Library Referendum Keeps Up Tradition of Fostering Education

Library Referendum Keeps Up Tradition of Fostering Education and Liberty

by Maria Galo 52.40sc on February 11, 2019

One of the many benefits of the proposed Palatine Library referendum is

improved meeting space for the public—in keeping with the long tradition
of U.S. libraries as places for people to meet and learn.

When you vote Yes for Palatine Public Library on April 2, you will be
voting to support an American institution that is not only older than
the United States, but helped create this country. “The doors of wisdom
are never shut,” wrote Benjamin Franklin in his Poor Richard’s Almanac.

A bunch of 20-something guys who got tired of carrying their books
around is what led to the creation of the first lending library.
Franklin, then 25 and living in Philadelphia, and his philosophical
group, the Junto Club, brought books from home to
their meetings
for discussion. They were all too poor to buy lots of books, so they
shared. And they wanted to leave the books in their meeting room, which
was in the home of a member. In 1731 they created The Library Company.
Members paid 40 shillings initial membership, and annual dues of 10
shillings each to help pay for new books. Memberships were to last 50
years.

Other towns copied the idea of a lending library, which were open to the public. In his Autobiography,
written nearly 60 years after founding the Library Company, Franklin
suggested that the lending libraries helped the cause of the American
Revolution:

These Libraries have improved the general Conversation of
Americans, made the common Tradesman and Farmers as intelligent as most
Gentlemen…and perhaps have contributed in some Degree to the Stand so
generally made throughout the Colonies in Defence of their Priviledges.

During the 45 years before the Declaration of Independence, little
public libraries were quietly educating the colonial public with ideas
from the Enlightenment and contemporary philosophers like Thomas Hobbes
and John Locke—giants whose writings influenced the men who wrote the
Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution.
When these documents were published, colonists were already familiar
with these ideas. Public libraries helped create the United States of
America. As an institution that is open to all, public libraries need
the people’s support—and the people need public libraries.

Be a Patriot! Vote Yes on April 2!

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