Libraries are Essential

 

I was born and raised by the statement that Libraries and Librarians are essential part of our local communities we are serving, now more than ever. Libraries offer free educational and recreational self-help resources. Libraries offer information literacy. Libraries are safe refuges' spaces for any underserved population, and this is true: if unemployed, people go to the Library; need free access to Wi-Fi and Internet, people go to the Library; teaching children to read, parents are going to the Library; learning English language, Libraries play an important role in teaching and learning.

Libraries help boost local economies, and they make communities healthier. Libraries and Librarians preserve history, and more important the truth.

Libraries and Librarians are essential in a process of giving citizens access to knowledge in a devoted space. Librarians provide vital services for our society as they are portals to the world's knowledge, literature, culture, facts, etc. We can even say that in reality of our current situation, Librarians save lives by providing information and research to doctors who are dealing with difficult cases.
Meantime, some 'apparatchiks' decided that our Libraries are non-essential for our communities, and the Librarians were furloughed, and the Libraries were closed. What this is telling about us, humans, and the civilization, in general? Access to books and reading denied. Libraries are closed.

What we learned from history? Maya civilization's artifacts and their Codex of books disappeared and gone, the famous Alexandria's library in ancient Egypt was unreplaceable as its books were taken by fire. During WWII, Nazi were burning books; and for some people, books became just paper for fire and keeping fire to provide warmth to humans during cold winters. In the modern time, the Libraries and museums in Iraq were destroyed during long-years of war and the ancient documents and artifacts cannot be replaced.

How the Libraries will survive in the changing and unstable world? We used to measure the progress in society by giving the Libraries greater leverage. Library leader of today and tomorrow should not be an inactivist or a re-activist, but should be a proactivist who will bring order to chaos and is able to establish strategies for advancing the Libraries on the pass of reopening the economy. Unfortunately, some people act and think later - and they think more of excuses than consequences. Another think neither before nor after. In conclusion, thoughts and forethoughts both give counsel on living and achieving success in dealing with day-today issues and organizational maintenance; and transactional transformational leadership, in preparation to be beset by emergencies. With other words, we have to plan ahead for emergencies such as world pandemics, hurricanes, and any other unexpected nature or man-made events.