When I first came to work at the Lisbon Library, my tools were a dial phone, a manual typewriter, and a card catalog–out of date even for 1989. But there were passionate people on the library board and there were forward-thinking people on the city council and in the community. In spite of the fact that I lived in Mount Vernon and I was a stranger from “out East”, people welcomed me. I could see that this small town was like small towns everywhere. Kids needed stuff to do and adults needed a place to go where they didn’t have to spend money. Everyone needs a “third place”–a place besides home and school or work–to meet neighbors and make friends and to feel valued and heard.
In the years since I came, we made a lot of necessary updates to the old 1875 building on East Main Street–the oldest commercial building in Lisbon–and also to the library inside it. In 1997 we cleared the cobwebs and old city account books and Christmas decorations out of the second floor and made it into Heritage Hall, a beautiful concert and lecture hall for people to gather as in the olden days of Lisbon. Soon afterwards we joined the twenty-first century and started using computers to check out and catalog materials electronically. We got wireless internet access when Lisbon assigned laptops and iPads to students; there were desktop computers for patrons to use. We joined a library consortium that made digital books available to download. We added movies and Halloween costumes to the collection and hired artists to decorate the walls. All along the way there were people to help move the vision of a “third place” forward: library board members, mayors and city councils, city staff, library patrons, other librarians, teachers and school staff, business owners, community leaders and others. The library began to matter to everyone in a positive way.
In 2024, there is controversy about libraries in our state and in our country that casts libraries in a negative light. Who should be in charge of them? Who decides what materials they hold or what programs they provide? Our system of governance by a volunteer board of trustees that is beholden to the approval of a city council is being questioned. Recently a bill* was proposed in our state senate to give control of the library entirely to the city council–a group made up of elected officials. Other legislation with a similar goal has been discussed. This lack of trust in the current public library system in our state is beyond my understanding. Our library building and everything in it already belongs to the city of Lisbon. The city council already approves the library’s budget, all bills paid by the library, and the hiring of all staff members. There is a liaison from our city council already assigned to the library. If any citizen has a complaint or question about library materials, programs, staff, or anything related to the library, there are already policies in place to listen to concerns and reconsider decisions made. Why is this controversy happening now? Is it about one or two books, or something else? Would this bill provide any more assurances to the public than we already do? What more assurances do we really need?
Every year, third graders study the history of Lisbon and learn the significance of the library building and the library itself. They learn why there is a framed picture of the members of Lisbon’s graduating class of 1936 on the wall–it was the class that started the public library as a social project for the town at the suggestion of their teacher, Mrs. York. They learn that the library started with boxes of donated books and moved around from place to place until it got a permanent home when the city purchased the old grocery store on East Main Street. They can’t imagine their town without a library–a safe place to stop in after school, check out a book they might like, or go to story time. The value of the library is far beyond the books and furniture and computers in it. It is the value of feeling at home, inspired by beauty and art, surrounded by acceptance and love. The library belongs to all of us, as I tell the third graders, and it is our job to make sure that it remains for the next generations. It connects us all–no matter our political and religious beliefs, our methods of raising our children, or our economic and educational backgrounds. I am thankful to live in a community that understands the value and responsibility of maintaining a public library and for their trust in letting me serve them for 34 years.
*SSB 3131 will not be moving forward in the state senate, but a similar bill overriding local control of libraries is still being discussed in the house (House Study Bill 678)