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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

National Library Week


The Communal Roles of Libraries

“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”

--- John F. Kennedy

The role of libraries has changed dramatically over the last generation. Libraries are no longer primarily repositories of books; they are also dynamic, electronic gateways to the world of information. Amidst all the change, however, one thing has remained constant: libraries exist to serve the public good, whether that is through community programs or access to scholarly resources.

At the end of March of this year, an international group which had participated in a recent Salzburg Seminar (https://www.salzburgseminar.org) on Libraries in the 21st century adopted the statement below. The signers represent 27 countries, including the United States. According to one of the signers, Paul Callister, from the University of Missouri--Kansas City School of Law, “[t]he statement reflects the group’s efforts to capture, preserve and promote the role of libraries in the 21st century.”

Vision of the Communal Roles of Libraries

The library is a place where knowledge and information freely dwell to define, empower, preserve, challenge, connect, entertain and transform individuals, cultures and communities. The dwelling place, whether physical or virtual, is the product of collective reflection, aspiration, commitment, expertise and organization. It is both a byproduct of civil communities and a catalyst for cultural progress, inspiration, expression and exchange. Its absence in this new century would not only deprive many individuals of important resources, but also, more significantly, such loss would deny humanity an essential portion of its shared identity and entitled liberties. The library can never be fully replaced by information technologies. For the essence of its communal role is not the technological mastery over knowledge and information, but rather the provision of sanctuary for human thought and expression in any medium.

Lori Annesi
Library
04/15/2005