BoSacks Speaks Out: The Vital Role of Libraries in Our Reading Culture
By Bob Sacks
Mon, Mar 24, 2025
We are all participants in the vast ecosystem of words—creating, selling, and distributing written content for both profit and enlightenment. In my household, libraries are sacred spaces. Our home shelves groan under the weight of perhaps 2,000 volumes or more—many inherited from previous generations, others carefully selected and purchased over years of literary exploration. These personal collections represent our family's intellectual journey and commitment to the written word.
The concerning news about an executive order potentially targeting the Institute for Museum and Library Services strikes at the heart of our shared cultural infrastructure. This development is, in my assessment, both troubling and potentially destructive to our national fabric. Libraries serve as democratic temples of knowledge—places where citizens of all backgrounds can access information freely, develop critical thinking skills, and engage with diverse perspectives. For the financially challenged it is an indispensable community resource.
Policies that restrict reading or weaken libraries strike at the core of an educated society. Instead of cutting support, we should increase funding, expand access to underserved communities, and honor these institutions as the bedrock of democracy and our shared humanity.
Reading isn’t just a hobby—it’s the foundation upon which civilizations are built. From the ancient libraries of Alexandria to today's modern public institutions, societies that value and protect access to the written word invariably produce more informed citizens, stronger democracies, and more innovative economies.
Any policy that creates barriers to reading or diminishes support for our libraries undermines the very foundations of an educated populace. Such actions do not serve the interests of a thriving, forward-looking society.
Instead, we should be expanding library funding, increasing access to books and magazines for underserved communities, and celebrating these institutions as essential cornerstones of both our democracy and our shared humanity.
Let's face it: in a world where we're constantly bombarded with notifications, tweets, and fleeting digital content, the humble library stands as a revolutionary concept—a place dedicated to the radical notion that taking time with complex ideas might actually be worth something. My family's 2,000 books may make moving day a chiropractor's dream come true, but they're a testament to a simple truth: no "digital transformation" can replace the feeling of cracking open a real book, and inhaling that distinctly bookish smell.