On the Media: Book Bans | Democracy Forward |

Friends,

I spent the weekend sewing. It is my place of peace, but first I had to clean up all the "in progress" projects so that there was room for my sister to join me.

I love many parts of the process, but perhaps none so much as pulling out fabrics and holding them up against each other to see if the "go". And looking at books of ideas for new quilt patterns, jacket patterns, a new way to make the neckline for a dress. And I can get all those books at the library!

-Liz

Support Your Library

I visited south India as part of my seminary experience, mostly to schools and mission sites of the various Christian denominations. One community leader was passionately describing the work his organization was doing for the poor in his small town. We were excited by his mission and one person asked "what can we do to help?"

I don't know what the asker had in mind, but I was thinking about myself as a wealthy (relative to this town) visitor. What could I do for them. Yes, most definitely a bit of white savior-ism there. His answer has stuck with me.

"Use your public library."

I love that he just ignored our presupposition that we would do something for him and instead answered what we could do for ourselves.

His point was about shared resources. About appreciating and defending the ways that communities can be interdependent rather than independent. That shared police, fire, schooling, and books are just the start. At the time these resources seemed to be on solid ground so it didn't seem like such a big deal. I didn't no, didn't notice, that the work to dismantle the very idea of shared resources had already begun.

But now the attacks are obvious. Book banning is happening, first in one small town, then in the next. Librarians are losing their jobs. The goal is to break down the structures that work for the common good. It is individualism taken to its logical extreme.

We, Christians, church-goers, believers in the common good, must support libraries.

Are you using your library? Start using your library.

1) Get books from your library. They have lots of fiction and most popular non-fiction. They have kindle, e-pub, and audio versions of many of their books. Many libraries are part of networks with other libraries, so the choices are huge.

2) Ask libraries to get the books you want. Even if it seems obscure! It's how they know what people are reading. And it helps them defend the books they have chosen.

3) Go to town meetings and school meetings where libraries are discussed. Speak up for our shared resources. If there are attacks on books, librarians, or libraries, be sure you know the libraries policies and procedures for accepting and removing books. Most of them have strategies and the publicity seekers are ignoring them.

4) Meet your town librarian. Ask what support they need, what problems they face, whether they are getting support or a hassle from the town government. In some locations they are likely to expect churches to be against them, or not-involved. Figure out how to be on their side.

5) As a church, ask how you can support the library. It is not only money that shared institutions need. Where do they have their book sale, do they need storage space, do they need volunteers? Someone from your congregation should be on the friends of the library committee.

My niece loves L.M. Montgomery and had successfully read all but one of her less popular books. I looked to buy it for her but it was hundreds of dollars (it is not in print). But what do you know, Ken could get it from Boston College's library. So we took it out and gave it as a (temporary) gift!

God's rule is a story about the common good. About sharing. About learning together. We are called to support those structures that already exist.

Are you connected to your library? Reply to this email to let me know what's happening. ​
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This episode of the On The Media Podcast starts with bots on twitter, but the majority of the episode is about Libraries and Librarians. (53 minutes. I'm failing on short again.)

Short written article from Democracy Forward on how to support your local library.

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