Gonzalo Barr

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In a glowing article published by The Economist earlier this month, the magazine (or “paper,” as they like to call themselves) reported that the most happening place in Burns, Wyoming (pop. 285 in 2000) is the public library on Main Street.

According to the article, public libraries are doing very well in the US, in spite of the Internet. This is surprising because you can get pretty much anything you want online these days. It is also surprising because public libraries have long been morphing into places that have less to do with books and more to do with free daycare for young children.

First, what does “doing well” mean? According to The Economist, it means the number of books borrowed in a given period of time. The more books borrowed, the “better” the library is doing.  By this measure, Wyoming is one of the most “literate” states in the union.  For example, between 2005 and 2006, residents of Washington, DC borrowed an average of two books, Californians an average of five books, while Wyoming residents took home nine books.

Visit the public libraries of any major US metropolitan area and I would not fault you if you concluded that they are little more than outlets for pulp bestsellers, DVDs, and video games. I also would not fault you if you mistook the library for a community center.  Bingo, anyone?

The writer, Nicholson Baker, warned us years ago about the practice in some public libraries of disposing books and other paper media to make room for trendy electronics.  He blew the whistle on the San Francisco Public Library after they threw away thousands of books — just tossed them in the trash. (I recall a similar incident when I was in college: A resident of Morningside Heights in Manhattan, the neighborhood surrounding Columbia University, found numerous prints valued at thousands of dollars in a dumpster behind Butler Library, the university’s principal library.)  Baker has also reported on the practice at some public libraries to dispose of books that are not checked out for two years.  Any book that is on the shelves for circulation is flagged automatically once its been idle for 24 months.  In Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, Baker accused librarians of lying about the decay of books and being obsessed with technology at the expense of public and historical preservation.

It is emblematic, I think, that as libraries disposed of their books, the standard library sign was stripped of all words.

Next to go will be what looks like an open book being held in the hand of the figure.  Why advertise what you don’t have, no?

I used to think of the public library as a place where anyone could educate himself.  I realize that my view is as antiquated as sending a telegram or shaving with a straight blade.  We have email now and triple-blade disposable razors designed and manufactured with the kind precision that used to be the monopoly of NASA engineers.  Still, how “well” libraries are doing has to mean more than how many books are borrowed in any given period or even the number of books in the library. The Economist article reports that the Burns, Wyoming library has 11,500 books in a town with fewer than 300 people. Not bad, especially when the books they carry seem to be precisely the ones that the citizens of Burns want them to carry.  In a town that small, a library can be made-to-measure and should be, especially when it is funded by taxes.  In a large metropolitan area, though, libraries have to be more than community centers.  And at least some part of the budget needs to be reserved to build and keep a collection of great books that anyone can read in a quiet, clean, and well-lighted place.

Images: satellite view of Burns, Wyoming, Google, photo of library sign, Gonzalo Barr; Sources:  “Why Cowboys Read,” The Economist (Sept. 13-19, 2008), article on Burns, Wyoming, Wikipedia, article on Nicholson Baker, Wikipedia