![]() ![]() Looking for information there is so different from surfing the internet, which can feel untethered and chaotic. Simply being in a library gives us the sense that we have access to all the knowledge in the world. John Szabo, the current head of Central, views libraries as the people’s university-apolitical spaces where no one is being judged. Yes, and they keep evolving as town squares where diverse communities can share and access information. Some have people lining up for hours before opening time, waiting to get in. ![]() They now service the homeless, offer classes for non-English speakers, provide after-school care to kids, host movie screenings, and much else, as you found. Libraries today go beyond their original mission as book lenders and literacy champions. After we left, I loved being in the car with all the books we’d gotten piled on my lap, discussing what we’d taken out and in what order we’d read them. I can still hear the chunk-chunk sound of the due date stamp. Then my mom and I would reunite at the circulation desk. Even at age 4 or 5, I could wander off on my own once inside. ![]() The Shaker Heights, Ohio, library might have been the first place I was given autonomy. ![]() You write that the memory of childhood trips to the library remains sacred to you. ![]()
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