From the Director’s Chair
There are several books titled “Everything I ever needed to know I learned…” from kindergarten, from my dog, from a little Golden Book, in first grade, at home, etc. With libraries, everything you ever need to know you can learn from The Wizard of Oz.
Dorothy is the patron who wanders into the library and finds s/he is not in Kansas anymore: s/he is in a world of imagination and reality, a world in which s/he can learn almost anything and be transported to almost anywhere. Programs and exhibits emphasize people, situations, and viewpoints manifested through paintings and photographs that create a place unlike anything familiar or commonplace.
The Tin Man is looking for his heart and finds it with the staff who treat everyone with respect and courtesy. Regardless of financial status, race, or creed, the staff views everyone with compassion and, as much as possible, tries to help them in whatever brought them to the library. From job searches to school reports, to finding books for their children to finding how to fix an automobile, no question is considered stupid or ignorable. The staff member who goes the extra step and makes a frightened child or adult feel welcome has the heart we all need.
The Scarecrow, looking for a brain, finds it in all of the free resources that the library has to offer. There are even books on how to improve your IQ. If you want to grow intellectually, without the pressure of formal schooling or as an addition to such schooling, the library is the place for you.
The cowardly lion is looking for courage. The patron who doesn’t know how to work a computer, but comes to the library to find out, is courageous. The patron who doesn’t speak English but brings his child to story time is brave. When you come to the library and deliberately seek out material that challenges your beliefs, you are courageous. If you are determined to overcome something you fear by learning more about it, you are brave.
The Wizard of Oz or the man behind the curtain is the illusion that libraries are free—it costs money to provide adequate services and qualified staff. To believe programs that enhance people’s lives, that material which improves children’s reading, or allows adults to obtain better jobs, or brings entertainment to someone is totally free is a fantasy. To believe the physical library isn’t a place for community, for the exchange of ideas, or a welcoming space is another fantasy.
The other illusion is that everyone can afford to pay for these services. Without free information, you do not have a free society. Limiting a child or an adult’s access to books or computers because they cannot afford it is returning to the days of subscription libraries.
The last major character, the Wicked Witch of the West, is the person who considers the Internet the same as facts, that everyone can afford to attend ticketed programs and to stream videos and games and that everyone has access to computers, job search software and the high speed Internet. This person wants to take from Dorothy, the patron, her “ruby slippers”: those items that can transport her not just to a home that values diversity, knowledge, and independence but also to worlds in which creativity, imagination and hope are commonplace.
-Pam Coyle, MBCPL Director
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