Libraries as Social Hubs
by Jennifer Ellis
I have lived in the San Diego area for just over 16 years. My longest friendship while living here is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. What happened ten years ago to cultivate this friendship? I started taking my daughter to the Book Babies program at the Carlsbad City Library. I had work acquaintances beforehand, but none of those people ever wanted to do anything outside of work. Going to the library was the first time since I had moved to California where I met like-minded individuals with similar goals and lifestyles.
Libraries have long been a place to do homework or trace your family tree, but the library of the new millennium provides programming for families, teens, the homeless, immigrants and many other groups of citizens. Serving the public with this programming naturally brings with it a social element; friendships will bloom out of these new encounters. According to Senville (2009), libraries have become the hubs of communities, often drawing in new users. Stephen Coronella, a librarian in a small town in Vermont states that "...a good library works a lot like a harbor. It provides a place where people can dock themselves for a while, socialize with others, and feel some comfort and security." Once I made that first friend at the library, I did feel more comfortable living here in California. I had already been here for six years, with nary a friend to my name. All of a sudden, I had a new group of friends, who all had the same struggles as I did, being a new mother. On the surface, we were talking about sleeping issues, the finer points of strained peas, and who has read Goodnight Moon for the eighty-first time, but really we were building the bonds and framework of a decade-long friendship. I could not have done that without the safe, welcoming, and comfortable space of the library.
References
Senville, W. (2009). PUBLIC LIBRARIES: THE HUB OF OUR COMMUNITIES. Aplis, 22(3), 97-103.
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