libraries and shelter

i loved working in a library. i truly did. and when i worked there (it was an academic one), i worked with Nancy Collins, research librarian, and paragon of all things wonderful, in my humble opinion. It is because of her that i wanted to go into library science, that i began really to delve into the issues of information provisership, librarianship, and what it means to be a library.

From Jaime:
For the past two weeks, the library has been in the front page news almost every day. Last night, the Library Commission met and agreed to hire a security guard for the downtown Central branch, something many large urban libraries have done.

i was talking with Nancy Collins at the Salem library (where she now works and where i use the net quite a bit while looking for a job, checking email, working on the thesis, etc.). she said that the influx of teenagers from 2:30 until closing has made her bitter and "ruined" her life. i'm not kidding. and she said that the friends she has at the downtown library in roanoke get threated with knives or to be shot "at least once a day." most of the folks are mentally ill, and she said that the real degree for working in the library was teen counseling and mental health. in her opinion the majority of the users are those folks so marginalized by society that they can't afford or don't otherwise have access to standard avenues of information.

Frankly, with the bleak job market and the equally bleak mood i've been in lately, i feel as though i fit right in.

just the other day when i came in, the computers were all full (there are 16 of them) and while i was waiting my turn i helped a woman my age fill out an online application for food stamps -- she had just gotten custody of her granddaughter, who turned five in january. it boggles my mind. i wonder if this is what benjamin franklin had in mind when he formed a public lending library?