Knowledge for Sale

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In 1999 the library reassigned Berman and he retired under protest. Three years later, officials quietly removed access to thousands of "nonstandard" subject and genre headings from the library's catalog records, unraveling the intellectual work of decades. The decision is framed as part of an effort to make the library's electronic links compatible with other institutions' catalogs, but some would argue that a lot of user-friendly flexibility was lost in the process. It's hard not to see Berman's story as part of the larger trend. Librarians were once paid to make creative decisions that would help library users. Today, in the push to standardize and centralize services, that former labor of love is being reduced to data entry.

Nevertheless, good things are happening at libraries as well. In Hennepin County, for instance, the libraries now offer free classes in online genealogical research and helping seniors and Spanish speakers use the Internet. There are also programs for incarcerated adults and youth. Across the country, libraries are genuinely struggling to define their new place in a changing society, even as Americans begin to speak out against the closures, funding cuts, and other developments that threaten their local treasures.

Meanwhile, many individual librarians continue to serve as professional altruists, often despite in-house pressures to do otherwise. They read and recommend books, quietly resisting a culture that seems to value entertainment more than wisdom. As the public library system struggles to find its way, it may be the librarians who will help it survive without losing its rich heritage and stores of printed knowledge. The light by which they read -- and that they themselves provide -- may have dimmed, but it's not out. With support from library users, their love of knowledge will continue to burn for the generations who will inherit it.

What You Can Do
How to Take Action at the Library

• Recommend items you'd like your library to acquire. Provide as much ordering information as you can: author, title, publisher, music label, and, ideally, even reviews.
• If you find a helpful, responsive librarian, go back to that person.
• Contact elected officials about library funding and policies. For suggestions, visit the American Library Association's "Issues & Advocacy" area at: www.ala.org.
• Support the work of ALA's Hunger, Homelessness, & Poverty Task Force: www.hhptf.org.
• Join the Campaign for Reader Privacy: www.readerprivacy.org.
• Monitor librarian blogs such as: www.librarianactivist.org.
• Read Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles (Norton, 2003), a Harvard librarian's look at the library's enduring role in human affairs.

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