Bloomberg Op/Ed: “Libraries Can Unite a Lonely, Divided Nation”

“From a Bloomberg Op/Ed by Richard Florida (University of Toronto) and Brooks Rainwater (President and CEO of the Urban Libraries Council):

Libraries are so much more than storehouses for books. They are crucial pieces of social infrastructure. When we talk about infrastructure, we typically mean the built structures and utilities — like roads, bridges, subways and sewer systems — that underpin our communities. Social infrastructure, as the sociologist Eric Klinenberg defines it, is the kind of infrastructure that facilitates human connections, interaction and civic engagement — places like parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, museums — and, of course, libraries.

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…libraries provide services and connective fiber to a wide range of people of across genders, races, ages and income levels, housed and unhoused alike. One can sit quietly in a corner and read a book or a magazine, but libraries offer so much more — the chance to interact with someone from outside your social bubble, take in a controversial exhibit that makes you think, or join a public meeting. What other institution can offer storytime for children, entrepreneurial services and financial literacy for adults, programs ranging from author talks to musical acts, and a place to work remotely or get on a Zoom call with people from across the world?

Read the Complete Op/Ed (about 950 words)”