Raising the Library Flag and It's Not White

Back in early 2009, I was a newly minted librarian settling in my job as an academic librarian with the mission that I would spread the gospel of information literacy and the value of libraries resources and services to students. At the same time however, a controversy began to simmer and then came to a rolling boil when Rutgers decided to disavow itself from the word Library and rename what was previously a “library school”, to The School of Communication and Information.

Rutgers reasons for the change came at period of significant change in the library world. New technologies were threatening to replace the brick-and-mortar landscape of libraries. Books, magazines and journals were going to disappear.  “No need to come to the library” because resources could easily be downloaded to your computer, tablet or mobile phone. It seemed that every six months librarians had to be confronted with headlines that spoke about the death of the library. Just last year we heard Tim Worstall in Forbes brashly suggesting that we should close all the public libraries and buy “every citizen an Amazon Kindle Unlimited Subscription.”

I bring back these memories on the day when it was announced that my alma mater, Pratt Institute, is now going to drop the word Library from its school’s name. So no longer will it be the School of Information and Library Science but just the School of Information. I’m no luddite: our profession has changed drastically. My position at Stevens Institute of Technology as the Web Services Librarian ( combination of Information Architecture, User Experience and Instructional Librarian all wrap up into one) is a job title that didn’t even exist ten to fifteen years ago. So, yes I understand that while attending a School of Information may cover the myriad of new professions and subjects that have been created in the new information world, the decision at this moment in history to take out the world Library is a little late and not forward thinking. I’ll explain.

Since Rutgers and others banished the word library from the title of their schools, historical events have dismissed any arguments from those paid cynical scribes who were nailing shut the coffin of the library. First, the great crash of 2008 (during my last semester!), people were losing their jobs, wages stagnated and an overvalued housing market was crashing,  forcing many who were scammed by predatory lenders to foreclose.  Budgets were slashed in public and private sector jobs.  Many communities were lucky to have libraries like the ones in Colorado that stayed opened and experienced a  severe uptake in circulation and in services. Program attendance in itself rose by over 12% and continued throughout the recession.  Working class people were flocking to libraries for books, information, job hunting, etc. The library provided hope in the form of services and resources while surrounded by a bleak future.

Second, during the 2014 summer of unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, after the killing by police of Michael Brown, where a rebellion fought against the racist oppressive system of the  town, the city was set ablaze with protest, anger and marching on the ground. Through the smoke and and chants for justice, The Ferguson Municipal Public Library stood as beacon where citizens could seek information and children could go while schools were closed. The New York Times even wrote about the activities and services provided by the the library on 21 August 2014 by librarians, teachers and volunteers. Library Journal awarded The Ferguson Library for its Library of the Year and called it a “critical community anchor.”

While these two flash points accentuate the need and worth of libraries in their communities, libraries have evolved from just places of printed material to centers of active learning and experimentation. Look at the 4th Floor Project at the  Chattanooga Public Library which converted a storage floor into a public space that help lead a movement to many public libraries and now academic libraries into creating maker spaces where people can come to a library and openly experiment with new technologies like 3D printing. (Kudos to fellow Pratt alum,  Nate Hill).

That said I understand that a school’s branding is important: the lines between education and business are becoming blurred every day. Schools need to draw students who are constantly worried about exploding tuition costs and taking out loans and making sure they see a return on investment. Changing Pratt’s School of Information and Library Science name to just School of information certainly would sound modern and yes it now has to cover all things “Information” like User Experience, Digital Humanities, Instructional Technology and the list can go on.

But would it not be a more radical statement for a graduate school (not necessarily Pratt since that bridge apparently has been crossed), to embrace Library in their name to give credence to a profession that requires knowledge, skills and intellectual thought to what librarians do on the front lines every day? We can see that there are dedicated librarians even across this country that are thinking about the politics of the profession and how it impacts communities of color, class, LGBT or gender (#critlib). Such careful thought about all the issues that arise in Libraries must be undertaken in an academic environment that places the library on the academic pedestal it deserves.

The information landscape is going to continue evolving but who will it serve? Will it serve the masses or will it serve private interests who find ways to itemize and put a cost on all types of information and services, not in the interest of people but in the interest of profit.

Libraries have proven, especially in the spectre of gloom and doom, that they serve their communities whether private or public. Libraries serve an essential service to our democracy in guaranteeing that most, if not all, of our citizens have access to information, the ability to evaluate information and aid in the development of new knowledge to improve society as David Lankes has cried from rooftops about.  This “mission” is something we need to protect if we are going to have an informed society that evolves and preserves the rights of all.

I’ll leave with an anecdote from just the other night. My whole family loves book stores. We were passing my local bookstore and my daughter was like “Ooooh the bookstore”.  We were trying to put off buying books because we do so all the time and don’t need any more to overflow our crowded shelves (for the moment).

So disappointed that we were not stopping in, I told my daughter, well you know what’s better than a bookstore? Knowing that her old man is a librarian, of course she responded, “ a library?”  YES! I said. “But” she added, “you can buy other stuff in a bookstore.” “Yes but at the library you can get the books that the library is sharing with everyone.” Obviously she got the point but it was worth teaching her that library is not just there to “get books” it’s there to share our collective knowledge.

In the end, I know we’ll always have information but will we always have libraries? We better make a fight.

` In Struggle,

Romel Espinel, Class of '09