Libraries Before Profit

I remember the first time I received a check in the mail for writing. It was a beautiful thing. I still hold no delusions that its easy in any way to make a living as a writer, but we don’t really do it to make a living in any case, and the payoffs of hearing someone discuss your work or seeing your words in print for the world far outweigh any monetary benefit.

Still, being paid is nice. Particularly nice when you’re being paid to do what you love.

All that to say, I’m a huge fan of artists being compensated for their creation. It’s something that happens far too infrequently, and at far too small a scale.  I needed to say this up front, because its important to preface what I’m about to say with those thoughts.

What is it that I’m going to say? I will always believe that the public should be able to access our culture’s literature for free, and I will always believe that viewing and reading and listening to our cultural heritage is a right, not a privilege. For exactly those reasons, I’m a big supporter of the local library. I believe it to be a very worthy use of tax money, because it contributes to an educated and culturally aware country. These are things from which everyone benefits.

So, when I read opinions about how libraries should essentially be cast aside with technological evolutions, and that only people who want to pay for books should be able to read them, I become very frustrated with what I can only perceive as an elitist attitude. If you have the money to purchase a book that you love, then do so. Support the author. Whatever you do, don’t pirate the book, because that’s a crime and you deserve to be arrested if you do.

However, there are always books…important books…that you want to read and don’t quite have the money to spare, and there are always those who are truly passionate about books and who just cannot afford them in any case. That’s why we all buy these books for the common good, to be read by our local communities. That’s what libraries do.

To insinuate that such a critical public good be done away with in the name of profit for the artist is beyond reprehensible. The artist…if (s)he is truly an artist…isn’t creating for profit, in any case. Their work is there for the sake of everyone, and for everyone. So let everyone read it, or hear it, or see it.

And let’s continue to do everything we can to keep this art available.