There’s a downright important article in this month’s Library Journal that everyone — and I mean everyone – should read: “The Disconnected: Who these 3.8 million people are, and why libraries need to help them”
From the article,
Ultimately, these factors create insuperable economic and social challenges for this group that we, as librarians, cannot ignore. Beyond the core humanitarian issue of helping a person in need, we work in one of the last great democratic institutions and are likely to be serving these customers every day. Every public entity, but particularly a library, is positioned in the community to touch the lives of these adults.
If nothing else, this article should inspire some librarians to take action on a lot of the social issues that we’re actually equipped to tackle. Whether you work with young adults (and part of the article addresses that demographic specialty) or with adults or with the general population, the library, as a public institution, is in a unique and powerful position to help these people. If libraries of all stripes don’t start accepting and embracing some kind of identity as a social hub, then I worry about the future of our institutions and whatever shred of relevance we might be able to maintain with our communities.
While we have phrases in our culture like “A little information is a dangerous thing” or “Knowledge is power” — both of which seem like negative ways to frame knowledge and information literacy –, both of these phrases illustrate a universal truth, that underlying almost any capacity for independence and self-responsibility is access to information. If someone needs assistance finding a job or is seeking free ESL courses or needs information about their pregnancy (whether they’re researching abortion or alternatives), the public library (along with other information organizations) is equipped and (dare I say) obligated to help these people. It’s not just what we can do — it’s what we should be doing all along.
As an aside, I’m curious about what possibilities exist for academic libraries to partner with community groups, government agencies, and even local public libraries to provide outreach and assistance to the disconnected, especially the unemployed, LGBTQ individuals (especially young adults), single mothers, and linguistic minorities.
I used to be one of “these people,” except in those days all I really needed for independence and self-responsibility was a piece of virgin wilderness and the world’s recognition of my own personal sovereignty. But, alas, the text-literate world had designs on the book of nature which, in effect, obstructed the flow of information (signs of wildlife, etc.) and, further, delegitimated what I thought to be my real information needs.
You with me?
So libraries became my savior only retrospectively.