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Keith Richards, Librarian?
“When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you.”
This fabulous and astonishing quote is from none other than Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, in a Sunday Times (U.K.) article in April. It’s fabulous because it’s true for so many of us; astonishing because who knew Richards had a “secret longing” to be a librarian?
One of the basic values of public libraries is that they belong to the public. We do our best to be inclusive here and to provide services for everyone, regardless of age, gender, socioeconomic factors, and differing abilities. Our aim is to be neutral: the proverbial level playing field. We try to gather information about collections and services that respond to what our community wants. We also strive to remain neutral in the face of an ever-increasing bombardment of signs, billboards and advertising. We have a policy that prohibits the use of any corporate logo within the library. That’s why the plaques you may notice in our building, marking the sponsorship of a room or space, all have the same typeface and size. There are no logos on our donor wall. We think it’s important to acknowledge the contributions of companies and individuals to our facility, but no donation is so large that we will provide advertising.
Of course, the other side of this coin is the freedom of expression, and the blatant advertising on many patrons’ backs, fronts, feet and bags is a choice that they make as an individual. We have no quibble about what anyone wears — as long as it covers the necessary areas and is not obscene.
“Neutral,” according to Merriam Webster, means “not engaged on either side; specifically: not aligned with a political or ideological grouping (e.g. a neutral nation).” Because we deal with information, it is not possible for a librarian to present no data. Therefore, we present data representing every point of view, or at least as many as we can, given the practical limitations.
How are we doing? If you are a member of the Whistler community, my hope is that we have some material with which you agree and plenty with which you don’t. If there is a topic or a specific item that you think we should have, please let us know. As Keith says, we are your library.
Lauren Stara, Library Director