Editor's note: All opinions, columns and letters reflect the views of the individual writer and not necessarily those of the IDS or its staffers.
I'm sitting at a table on the second floor, in a square wooden chair at the Monroe County Public Library. The kind of chair where if you lean far enough, you can get a good back cracking.
Looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows, I can see it's rainy, but in the spring way, you know, where it's misty enough to make the air humid but not raining consistently enough to need an umbrella. This is one of the best kinds of days to be at the library.
While I sit here, someone's toddler stares at me while their parent browses the shelves. Two teens sit in the same chair, partially doing a homework assignment between giggles. The college-aged person behind them, engrossed in more serious studies, goes back and forth between a pile of books and an open notebook. A staff member pushes a cart from stack to stack, returning books to their rightful places. I can hear murmurs of conversation from the atrium as foot traffic picks up for the annual book sale.
I've been visiting this library for 20 years, since I was 8-years old.
Like any library, books come in and out of circulation, but many of the ones I checked out in elementary school are still downstairs on the children's floor. The bright yellow spines of “Nancy Drew” stand out in my mind alongside “The Secret Garden,” “Garfield,” “The Phantom Tollbooth” and “The Princess Diaries.” These beloved books still wait on the shelves for another curious mind, ready to explore, to pick them up. As I entered middle school, then high school, I borrowed countless young adult novels and video games (Nancy Drew starred in these, too). When I left for college, my home library was still with me, allowing me to borrow e-books, audiobooks and movies.
I was first a reader and then a writer because of the Monroe County Public Library. As an adult, I visit the library once or twice a week, often to pick out a new book or two or to have a quiet place to sit and work. So much is familiar here, yet I learn and leave with something new with each visit. I can't list all of the services the library offers here, because it is vast, but the library has outreach and house call services, a bookmobile, tutoring, meeting spaces, a digital creativity center, community access television, a seed library, local and family history resources, an art gallery, job-search tools and many more online resources.
This library — and every library in cities and towns big and small across the United States — is a vital resource that builds strong communities.
President Donald Trump’s administration's executive order on March 14, called for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This executive order defunds an independent federal agency that provides financial support for books, databases, digitization programs, and training for library workers.
This is detrimental to not only our community but to communities across the United States. As noted by Monroe County Public Library director Grier Carson in an open letter to the Monroe County community, "MCPL itself relies on the IMLS to help provide valuable resources for Monroe County residents, such as our Libby eBook collection, the INSPIRE suite of research databases, interlibrary loan services, and the Indiana History Digitization project."
My congressional representatives — Rep. Erin Houchin, Sen. Jim Banks, and Sen. Todd Young all hold degrees from Indiana University. Houchin has a bachelor's degree in psychology, Banks has a bachelor's degree in political science, and Young has a juris doctor from the McKinney School of Law. Any level of education, but especially higher education, cannot be accomplished without access to libraries, and these representatives undoubtedly benefited from their existence in my community.
I strongly oppose defunding the IMLS, and I ask that you contact your representatives and urge them to do the same.
In addition, think about what libraries mean to you and give them your support. Sign the petition issued by EveryLibrary opposing this executive order. Sign up for a library card if you don't already have one. Go out of your way for a visit, especially if you haven't been in a while. You'll be surprised by what you find.
After all, having fun isn't hard when you have a library card.
Maureen Langley is a graphic designer based in Bloomington.
