Massachusetts

Offsetting the Diploma Deficit

Today, the high school dropout rate has reached epidemic levels. There are nearly 40 million Americans without a high school diploma—and those adults looking to return to high school have limited options. The startling figures below from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey, uncover just how many adults in each state has less … Read more

Libraries Saved Me

By Cathy B.  I am not sure if this is relevant to today’s issues, but in the 1950s and 1960s, during a tumultuous childhood and adolescence, three libraries and two librarians came to my rescue. The first was the Lowell Public Library in Lowell, Mass., where a favorite uncle was the adult librarian. He brought … Read more

Libraries Provide Educational (and Creative) Resources for All

By Farah F. 

I was listening to an interview on NPR with Regina Spektor one summer, where she stated that libraries are sort of a level playing field for everyone. Everyone deserves the opportunity to learn, to enjoy books and film, music, and research. Libraries help keep our communities educated, and allow these resources to ALL.

When I was a kid, we didn’t have a decent internet connection. Our house was on 5 acres of land. But we were required to use the internet for our projects in school. Needless to say, the library helped me with this. Even in college, I would look up my grades, pay my tuition, and more, at the library if I was back home for break.

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Home Away From Home

By Sarah S. 

Growing up my parents were both avid library users. As time went on Mom started working full-time and couldn’t always pick us up after school everyday. We ended up walking to the local library and staying to close (our choice) whenever we went there. We each would find a corner to curl up with our homework and latest personal reading book. Mom would have to search the building for us if she wanted to leave any earlier than closing time.

In high school nothing changed in my love of the library, except for adding a new favorite library. During study hall I would race to be the first one in class so that I would be granted a library pass. It was my hour of bliss during the day; my sanctuary within the school grounds. I did all of my studying either at the town library or in this brand new high school library.

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My Best Friend, My Confidante

By Stacey S.

When I was growing up, I had two big obstacles – my public school library was tiny and not well-funded and I did not have a lot of friends. I remedied both of these by spending as much time as I possibly could at my town’s public library. Starting downstairs in the children’s library, I spent so much time there that I was asked if I wanted to volunteer to re-shelve books. You would have thought I had been offered a shopping spree at a candy store, the way I reacted. I would spend most afternoons tasked with putting away one cart of books, and it would take me all afternoon – I would not merely re-shelve, but I would skim if not outright read every book before I put it back. The library was my best friend and where I turned when I was sad or lonely – there was always a good story to lose myself in, there.

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Serendipity is Just Another Example of a Good Librarian

By Rebecca B. My story is one similar to so many working parents these days: my husband and I both work full-time while raising young children. Our parents, our children’s grandparents, live in other states. Since the beginning of storytelling on cave walls, we’ve used written communication to teach our children life lessons, and, now … Read more

More Than Shelves!

By Esther B. 

My college library, the Iwasaki Library at Emerson College, was invaluable both on the physical and digital planes.

Not only was it a place with shelves of books, it was a place to come to study. Yes, you can have quiet study rooms for students. However, they’re much more valuable when you can just reach up and grab a new source. Also, while hunting for one book, or magazine, or article, even just glimpsing the titles of the texts I was passing made me want to stop and grab one and open it–and, when I had more than five minutes, I did.

The library was where we came to do group projects, a place to congregate among the information we needed to complete the assignment. Just being in an atmosphere obviously devoted to thought made us more focused, and maybe even more innovative in our ideas.

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