What my local library needs is an area people can go into that lets others know they’re cool with talking.
Libraries are some of the coolest places on Earth. You can go in and grab a book and sit down right there to read it. Everybody knows to leave you alone, and you don’t have to finish the book there—you get to take it home. But what if I don’t want to be left alone?
One of the few places remaining that you can visit and simply exist without spending money is the library. It’s a beautiful concept. I wonder though, with all the third places drying up, especially in rural America, why not make the library a place for people to meet? There is one library in our county’s system that has a café night where people can come and chat with no expectations or activities. It’s for an hour, and it’s a wonderful idea, but what about all the other hours in the day and all the other days in the week?
Our library has a community room that has activities in it once a day at most. It would be wonderful to open that space up for three or four hours a day for people to come and have a coffee or tea and chat. Books are great, but people connecting is what holds a community together.
If money is any issue, it would be easy to get a few businesses to pay for the drinks just for the chance to get their name next to the coffee pot. Money isn’t an issue at our library, but it could be a good solution for libraries that are struggling.
Do you have any ideas on what our libraries could do to help keep our communities stronger? I’d love to hear about them.