Don't Settle for Normal; Library Journal, May 5, 2020

Meredith Schwartz , Library Journal; Don't Settle for Normal

"We all know this COVID moment is not normal. It can be hard, in the grip of nostalgia for simple pleasures such as meeting with our colleagues or greeting patrons at the door, to remember that second part. But it is vital. Normal wasn’t so great for our unhoused patrons. It wasn’t so great for the people who had to turn to the library for help navigating the health-care insurance exchanges, unemployment, or Social Security because the rest of the safety net had worn thin and too many agencies assumed a digital access and knowledge that is far from universal. Normal wasn’t so great for the kids who only get a square meal at school or the library, or the ones who can’t talk to their parents in prison unless a public library has stepped up with something like Telestory, because access to the phone—and the books and the soap—is being run as a for-profit business.

These may not sound like library issues. But they are, and that’s been driven home by the pressures many systems faced not to close libraries completely in spite of the danger to patrons and staff. If they are library issues when it comes to stepping into the gap, then they’re library issues when it comes to closing that gap for good.

Public library leaders have a place at the table in practically every city and county in America. They have unique insight into the broad spectrum of needs across the whole community, and a unique mandate to meet those needs. It’s clear that it will take extraordinary measures to get this country through the pandemic and back on its feet afterward, and that libraries will need to be an integral part of that. What’s less clear is what will happen next. If we give in to the desire to get back to normal, we are in grave danger of re-creating the conditions that led to so much suffering, and squandering the opportunity to build a better new normal for all. We must keep moving forward, and look to the latest crop of Movers & Shakers to inspire by example."

Find hope in your local library; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1/10/17

Marilyn Jenkins, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; 

Find hope in your local library:

"While it is important to celebrate their success during the past 25 years, ACLA and member libraries will continue to look ahead. Constant changes in technology, pressure on the RAD to fund a wider range of assets, the growing demands of residents for current information in new formats and the continued need to diversify library funding are just a few of the issues with which we’re dealing. Fortunately, Allegheny County’s libraries now are building on a solid foundation of collaboration.

Our libraries took “A Quiet Crisis” a quarter century ago and turned it into a model of regional cooperation. It is remarkable what can happen when committed individuals share a common vision, roll up their sleeves and work together.

So, if you get discouraged in the days and weeks ahead as the new year unfolds, just pull out your library card and remember what’s possible. And if you don’t have a library card — make getting one your easiest resolution for 2017!

Just visit any local library or www.aclalibraries.org to find out how.

Marilyn Jenkins is executive director of the Allegheny County Library Association."