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WHY LIBRARIES ARE A SMART INVESTMENT FOR THE COUNTRY'S FUTURE

By Elizabeth Dias Wednesday, June 27, 2012
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Across from the United States Supreme Court, two hundred people gathered at the
Library of Congress to celebrate Monday — and not because of the court's
immigration decision. From suited university presidents to red-shirted Boy
Scouts from Cincinnati, these partiers gathered at a symposium to commemorate a
troika of American institutions: the land-grant university, the National Academy
of Sciences and the Carnegie libraries.

The celebration was marked by a keen awareness that libraries have been vital
engines of America's social mobility from their earliest days. Vartan Gregorian,
President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and former New York Public
Library president who raised a $327 million to revive the institution in the
1980s, led an afternoon panel discussing libraries' foundational importance to a
democratic America. Gregorian's central point: the Library of Congress is and
must continue to be the "guardian not only of our nation's memory but of
humanity's."

Libraries across America share this task thanks to Andrew Carnegie, who gave
some 1400 grants to build libraries across the country, worth $41 million at the
time, or several billion in today's dollars. His gift of the New York Public
Library tops the charts of philanthropic acts in American history. "The library
in his mind was the quintessential educational institution for the whole
community," said David Nasaw, history professor at City University of New York.



(How libraries are reinventing themselves for the future.)



Carnegie's influence on education expanded social possibilities for everyday
Americans. "There are now more public libraries in the United States than
McDonalds restaurants," noted Clara Hayden, CEO of Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free
Library. Libraries provide people with cultural capital, she explained —
lectures, music, debates, and news, all free and accessible. Libraries were even
some of the first places open to all races. Today more than 70% of all libraries
offer free internet access, and in a struggling economy where even applications
for dishwashing jobs must be filled out online, that is no small public service.

Today America's library system sits at a critical juncture. The Library of
Congress alone has lost some 1300 staff since the onset of the digital media age
two decades ago. Until last week, four of the six largest American publishing
houses did not lend digital books to libraries, president of the New York Public
Library Anthony Marx noted. And last month, the NYPL's move to renovate its
landmark headquarters to include more computers and resources for the general
public prompted protests from scholars and writers who wanted to preserve the
space for research.

Despite these challenges, the transition to digital media continues to open
doors for innovative public service. The Library of Congress is spearheading the
creation of a new World Digital Library with 145 institutions worldwide. The
project allows the United States, often criticized for supplanting other
cultures identities, to help with the repatriation of other countries' unique
cultural memories, said the Librarian of Congress James Billington. The Digital
Public Library of America, an online project shepherded by Harvard University to
spread knowledge beyond traditional library shelves, aims to launch in April of
next year.



(MORE: Is a Bookless Library Still a Library?)



As both the national economy and print empires shift, it may be tempting to take
America's library system for granted. Marx reminded the audience to keep
investing in the country's public educational opportunities, especially public
libraries. "You cannot have a functioning economy if you do not have
innovation," he said. "You cannot have a functioning democracy if you cannot
have the citizenry able to inform itself." Nasaw agreed: "We should emphasize
that libraries are not frills. They are not luxuries, but a sacred component of
American education and American democracy."

The symposium also commemorated the act that granted 17.4 million acres to
states in the 19th and 20th centuries to launch land-grant colleges all across
the country. "The Morrill Act provided a blueprint for America's first
continent-wide plan for education," Librarian of Congress James Billington said.
Representative Justin Morrill of Vermont, he noted, crystalized a vision for
fostering agricultural, mechanical, and liberal arts studies. Over 100 public
universities have been created as a result.

Land-grant university presidents at the conference panels touted the
contributions that their public institutions have made to society. University of
Georgia President Michael F. Adams praised his students for their recent
discovery that the Peach State is actually better suited to growing blueberries
— as a result of their research, Georgia has since shifted gears to produce more
berries than their official state fruit. Montana State University President
Waded Cruzado noted that without funding for land-grant institutions, one of her
school's graduates, renowned vaccinologist Maurice Hilleman, might not have been
able to afford higher education. Hilleman developed eight of the 14 vaccines
given to prevent childhood diseases, such as measles, mumps and pneumonia around
the globe. "It is claimed that he saved more lives than anyone in the world,"
Cruzado said.

Although the Morrill Act and the library system are often praised for helping
Americans break the glass ceiling, the 150th celebration served as a reminder
that some parts of the ceiling have yet to be shattered. Allen Sessoms,
President of the University of the District of Columbia, expressed frustration
that higher education is becoming more of "a private good than a public
necessity." Some schools now offer more merit-based scholarships than need-based
aid, he said, and that's a drift from their public mission. Senator Lamar
Alexander (R-Tenn), who earlier told the gathering that he got his first library
card at age three, closed with a final challenge for Washington: "Why not
celebrate this anniversary by taking steps to make our institutions work?"



Additional Reporting by Nicole Greenstein



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