How can anyone hate a library?
For generations, my ancestors were lead miners in Wanlockhead, Scotland, which makes me proud. In addition to being the highest village in Scotland at 1,531 feet above sea level, Wanlockhead is the home of the second-oldest subscription library in Europe. (The first was in neighboring Leadhills, another mining town.) Today, the Miners’ Library, formed by 32 miners in 1756, is part of the Wanlockhead Museum of Lead Mining.
In 2007 it was recognized as a collection of national significance by the Scottish Museum Council. During its years of active service to the community, it provided a route out of the mines for a lucky few of the miners’ children, and an escape from the daily grind of the brutal work below ground for the miners and their families.
Subscribing to the library wasn’t cheap, but many (including my ancestors) did it anyway, knowing even then that literacy and education were essential steps on the ladder to success.
Twenty years earlier, Benjamin Franklin had begun the first subscription library in Philadelphia. It became known as the Library Company and the 50 members were all men of wealth. Today in America (as in Scotland), we rely on our tax dollars to provide us with access to local public libraries. And according to a Pew Research survey, most of us feel that they are important to our communities.
Only six percent of people surveyed think that closing the local public library would have no impact on the local community. Within that tiny minority, you will probably find the staggeringly rich and very powerful Koch brothers.