I Suck At The Library

Tonight, I had my monthly Board of Trustee meeting for the local public library. Too bad I suck at the library.

As far as meetings go, this one was actually informative compared to past meetings. At the same time, the meeting was quite frustrating. The frustration stems from the lack of support that the local library receives from town officials. It's almost mind-boggling.

Being elected to the Board of Trustees for the library this year, I had initial visions of making a difference for the community. Perhaps it's my own naivete for having optimism. After today's meeting, however, I feel like the library is in a war it can never win.

The town of Norwell likes to pride itself on having a great school system. I, personally, can not vouch for the school system, but I do know it has that reputation. Naturally, one would normally think that going hand in hand with education is an establishment that fosters learning, like the public library.

Unfortunately, the library is like the black sheep of Norwell. It is beginning to make sense as to why the library is viewed as such because none of the elected officials use the library. Consequently, they do not see the value of the public library which is really a shame in my opinion. If any of them were actual patrons of the town library (or any library for that matter), I'm sure they would see the intrinsic value that the library has on its community. And unfortunately, they happen to control the lifeline of the library: the budget.

To be honest, I would not be surprised if the Selectmen hope that the library loses its accreditation due to its budgetary constraints. After all, it was not too long ago that they considered having residents use the library of nearby towns instead. Needless to say residents balked at that idea. Yet here we still are, facing the same problems.

It's just frustrating.