February is a month for lovers. Cupid, St. Valentine, your friendly neighbourhood librarian. Yes, that’s right. This month isn’t just one to celebrate your sweetheart, it’s also Library Lovers Month, a time to remember the very important role that libraries play in all of our lives. Whether you’re more a writer or a reader, a student or a teacher, you’ve no doubt frequented a library at some point in your life. And though it may be tempting to believe that anything you could find in an actual building you could also track on the internet, that’s not the whole story.
Ever since the ancient Sumerians built the libraries at Nippur and Elba, human civilisations have sought to create gathering places of knowledge and stories. In this way, libraries have functioned and continue to function as community meeting places and cultural preservation centres. For Library Lovers Month 2014, we’ve decided to honour these age-old institutions as a part of our Writing Wednesday tradition.
Libraries Build Communities and Bridge Divides
“The library card is a passport to wonders and miracles, glimpses into other lives, religions, experiences, the hopes and dreams and strivings of ALL human beings, and it is this passport that opens our eyes and hearts to the world beyond our front doors, that is one of our best hopes against tyranny, xenophobia, hopelessness, despair, anarchy and ignorance.”
–Libba Bray
“With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one – but no one at all – can tell you what to read and when and how.”
–Doris Lessing
“We may sit in our library and yet be in all corners of the earth.”
–John Lubbock
Libraries Preserve and Maintain our Cultural Heritage
“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.”
–Ray Bradbury
“A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas – a place where history comes to life.”
–Norman Cousins
“Civilised nations build libraries; lands that have lost their souls close them down.”
–Toby Forward
Libraries Brighten Minds and Encourage Creative Growth
“When I got my library card, that’s when my life began.”
–Rita Mae Brown
“Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve, and contribute to improving our quality of life.”
–Sidney Sheldon
“Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open.”
–Laura Bush
For more thoughts on the importance of libraries, check out Neil Gaiman’s amazing and thought-provoking article, “Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming.”
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