When a deadly virus quarantines students for several weeks, limiting our resources by closing down both our school and community libraries, a degree starts to seem unattainable for students who are on the edge, and the idea of access to education for any who acquire knowledge, seems like a cherished opportunity of the past.
As textbooks sit and collect the contaminated dust we are trying to get rid of, students who utilized the LBCC library to check out a textbook as they work in the library for the day, have to resort to bedside studying. The routine of coffee, the library, and then class is no more, leaving us faced with challenges that require financially inconvenient solutions of buying and installing Wi-Fi, or even depending on unreliable cellular hotspot services.
Teachers have to measure if they’re challenging students intellectually or challenging their access to resources. Students have to overcome the anxiety built from an overwhelming and ambiguous situation.
Student workers and faculty staff who made services possible and resources accessible at LBCC have always been appreciated, but their presence is a necessity. We must find a way to sanitize and clean our libraries frequently and get healthy individuals to work.
Our Long Beach community has built libraries that have motivated people to broaden their education, use their imagination, and offered access to services that include resume building and English classes for Latinos. People have voted at the library, volunteered to read to children, and of course checked out the many, many knowledge and adventure-filled books.
As Long Beach public libraries refuse to accommodate the community and simply make limitations to the schedule of the libraries, rather than the complete shutdown of all library locations, they force people to put their interests in books on halt. There is a certain responsibility that is in the hands of the public libraries to allow access to books and Wi-Fi, even during this time.
As I look back on how many times I have ventured to the library to find a book that I have heard great reviews about, I can’t help but feel sorrow to know that I can’t catch the metro to the still very new Billie Jean King Main Library located in downtown Long Beach and check out the exact book I’ve been waiting for. Or even, do what “they” say not to do, and judge a book by its cover. Or find my way to the urban section for a read by great African-American authors.
Families depend on the access to books to read to their children. Weeks can feel like years to the families that valued that time to be proactive. Taking away the access to libraries is more than taking away a day of fun, it’s taking away books and discovery that can only be tapped into by picking up a book.
The consequences of this nation-wide pandemic has created a great burden for the Long Beach community, and we aren’t exactly sure for how long.
The strategic planning of getting our libraries on a schedule to open, if even for a few hours a day and only to check out books, would be worth it.
Every day I pass by the eminent Michelle Obama Library, and think to myself, if I was to find my way down those dull aisles and borrow a book during this time, would our former first lady be mad? Is it really stealing? Who do these books really belong to?
After this thought, I can laugh. The bigger picture revolves around the question, “Have we put enough thought and effort into allowing for people to safely access a sanitary library before we closed and chained the doors?”