I joined my local library when I moved to Brighton (UK) in 1987. I didn't go that often. I would take my kids now and then when they were little and they would choose books. But I had a 50-hour-a-week job and the two small kids. The library was half an hour away and it wasn't easy to find 90 minutes to walk there, look about, and then get back. So I didn't go for myself very much. In fact, I didn't have much time to read for pleasure (my job involved lots of reading). When I did, I borrowed books from family or occasionally bought them so I didn't have to worry about returning them on time.
But I loved libraries (I am focusing on the UK here, but I guess some of these points stand for other places too). In the 1980s and 90s, they seemed a remnant of the pre-neoliberal past - in fact, an exception in capitalism more generally. They were state-run (by the local state) for peoples' needs, not money. They were free and open to all regardless of income or wealth, so effectively egalitarian and universal, ensuring the poor had the same rights as the rich. Given they were more of benefit to the poor than the rich who could just buy books, they were also biased to the poor. They were an oasis in a world where everything seemed to be going in the opposite direction, governed by money not for people or love; for profit, to be paid for, and so more closed to those with less.
I didn't expect this to last that long. If anyone had said these institutions would still be standing on the same principles in 2024 I would not have believed it. I had assumed they would be privatised by now and based on paying fees for loans. But the basics are the same amazingly. I'm sure cleaning, refuse, and other services are outsourced, and some libraries are privately funded (see below). But libraries themselves are still free, open, and for the people.
Meet the new library - same(ish) as the old library
I went to my local library today and reactivated my membership which hadn't been used for a while. Incredibly my ancient plastic library card still worked! I borrowed a couple of books for my grandchildren. But mainly I went for a wander and took it all in.
The library used to be in a regency building, part of (or maybe adjacent to) the Brighton Dome, which externally has Indian-style architecture to match the nearby Brighton Pavilion. It was small and warm (psychologically speaking). But as with so many other things I've encountered as a boomer (on the borderline of Gen X), it was decided that what was human and lovely to me had to be got rid of for something new. The search started for a new site.
Fast forward to 2005: to be fair, the new library, which opened then, is really something. It was built on a large area of wasteland in the centre of the town that was owned by a private company and used as a car park. It was unsurfaced and I don't know how much money garages made from repairing the axles of cars that rode up and down its potholes and bumps. It was a strange expansive space in the middle of the otherwise cramped pretty town. I used to park there to go to the adjacent swimming pool in the days when traffic was much more low in volume.
The council built the new library using public-private partnerships. If I remember rightly, private investors paid for the building and the council leased it back, at least for a period. In return for funding the building, private companies were, I think, allowed to build shops and flats in the surrounding area. There's a nice square outside, which is often used for events. Not all of the nearby development is pretty, but it's OK. The library itself is a glass-walled affair on 3 stories, much more spacious than the old one, with a large light main room and a suspended ceiling, heated mostly by solar and wind energy. Rainwater is collected on the roof and used for the toilets. It has won numerous awards for architecture and sustainability.
But inside it's still just a library, bigger than the old one, more computers and space for study, with meeting rooms and so on. But still just a library. It's one of the most visited in the UK.
There's a section for people aged 13-19, where they can work and hang out, and a specially decorated children's section with toys and drawing equipment. You can happily wile away time there with young kids, for as long as you like, no charge. There's a jigsaw table where you can add some pieces and then leave and someone else will come along and add some more. You can use a computer for an hour for free before you pay about a pound an hour. There's free WiFi (no personal details needed), and an (expensive outsourced) café, with international newspapers and magazines and a lounging area nearby.
When I volunteered for the Free University Brighton (a community education initiative with free courses for anyone, no qualifications needed), many of our students had no internet at home and just pay-as-you-go phones, if that. The library was a place where they could get free internet for as long as they liked, without having to buy a coffee, in a calm and friendly atmosphere. We used the collective areas of the library to hold unbooked organising meetings. No-one objected.
When I was there today a wild-haired man (only slightly more wild-haired than me) was frustratedly berating the security guard about a newspaper that had been stolen, asking her to check the CCTV to identify the culprit. She was dealing with it calmly. Later, the same guy was having an animated but amicable conversation with another member of staff about some issue he had with the procedures of the library. The library always has many people using it of all ages and ethnicities and, I am guessing, a mix of all classes. But while well-used there's always plenty of space to find a seat or table.
When I visited there was a meeting of a knitting group, knitting while they held their discussion. It seemed welcomed and allowed. They were not booked into a meeting room. They were just using a free communal area. On returning home I checked out the library events going on and found this meeting mentioned and others. Upcoming is a music session for people with dementia, mindful lego mosaic building for adults, a writing retreat, a meeting for International women, children's story times, baby boogies, and more. These are all just what's going in the immediate next days and weeks. There are also regular exhibitions, an upcoming one is on the 1938 Kindertransport. Another is marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls.
Oh yeah; the books. The library has book sections devoted to things like LGBT books and local history alongside all the usual things. It has large print and dyslexia-friendly book collections and a room with dimmed lights that has rare books, many of them books about books. You can take 30 items out for 3 weeks (yes, 30!) and renew as long as no one else wants to borrow one. There's a home delivery service for those who can't make it in. You can volunteer to be a driver for it. You can borrow DVDs for 80p a day. My partner was with me and applied to join. It took about 5 minutes, with a quick rundown of the core services outlined clearly by a librarian. My partner had to give her Brighton address but no one asked for proof of it. I say that as a good thing.
The library is IT friendly, with apps (Borrowbox and Libby) for accessing audio and ebooks and electronic newspapers and magazines. There are self-scanning borrowing terminals (that, of course, replace jobs). When I was there the computers were slow, but, for me, reassuringly so. Not too slow, just slow enough to make it feel not over-slick. Slow can be good. I also liked that there is no app for the actual library. Why always (data-stealing) apps?! You just log into your account on the website.
Libraries are social services too. Apart from free WiFi for people who don't have internet access, it's a quiet calm warm place where you could stay all day. You could easily use the toilets and wash there. No one would know if you used these and weren't in to use the library and I doubt anyone would stop you using the bathrooms if they knew you were not there as a library user. The library is as much a refuge as for reading. It's part of the City of Sanctuary scheme and makes special efforts to meet the needs of refugees. When I was there, an older woman was mentoring a couple of younger migrant women, one acting as a translator for the other. There are shelves where people can leave nappies and sanitary products and others can take them. There's a sexual health and HIV testing booth.
A lot of this would have seemed just caring and sharing not too long ago. With the mainstreaming of the far right, including into government, some of it now seems quite political.
None of this is exclusive to Brighton. Library users more widely will recognise what I'm describing. There's a nice article about a library in Reading (UK) that has become much more, with extended shelter, welfare, advice, and well-being support.
Librarians are custodians of knowledge, creativity, and joy in quiet havens. If I could come back in another life I'd like to come back as a librarian.
The library and capitalism
If the public library did not exist, this institution of mainstream society, it would probably be invented by radical alternatives-oriented activists, along much the same principles libraries do work on, much as the Free University Brighton was created by some. It would, as such, be community rather than state-organised, but you could otherwise see the principles being similar to those in our state libraries.
Libraries are a kind of social democracy, based on non-capitalist principles within capitalism. There isn't much revolution going on; they aren't anti-capitalist except insofar as they are based on alternative principles - more non-capitalist in-capitalism than anti-capitalist. They aren't anarchist because they are organised via the local state; so best described as social democratic socialism but within capitalism, and via the state rather than bottom-up organised. However, I don't know about the origins of libraries. They may well have started community organised in some places, then institutionalised by the state. Very few good things in the world have just been granted by governments. They usually had to be fought for or built from below, with concessions won from the state through conflict and struggle. There are also independent alternative libraries.
Of course, many libraries have been closed down, especially recently because of crises in local authority funding. That's a big issue not to be ignored. There are redundancies and cuts and rationalisation. And in the USA recently (and in many other places) many books are banned, sometimes for political reasons. Another big issue not to be passed over. Though this is often in schools, which makes libraries all the more important.
There are whole degrees in library studies and swathes of literature on the topic. I've barely read any of it. So, I'm sure it's all more complex and many-sided than this. Librarians will no doubt give me another side of the story (email me!); I'm hoping it will be without also denying the positive impression I have got. But what I've said is how it looks as an amateur visitor and user. Above all, the library still has one miraculous feature. You can borrow books for free.