#76 - The Complicated History of Education as a Public Library Purpose
Is the purpose of public libraries to educate the citizenry?
Hello, my friends,
Our air conditioner is broken and it’s pretty hot this evening but I’m not going to let that stop the latest issue of HMF from flooping down your mail shoot. For those wondering, I did run my 5K last Sunday — it was a great experience and I learned a lot about running with a group. My goal was to finish in around 28 minutes but I ended up with 29:08. This was for two reasons: 1) Having never run a race before, I didn’t realize how much time the pack would take to thin out in the beginning. Because this race combined 5K, 10K, 15K, and half-marathon, everyone was working with very different plans. I was only running 3 miles so I could have sped up earlier. 2) Not being aware of the route, it was hard for me to pace myself properly; once I hit the halfway point and looped back I had a better sense of the landmarks so was able to make up some time lost in the beginning, but not enough. Next time, I’ll have to push further to the front of the group in the beginning and give myself more of a breather in the middle where I won’t have to worry about being locked in behind other runners.
Running will remain part of my repertoire but it’ll be more calisthenics and burpees going forward. My current stat is 50 burpees in 7 minutes and 30 seconds so I’ve got a ways to go before hitting 100. My next short-term goal is to do 25 without resting — I’m at 21 now.
In other news, I have three links to share with you:
I updated my Now page a few days ago. A now page is essentially a record of what I’m doing in this period of time. It was inspired by Derek Sivers’ Now page. I try to update mine around once a month.
My friend and collaborator, Kim Zanti, created a short documentary highlighting creative placemaking at the Akumal Art Festival in 2022 called Beyond the Bridge. Last year, the film made the rounds of film festivals and was even shown on PBS in Maryland, and now it’s on YouTube for all to see. Please give it a look and a like!
Finally, my talented colleague Anasylvia recently launched a jewelry business called Roma+Tina (after her two grandmothers). Her creations are beautiful so, even if you don’t wear earrings or hats, they’re worth a look. And if you’re on Instagram, do follow her account.
The Complicated History of Education as a Public Library Purpose
What is the purpose of public libraries? While this might not be a crucial question in your life, as a practitioner of library work for over two decades it’s something I think about nearly every day. Since my current job involves originating and managing various programs and staff, it is important that I understand the higher reasons for what we are doing. These higher reasons, after all, guide the services we deliver, the way we deliver them, and who we deliver them to. Complicating matters is that public libraries, since their inception in the early-to-mid 19th century have been ever-changing. For instance, while the presence of a collection has been a mainstay of municipally-funded public libraries, what that collection consists of, how items are selected for purchase, the criteria for removal, and even means of access have all shifted (sometimes radically) over the past 175 years. It follows then, that the reason for the existence of public libraries has also evolved. Yet, if the majority of the general public is surveyed, I wager that many respondents would list education or some synonym as a key purpose of public libraries.
This makes sense, since the access to information and capacity for education among the populace is a quintessential characteristic of a democracy. Having recently finished Libraries and the Enlightenment by Wayne Bivens-Tatum (Library Juice Press, 2012), I was drawn to the author’s discussion on how the educative purpose places libraries squarely within the historical result of Enlightenment thinking, not unlike the modern republic. Bivens-Tatum wrote:
"The relationship between education and republican citizens has been a constant refrain throughout the history of the United States, and indeed throughout much republican theory in general. The two main points of the relationship are that a republic must give all its citizens an equal opportunity to be educated, and that it needs those educated citizens to defend the republic against its enemies, from foreign troops to home-grown demagogues." (101)
The genesis of public libraries grew out of these potent ideas. While the earliest examples of municipally-funded public libraries (Salisbury, CT in 1810, Lexington, MS in 1827, and Peterborough, NH in 1833 not Benjamin Franklin’s Library Company, as popularly-believed, since that was a subscription library) were minor examples of the rhetoric that has stuck with libraries, the Boston Public Library, founded in 1848, was created with a fairly specific philosophy in mind: The “betterment” of the population through access to “education”. Libraries were to continue to educate citizens past the age where attendance in public schools ended. It should be noted that until around the 1890s, most public library collections were intended entirely for adults. But how were people going to improve through education? Here was the general thinking:
"A free public library will help educate citizens by providing them with good books for those already inclined to read them, and with better popular books to elevate the taste of the library users." (Bivens-Tatum, 105)
and
"Public libraries would do more than educate citizens who wanted to read good books; they would educate citizens to want to read good books." (Bivens-Tatum, 109)
This is alternately called the “taste elevation theory” — libraries would provide access to good-ish books and that would slowly improve people until they read the good books, real classics!
Another angle when it comes to betterment is the role of libraries as places of education whose mission it was to assimilate immigrants and teach them democratic ways. Perhaps folks came from places without free access to information and books of all sorts, well in America, we have public libraries. Go inside and learn what it is to be an American!
Despite its promotion by high-minded do-gooders among library funders and some libraries, the “taste elevation theory” soon smashed into the wall of reality. Even early on, library organizers and staff didn't all buy the theory. Through experience on the ground, they quickly learned that "…When public libraries provide popular books and entertainment, more people came. When they did not, more people stayed away" (Bivens-Tatum, 109). Regardless of the rhetoric, this was found to be the inconvenient truth about education as a library purpose, most of the public didn’t truly want that medicine!
On the other hand, public libraries did find some purchase among immigrant groups past to present. In conducting research for my chapter "Overcoming Barriers to Library Empowerment for Immigrants and Other Non-Mainstream Groups" in Librarians with Spines: Vol III (HINCHAS Press, 2022), I learned that immigrants generally had very positive feelings about public libraries both because they offered learning and social opportunities for adults and recreation for youth. This also vibes with my own family’s experience using our local library after arriving to the United States from the Soviet Union; while I’m not sure the library made us more American, it was certainly a welcoming place in an unfamiliar land.
Still, with the deprecation of the taste elevation theory, a slab was knocked off the pillar of education as a library purpose. Nevertheless, it persisted. The educational mission went unchecked into the 1920s even when reports from within the American Library Association admitted that the main tasks of most public libraries do not strictly involve what would be defined as adult education. This was later confirmed in a 1938 report funded by the Carnegie Corporation which noted poor budgets, overworked librarians with no time for adult education, librarians being primarily trained as custodians and technicians rather than educators, and with the measure of library success being circulation, the original mission to elevate the public was minimized since it did not increase usage stats. As Bivens-Tatum persuasively wrote:
"The course of the twentieth century proved that no matter how high the purpose or grand the rhetoric of the public library movement, people just did not use public libraries en masse, and those that did use public libraries were primarily interested in entertainment. As a result, public libraries shifted from instruments of enlightenment to information and entertainment centers, and librarians shifted from purveyors of education to neutral providers of that information and entertainment. Instead of enlightenment and education, the goal eventually because to get as many people using libraries as possible, regardless of whether that use had anything to do with the traditional purposes of the public library. Whatever the library should be, it should first be popular, because without popularity public libraries would get even less funding than they already did. Thus, public libraries offered an increasing range of services, but lost a strong sense of purpose" (133-34).
While there is certainly a grain of uncomfortable truth in the quote above, I cannot embrace it wholesale. It is true that there is a disconnect between a mission of educating the public and the makeup of public library collections. Modern purchasing methodology is much closer to “what the people want” than “give them what we think they should have”. But how do you justify the opposite? I’m less concerned with elitist status of taste elevation than with simple problem of shelf space! We can certainly fill the library with “good” books — classics all — but where will we put them? You must remember that in a properly functioning public library, a solid portion of the collection is always in circulation. If everything came back at once, it would be the opposite of a bank run but no better! Public libraries are for use, and the utility the majority of people find in our collection is contained in cookbooks and popular fiction.
Looking purely at the collection development decisions of public libraries, yes, the purpose is not education. However, that is a fairly narrow view of library services. Librarians busy themselves in four main areas: Collection Development (dealing with materials), Reference (providing research assistance and computer help from the public desk), Outreach (library marketing and programmatic workshops outside of the library), and Programming (putting on events of various types). While collection development and outreach may not directly focus on education, reference and programming certainly do.
Is it the kind of adult education you would see at an occupational center or university? Of course not. Libraries are not designed that way. But education in the larger sense? A resounding yes. Since at least the 1970s, many libraries have had literacy programs where library staff and volunteers teach people to read. How long have libraries had storytimes? Well, these popular programs are not merely entertainment. A good librarian, like a talented preschool teacher, focuses on giving kids the first steps into reading and giving parents tips and tricks to get their munchkins interested in books. And what do I run right now? A workforce development program called Work Ready, where I organize virtual events educating job seekers and others about various work-related topics. Since December 2020, I’ve done over 100 programs for over 10,000 learners. At the same time, my staff and I ran weekly virtual computer classes for two years, teaching thousands of people about topics from avoiding scams to Google Docs to blockchain.
Indeed, I could devote many more paragraphs to sharing examples of how public libraries are involved in education for all ages. Are our programs all designed with a high-minded Enlightenment purpose? No, they are not. But a lot are. The ironic thing is that it doesn’t really matter to most people whether we actually service the purpose of education. Because this purpose of public libraries is so ingrained with the general public, many people simply support libraries based on their unchecked belief that we are an educational institution, a people’s university, a fundamentally democratic entity that even people who haven’t used a library in years feel should continue exist.
It seems cynical to say that I’m fine with people’s convenient perception of public libraries as educational institutions or maybe not. It is, after all, history repeating itself; just as the scions of Boston established a public library on the basis of a fundamental misunderstanding of most people’s interaction with books, library supporters now continue to believe the propaganda of their choosing. Regardless, I’m happy to say that my conscience is clear on this matter because public libraries do educate the public, even if that isn’t all we do.
Time Machine
Here’s what I wrote in HMF a year ago (in issue #23):
Things Michael Likes: Literally, a list of things Michael liked at age 4.
Effective Microlearning: An assessment of the microlearning hype and the conditions under which microlearning is effective.
The Record Cabinet: Talking about how I enjoy listening to records in my living room.
no surprise, I absolutely adore public libraries - I see them as socialism at it's best, taxes put to good use. I don't care what people read - so few read anything, so my bar is very low. as much as I love the idea of the 'old day' when libraries only carried the best of the best, I'm grateful for anything that keeps people engaged...