Member-only story
Future. Libraries. Now.
There have been many changes in our lives and communities since March 2020, a month which now marks the beginning of widespread concern about the COVID-19 pandemic. But, the memory that always sticks in my mind from that month were the closings. Specifically, the closing of the library and the schools.
In March of 2020, I was physically and metaphorically living in-between three spaces which are central to my life: a college campus, an academic library, and a public library. Since childhood, schools and libraries have been a fixture for me, and there has never been a time in my life that I did not live walking distance from both. And while there is a certain convenience to being in community with the library (my books are never late), there is also a level of care and consideration that I have for these spaces as someone who has worked for and with(in) them.
Which is why I spent many months in 2020 (and 2021) watching from my balcony and window, waiting for the library to open again. During this same time, I signed on to begin editing and imagining the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Collaborative Writing Project. Like many people, the closing of the physical spaces of the library and schools brought up major considerations around the future of these institutions, not only in our current moment in time, but in the years to come. Without access to the…
