Bacchanalian Libraries!

The public library where I work is an amazing place. It's every bit as much a community center as it is an "information repository," and there's always something cool going on -- day-long festivals celebrating the Hispanic or Native American cultures, teens getting together to try out the latest games on XBox 360 or PS3, or a huge celebration of the Harry Potter series that spills out onto Main Street and culminates with a Wizard Rock concert.

Which brings me to a quote I read in a recent copy of a locally-published magazine regarding our library, specifically:

"Those who think of a library as a quiet place where serious people go in order to read, study, and contemplate will agree that ***** lost its library years ago. It evolved into a noisy recreational center where small children and large children, mistakenly called "adults," visit for fun and recreation. The staff, desperate for popularity with the mob, happily indulges them with Roman circuses."

I certainly feel for the person who wrote the letter; I experience similar emotions about the direction it seems many churches are going, where worship services are more like an 80's arena-rock show than the old open-your-hymnals-to-page-187 litany that I fondly recall. That said, I think that public libraries do well to sponsor and create such events. As a result of such activities, our library maintains a high, positive profile in our community and maintains an image as a vital, vibrant institution and a great use of taxpayer money, which in turn allows for an even better library.

So, here's to Bacchanalian Libraries and the "Roman Circuses" we conduct. May we always be so scandalous!