Ode to the public library

Ode to the public library

How can Ohio’s public li- braries and librarians help you with your publication-quality essay or book manuscript? Ohio’s librarians are book people, they’re learning people, that’s how. They’re dedicated, and the libraries they serve offer computers, work space, interlibrary loans, and other reference helps.

For aggressive, highly motivated citizen-scholars with a good basic education, public libraries have been the primary go-to learning resource of choice for a century.

Before public libraries, there were more restrictive subscription libraries and other private collections. The U. S. Constitution and The Federalist were written by citizen-scholars refreshing their thoughts from their personal libraries. Think of Thomas Jefferson’s 6,000-some books, which he later sold to the public Library of Congress.

When you think of citizen-scholars, look at influential philosopher Ayn Rand working her way through the Los Angeles County Public Library back in the 1930s before exploding with “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged.” Think of journalist-critic H. L. Mencken stoking his rhetorical furnace at the Enoch Pratt in Baltimore. Many thousands of intellectuals and writers have clustered at the New York Public Library, or closer to home, the Reuben McMillan Free Library, McKinley Memorial, and other local libraries.

One citizen-scholar puts the search for truth made possible by Ohio’s public libraries and librarians this way. “You listen to the experts, you listen to the politicians, you listen to the opinionizers, you listen to the money grubbers, you listen to all the ‘suits.’ Then you run like hell in the opposite direction. When your lungs are bursting, when your legs give out, when you can’t run anymore, that’s when you know you’re closer to the truth.”

Jack Labusch, Niles