Check out many new assets of your nearest public library

Throughout the United States, 16,536 vital community institutions — including 32 in the Mahoning Valley — teach thousands of people invaluable reading skills, narrow the digital divide in computer literacy, stand as self-service employment agencies, stage educational and entertaining programs for children and adults, provide free access to thousands of the latest CDs and DVDs and serve as comfortable and convenient town halls for millions.

Those warm, vibrant and multipurpose community institutions — namely 21st century public libraries — most definitely are not your grand- daddy’s cold, staid and stern book repositories of yesteryear.

We take time today to tip our hats to these institutions as National Library Week is observed through Saturday. The commemorative week provides an apt opportunity to recognize and salute the expanding roles that public libraries — as well as school and university libraries, government libraries, law libraries and others — play in enhancing the knowledge base for users and the quality of life for all.

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association each April to celebrate their contributions and to promote library use and support.

Of course, little promotion is needed to publicize the well-known and unbridled popularity of public libraries in the Mahoning Valley, which includes 15 operated by the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, six run by the 125-year-old Warren Trumbull County Public Library and 11 independent public libraries in Trumbull and Columbiana counties.

One need only glance at the annual reports of the library systems in Mahoning and Trumbull counties to realize their fan base is large and their outreach broad. The PLYMC, for example, in 2013 had more than 101,000 card holders, reached 56,097 children through school visits and in-library programs and attracted 1,049,811 visitors to its main and branch facilities.

The Warren-Trumbull Public Library checked out more than 10,334 physical materials and 1.2 million downloadable materials to 596,388 library visitors that year. In addition, its roaming bookmobile drew 14,388 visitors at day-care centers, housing complexes, rural communities and other venues.

Both systems, as well as the independent libraries in Columbiana County, provide all of the contemporary services and programming itemized in the opening paragraph of this editorial. As a result, their diverse roles as educators, job-seeking consultants, pre-K learning institutions and computer-tech training centers have vastly widened the parameters of their importance and impact.

Challenges

Nonetheless, the American public library system is not without its challenges. It continues to rebel against the perils of censorship by fighting attempts to ban books ranging from “The Great Gatsby” to “The Color Purple.” In the face of funding cuts to education, they work to minimize closings of school libraries or robbing them of professional staff. In some communities, funding constraints force tough decisions to contract – rather than expand – vital services to the public.

Fortunately in the Valley, public support for libraries runs deep. Just last fall, for example, Mahoning County voters soundly approved a tax levy for continued quality operations over the next five years. Nationwide, a Pew survey found 96 percent of respondents view public libraries as valuable in providing access to resources and in promoting a love of reading.

As such, Valley residents who cling to stale stereotypes of libraries are long overdue to check out the many modern assets of their nearest public library. We’re confident they won’t regret it.