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Despite a decrease in public investment, libraries continue to grow in popularity as spaces of normality in the chaos of the pandemic.
Two years after the beginning of the pandemic, libraries have experienced changes in their services and purposes. In previous articles, we have talked about their ability to reinvent themselves and their potential to be learning spaces and facilitators to create student communities. However, many face imminent closure and others endure limited activities, so librarians have had to stay creative to adapt to normality that still does not allow the pre-pandemic, face-to-face gatherings.
Book rentals and online events, contact-less book lending, and outdoor activities with prevention protocols and measures have become the foundation of the survival of libraries and the communities they support. For those who continue the work inside these buildings, it is clear that their jobs are no longer only about lending and preserving book collections or even sharing knowledge; they also offer a semblance of social and cognitive normality not linked to consumption. Libraries are one of the few public spaces that can be accessed without the expectation of an expense, which is why it is so vital to ensure their continuity in a post-pandemic landscape. How is this being achieved?
The lessons learned since the beginning of the pandemic have given librarians the tools to expand the spectrum to more didactic and social activities. Today’s best libraries feature computer labs, conference rooms, studios for recording podcasts and editing videos, educational experiences for children, kitchens to learn about diverse cultures through preparing typical dishes, and cafeterias.
Even with the cessation or decrease in public activities caused by the Omicron variant, the library maintains services such as contact-less lending. A person can order a book online and pick up the physical copy in a locker within a secure area just inside or outside the premises. “There has been constant innovation to find ways to serve people’s needs however we can,” commented Megan Allen, Director of Libraries in Quincy, Massachusetts, to The Boston Globe. Thanks to the inventiveness of library professionals, the libraries have not only remained active but have become more popular. Despite this progress, the capital invested in maintaining their services and paying a living wage to librarians has not been commensurate with the efforts made.
In the United States, the government has not fully supported public libraries in 27 years; 86% of the funds come from local funding. In the last decade, the total budget of England to maintain their libraries decreased 25%. In Canada, the cuts by the state have been so severe that in some instances, they have reached 50%. The supply and demand for the services offered by libraries remain intact.
The problem that could put their continuity at risk is not digitalization, a decrease in physical copies of books, or even the pandemic; instead, it is the lack of public funding to ensure that they continue as a free resource. Libraries are a bastion of access to knowledge and activities that support the social and mental health of the public at this moment; now is the ideal time to evaluate their contributions and do everything possible to preserve them in their present form.
Have you visited your local library this year? What programs do they offer? Have you benefited from any? What is your position regarding libraries, their role in the pandemic, and their future? Let us know in the comments.
Translation by Daniel Wetta
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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
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