HUNTINGTON BEACH Central Library as seen from the Central Park (OC Tribune photo).
“The only thing you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.”
– Albert Einstein
The conservative majority – OK, we’ll call it that for now – majority on the Huntington Beach City Council that sought to “outsource” or “privatize” the city’s library system – seemed genuinely shocked at the level of negative reaction it received at the June 18 meeting.
I don’t really know those four folks, so I don’t know to what degree they are library fans, but there are a lot of us who are library fan-atics and would prize librarians more highly than …. well, let’s not be mean about this.
There are few institutions in any community that have such a huge effect as libraries. For me, going to our small branch library on Euclid Street in Garden Grove a few blocks away was a treat. All those books and you could read any of them …. well, almost any of them … for free.
From grade school through high school and beyond I haunted the halls and later – after the new, larger library was built – I was one of those still stuck in the caverns of book shelves when the librarians had to flash the lights to warn us that the joint was closing in 10 minutes.
Most of what I learned wasn’t in a classroom but from books – and sometimes newspapers and magazines – in libraries, there and later in college. My university library had seven stories. Seven stories! Santa Maria, it was like one of the Seven Wonders of the World!
After college I moved to Huntington Beach – for a while – and discovered the gleaming new Central Library, set on a rise in the Central Park. It was – to me – a sign that this was a community that exceeded all others in its readiness for glory in the new century approaching.
I can accept that it’s possible the measures aimed at the Huntington Beach library system – censorship and privatization – might not seem harmful to those that endorse them, but I hope that they can understand how precious those buildings and all the knowledge held within him are to other people.
Ronald Reagan, a bona fide conservative, compared the United States to a “shining city on a hill.” Huntington literally has a city of man’s accumulated wisdom on a hill at Talbert Avenue and Goldenwest Street.
Who wouldn’t want to defend that if you felt it was in jeopardy?
Categories: Opinion
Leave our Libraries alone!!!
Visited the old Carnegie library on Walnut & 8th St. frequently when I was a small child 95 years ago, and used it until in college. It was a wonderful place to gain knowledge and the library staff was very helpful. Loved the downstairs children section. When the Main St. library opened my children attended story hour there and always came home with excellent books to read and share with me. My husband and I were able to get information on many subjects there and visited often. The central library contains so many areas of interest and very helpful staff, so I was very upset when I learned about the proposal to turn our wonderful central library over to a “for-profit company” and was relieved to hear that proposal was withdrawn.