I’ve recently been informed that the Free Library of Philadelphia, the public library for that city, is being forced to shut down due to a complete lack of government funding. It’s not just a few libraries that are closing, but the entirety of the Philadelphia public library system. This is a Big Deal.

I am in no way privy to the workings of the Pennsylvania state government, nor do I have any experiences with the Free Library, but what I do know is that closing down so many libraries that you leave some people with no alternatives sends some of the worst possible messages to kids that I can think of.

I don’t think anyone will disagree with the fact that reading is important. However, what happens when those kids eager to get away from the boring books they’ve read in class want to find something they’d enjoy on their own, perhaps…manga? Yes, there are possible alternatives to getting books. You can borrow them from friends, your own school might have its own limited library, and you can even buy them new or used, but think about the message being sent to these kids. “Books aren’t that important. They’re so unimportant that the state couldn’t even provide sufficient funding for its own libraries.”

The library is a noble institution whose purpose is to provide knowledge for all, and as much as I can understand that nothing can ever live up to an ideal, it still saddens me that an entire city will lose the majority of its libraries and restrict the ability for people young and old to learn and to read. I worry about the kids especially, because generally adults can at the very least use their regular income to purchase books. On top of that, educational programs run by the Free Library are being canceled as a result of all this, giving people even fewer opportunities. Perhaps this can be made up for if most of the funding that would have gone into the public library went into public education, but even then I worry about what these actions are really saying.

Who needs a library, really?