Libraries Are Equalizers

The Boston Herald

Every Saturday of my youth, from third grade up, winter or summer, rain or shine, my best friend Rosemary and I walked to the Turner Free Library in Randolph where we were allowed to borrow two books, no more. And where, until we were 12, we were confined to the young adult section.

We didn't have books at home, not real ones. We had the beginning volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which our mothers bought at the A&P for an introductory price, and some Reader's Digest condensed books. But that was it.

The library brought us the world. We read. We dreamed. And we learned. And if it had been closed on Saturdays all summer long? We would have missed ``The Diary of Anne Frank,'' ``Of Mice and Men,'' ``Anthony Adverse.'' And we would have missed so much.

I drive through the affluent town I live in now, past new houses that make the tiny cape I grew up in look like a garage, past lawns that are as well groomed as botanical gardens, past luxury cars and overpriced condos. And I wonder how it is that with all of this excess, there isn't enough money to keep the library open on summer Saturdays? That for a lack of $17,500, Canton has to lock its library every Saturday all summer long.

Same thing in Milton, where mean income is $80,000. And Norwell, where it's nearly $90,000. Same thing in many libraries across the state and across the country.

Limited resources is the buzz phrase. But the resources are there. We just have new priorities.

It makes sense if you have to cut hours to cut them on Saturday. But what doesn't make sense is how towns are routinely underfunding the most democratic of all services. That, in the shadow of million-dollar homes, this resource is being rationed.

Libraries are equalizers. They lend books, tapes, CDs, art. They have computers. They have passes to museums. They are a way out. 

And a way in.

Last month, a Canadian choir came to the rescue of three libraries in Salinas, Calif., a poor farm community. Toronto's St. Michael's Choir gave two performances to raise money so the libraries can be open twice a week. On the to-be-closed list - and this irony was noted around the world - was the John Steinbeck Library, named after Salinas' native son.

``I grew up in a working class family. The library was a refuge, a place to access the world in a way my parents couldn't afford for me to do,'' said Walpole Public Library director Jerry Romelczyk. He sees a bigger problem than Saturday closings. He sees a ``diminution of education. It's education vs. entertainment now, and entertainment seems to be winning.’'

I see two little kids on a summer Saturday skipping down the steps of the old Turner Free Library, smiles on their faces, the whole world - not just books - in their hands.