The democratic radicalness of libraries
Alejandra Quiroz Hernández
Last year, during the World Refugee Day held at the public library in Kista, Sweden, Patrick Weil, president of the NGO Bibliothèques Sans Frontières, said that libraries should be the most important public service in a country. By not asking for titles or certifications they are open to anyone who has curiosity. They might be the only place where we all truly fit. Many library systems, however, are far from that ideal. Mexican public libraries require an urgent intervention. Limiting their mission, for example, to the promotion of reading is to diminish their strength. Unless you cling to etymology, today public libraries have more to do with people than with books. That does not mean that in their facilities reading materials are exceeded, but that the focus of the so-called temples of knowledge has changed.
On many occasions, public libraries even function as shelters for people who are homeless but do need to spend some time in a place that offers them a little of what they lost. Rubén, for example, frequents the Vasconcelos Library to read philosophy, psychology and literature. Their interventions in the talks are punctual and full of references that surprise the audience - our prejudices regarding people in the street are inexhaustible. Guillermo, on the other hand, enters the workshops to listen in silence. Looking towards nothing causes the impression of not being present at all, but he collects each of the words said and, if necessary, tertiary commenting that the speaker talks very nice or that he is interested on what is shared. On the other hand, Ernesto celebrates that once retired he has, now, the opportunity to study. He frequents several cultural spaces but the public library, he says, is a place that makes him feel safe, comfortable and happy. In the years that he has visited the library he has made a few friendships with whom he coincides in the programmed activities. Finally, Amaya became a user two months after she was born. With her babbling she intervenes after hearing a voice. She begins to participate in the conversation that is life because she learned, from a very young age, that one voice responds to another, meanwhile her mother writes poems.
Libraries serve extremely diverse audiences, and it is them who determine its functioning. If they do not receive many visits, as in many parts of the country, they are suspended in failure. This causes the work of the library to transcend the satisfaction of a reader's needs and, rather, to guarantee the right of access to information, education and culture. Despite this, we still imagine the librarian as a woman in glasses, with her hair pulled back and dressed with modesty, who demands silence at the slightest provocation. For a long time, silence has ceased to be the primary resource of libraries, which have become spaces for conversation. Now they are a meeting point and the users themselves moderate to ensure coexistence.
Nevertheless, however broad and diverse the public may be, libraries still have problems in including people with disabilities. This lack, shared worldwide, is also suffered in Mexico, where the service offer and the architectural space are still designed for users without limitations. For the time being, projects are already being developed for this group of people, such as the Braille rooms, the learning of the Mexican sign language and the training of personnel to assist them. However, putting them in the center would allow us to have even more plural and hospitable libraries.
The democratic radicalness of this institution also demands overcoming the school stigma that weighs on it. Far from being a joyful experience, the school often remembers a difficult time in the life of people who could never adapt to their demands due to economic, educational or self-esteem issues. Although it supports and promotes school learning, the public library is a complete educational space, not complementary. It has its own identity and mission. They determine their own educational priorities. On the one hand, the public library recognizes that nobody starts from scratch. To a greater or lesser extent, something is known and that is enough to continue knowing. Learning is then understood in a broad sense: beyond knowledge, standard skills and completing a curriculum, its purpose is to ignite the desire to know, move the thinking and organize the surprise. On the other hand, a good part of its creative potential lies in the possibility of articulating intergenerational learning communities, something that is impossible in the educated spaces.
Finally, a common concern is the state of libraries, their equipment and their collections and services (Mexico’s National Network of Public Libraries integrates 7,427 library spaces). Some of these spaces have not received maintenance in the last fifteen years. It is a relevant fact. While digitization and the automation of services can be beneficial, the priority is to train and update staff and rehabilitate the facilities. This will improve library services. It would be useless to improve connectivity or install self-loan modules if the library is not activated by a community of users, if nobody visits it; On the other hand, a creative staff, well trained and attentive to inclusion, can do much to recover the abandoned libraries.
At present, the image of the library gives us back the omissions of our society. People do not go to them because they do not have enough skills to learn on their own, and because they do not feel subject to these sites. The services, the personnel, the collection, the activities -for lack of budget and planning- do little to welcome the communities that surround each library in the country. Although José Vasconcelos promoted a virtuous triangle - integrated by schools, libraries and the fine arts - his desire for a reading citizenry has not prospered, despite so many cultural venues named in his honor.
Originally published in spanish in Política cultural. Obra en marcha (julio 2018)
