Argument Essay: Place To Close Public Libraries

Before deciding to close public libraries, the community should consider that they serve as a place to foster knowledge and bring people together. Libraries are places where children and adults gather to explore new ideas, interact with their community, and imagine the unimaginable. They also give citizens access to books which help children to learn to read, teenagers to find themselves, and adults to work through tough times. Library services that focus on building community through face-to-face interaction, inspiring and educating citizens about art, literature, and history, and helping people to engage in civil conversation may seem eccentric to some. But it is the prevalence of a technologically centered lifestyle that makes the cultural and community offerings of libraries more important than ever.

What they may not see is that not everyone has access to technology. In fact, 23% of the population would not have internet access without libraries, and it is likely that one-fifth that needs the information the most. Also, not everything is available on the internet. Only 8% of journals are on the web, and an even smaller percent of books are available there. Some may also claim that nobody goes to libraries anymore because “times have changed” (Siegler). But, in fact, 40% of the population still attend libraries, and their point of going is not to enjoy the “newfangled technology demo pits” (Siegler). No, people attend libraries for “a quiet place to study” (Siegler) and to create, along with many other