area and see enthralled babies with their caregivers following the pages turning is a special joy. This summer, children will bring in their reading logs — eventually receiving prizes — as part of the Summer Reading Program (supported by sponsors and local businesses, thank you very much).
But the libraries aren’t just for kids. Adults need the services; just last year at Southside alone, some 39,659 people used computers and the free internet services. They checked out audio books, ebooks, movies and more — and it’s all free. A library in a neighborhood is better than free, though. It is priceless.
Taxpayers, of course, foot the bulk of the bill for running all three city libraries. But the many extras come through donations, whether from individuals, private foundations, businesses or the work of Friends of the Library. We do not doubt that someday, an adult will look back on life and give thanks that she could walk to the library and discover the world of words.
A library is an essential community service, part of the fabric of American life since young Ben Franklin and friends joined to establish the Library Company in Philadelphia back in 1731, the forerunner of today’s public libraries.
About that project, Franklin later wrote: “The institution soon manifested its utility, was imitated by other towns, and in other provinces. The libraries were augmented by donations; reading became fashionable; and our people, having no publick amusements to divert their attention from study, became better acquainted with books, and in a few years were observ’d by strangers to be better instructed and more intelligent than people of the same rank generally are in other countries.”
Almost 300 years later, libraries remain with us, continuing to make reading fashionable and helping citizens become smarter than they otherwise might be. Now, let us celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Southside Branch Library, a beloved community institution, and the Year of the Library across Santa Fe.