It won’t surprise you, given how often and much I write about reading, to learn that I love libraries. The public libraries in our country are a wonder, an outstanding resource available to all of us.
Public libraries have five fundamental characteristics:
- They are supported by taxes,
- They are governed by a board to serve the public interest,
- They are open to all,
- They provide basic services without charge, and
- They do not require anyone to use their services.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_library citing Richard E. Rubin, Foundations of Library and Information Science, 2010.
The library in Worthington, Ohio meets all of these criteria. And it provides outstanding service. It has been rated a Five-star Library every year since 2009. What that means exactly is a bit mysterious. It is an amalgam rating based on library visits, total circulation, circulation of electronic materials, attendance, and public internet usage. http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2016/11/managing-libraries/lj-index/class-of-2016/americas-star-libraries-2016-top-rated-libraries/#_
There are almost 120,000 libraries in the country. http://www.ala.org/tools/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet01 Personal experience suggests that they vary widely, from the grandeur of the main building of the Boston Public Library to the spartan one-room Newport Public Library. At Harvard College, there are approximately 100 libraries, ranging from the massive Widener library[1] to the Qube.[2]
Only 7,349 libraries qualify to be rated by the Library Journal. That “qualify” part is self-selective. The Library Journal can only rate libraries that submit complete data to it. Still, of the 7,000 plus qualified libraries, only 260 receive a star rating – three, four, or five stars. In 2016, there were 84 five-star libraries in the country, slightly more than one percent of all qualified libraries. So the Worthington Library system is doing pretty darn well and doing it consistently, which makes that separate assessment on my property taxes (criterion number one above) slightly easier to swallow.
[1] When I was an undergraduate, we were told that Widener was the third largest library in the world. Maybe it was, maybe it still is, but only if the count is by books under one roof. The more usual way to count these days is system wide. By that measure, the Harvard library system is the 17th largest in the world. Its 18.9 million catalogued items are dwarfed by the largest library system in the world, the Library of Congress, which has 162 million catalogued items. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_libraries
[2] Every academic department at Harvard has its own library in addition to the larger school-wide libraries. Moreover, every residential house at Harvard has a library. I lived in Quincy House, whose square-shaped library is called the Qube. It was famous for its comic book collection; I hope it still is.
-at OSU 66 years ago there were many distractions in the large reading room of the main library at the West end of the oval, many of which were of the co-ed variety. There was a little more solitude at Orton Hall but the place I finally found was back at the Main Lib. and way up in the stacks on any of the high floors there were tucked away individual desks and chairs. In probably the only place within a twenty mile radius of this crowded campus you could be utterly isolated-perfect for concentration. jr
When there is work to be done, nothing beats your own quiet spot at a library.
When I was an undergrad at OSU in the days when they let anyone in, some friends and I went to Boston to visit our much smarter friend who was attending Fair Harvard. While touring campus he took us in Widener and gave us that same story about it being the third largest blah blah blah. But he also gave us this little interesting bit of info – the woman who donated the money for the library (presumably Mrs. Widener) had lost her husband and son on the Titanic. As such her donation came with a caveat: thereafter, all students would have to pass a swimming test before they could graduate. As our Harvard buddy told us this, my fellow state school friend shot back “So what is it? They have to swim 50 yards without hitting an iceberg?”
Fun read! You got me curious so I made my way to the library rating system website. Ohio, somewhat surprisingly, leads the nation in star rated libraries per capita. I remember seeing a survey years ago that said Ohio leads the country in library visits per capita, and likely related, in the quantity of movies available at libraries. Hamilton County is the 14th largest library system in the country, sandwiched between UCLA and Stanford libraries.
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2016/11/managing-libraries/lj-index/class-of-2016/all-the-stars-2016-state-by-state
I, too, LOVE libraries! I could spend hours in them perusing books, magazines, etc. We just returned from a family vacation to Ireland where we visited the Long Room at Trinity College. A VERY impressive library to say the least.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTJ_ACLbYeC_281Rw0Q5bKozAyFagzOpjhlgzRfP4xBU2ygd6quKA
It took working at the library of UVA (with original documents from the founding of our nation) for me to fully appreciate libraries. There is supposedly a very fine comic library here at OSU, though I have never gone to explore it.
I think we too often take librarians and the others who work at libraries for granted. Let’s go find that comic book collection together. That would be a fun afternoon.
Awesome idea!
The Comic Book Czar was revered at Quincy House and the Qube Librarians were some of the hardest working students at Harvard.
I always heard that — from you, a former Comic Book Czar and librarian. I think I remembers stepping over you one time as you guarded the entrance while sleeping off whatever had happened the night before. But maybe that was someone else.