Libraries: a Trust for the Future

People who seek and attain public office do so in order to carry out the wishes of those who elect them. Holding elective office means having the authority and the responsibility to make choices, often difficult ones.

Nearly every choice involves choosing priorities in spending money. The demands made on officeholders to meet the needs of individuals and groups, often highly organized pressure groups, are intense. At the city level, closest to the electorate, problems of finding funds for safety and sanitation, for transportation and public utilities, for recreation and communications, for the myriad of other community needs, are nearly insurmountable. Why, then, consider spending about $10 million on a new central library in Newport Beach?

Popular lore has it that a long and bitter winter hovered over western Europe for the perilous period we call the Dark Ages. We are taught that centers of intellectual light dotted the feudal landscape during this time and there were monasteries in which generations of committed humans laboriously kept alive the classic languages and history that survived the dark onslaught. Here it was that the glories and grandeurs of Athens and Rome were lovingly and literally illuminated. Here it was that the traditions and languages of the Old Testament and the New survived. From where else came our knowledge of the then-known world? It came from libraries.

In terms of geologic time, the startling fireworks we call the Renaissance happened just a few minutes ago. Yet, that explosive time, that rediscovery of beauty in every form, did not just happen like the turning of a page in man’s long evolvement. The Renaissance swept across Europe like fire. The ecstasies and enchantments of the golden times of Athens and Alexandria were rediscovered and built upon. New continents, countries and cultures were found. A new spirit was in the world. Painting, sculpture, architecture, music and literature flourished as never before. Mankind took a far more giant leap than ever before. Why did this linking with the past, glorifying the present and reaching for the future, take place? It took place because, among other reasons of economics and exploration, thousands of men over generations of time had lovingly and painstakingly preserved the records of the past. It came because of libraries.

Libraries need to be built, stocked and staffed if we are to keep faith with those who will follow us. Libraries need to be regarded as legacies that we hold in trust for those whose time is yet to come.

In this electronic era we must not lose sight of the simple fact that there really is no substitute for a good book. Television screens and computer monitors are important and splendid devices. They impart learning, provide amusement, solve problems and, particularly with television, make it possible to while away the time in a state of addictive anesthesia.

But they do not provide that intimate brain-book bond so necessary to human fulfillment. Reading a printed page, and understanding it, opens the mind and challenges the spirit like nothing else. Books are magic.

Andrew Carnegie was once famous as one of the world’s richest men. He was loved and hated for his genius in manufacturing and distributing steel. Late in his life he turned to philanthropy. He used some of this money to build libraries that dotted the rural areas of America as centers of learning, much like the monasteries of the Dark Ages. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Americans around the turn of the present century had access to the miracles of books.

But for Carnegie, this opportunity might not have come to brighten and ennoble the lives of a multitude and their descendants. Steel may have been the source of the dour Scotsman’s wealth, but steel will not be the source of his enduring fame. Historians will say: It came from libraries.

Should libraries be of the highest priority in all communities? Should there be a new central library in Newport Beach, as has been proposed ? A library that will enhance the present system and increase access to books? A new central library that will demonstrate the community’s priorities and preserve for posterity the opportunity to learn from the past and to enjoy the riches of the present while preparing for the uncertainties of tomorrow? How can there not be?