Meet Eric Klinenberg at PlayHouse Square

Have you joined Northeast Ohio’s Largest Book Club—One Community Reads? This year’s book selection is Eric Klinenberg's Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. The reading initiative is designed to broaden our appreciation in a shared experience of reading the same book and discussing it with others.

This year’s book begs readers to find a common purpose through the places that form the foundation of our neighborhoods—and one very important community place is the Library. According to the author, “Libraries are the lifeblood of American communities and democratic culture.”

Klinenberg considers the powerful impact of libraries and asks, “How many places do you go in your life where, when you walk in the door, what people there ask you is, “What can I do for you and I give you something?” And not, “What can I take from you?”

The concept of a free public library is a pretty amazing one developed many years ago. Thankfully, libraries are still the go-to places for newcomers, for busy mothers and fathers, for teens, for business people, as well as the lonely and the homeless. A Library’s doors are open to all. According to Klinenberg, “One of the special things about libraries and librarians is that they dignify the people who walk in.”

Libraries continue to welcome everyone to the library and they work to remove barriers that prevent people from using the library. Last October, Shaker Library eliminated late fees. While the Library wanted its material returned, it decided that fines were keeping people from the library. In thinking, “What can I do for you?” and “What can I give you?” the Library eliminated punitive fines that kept people from using the library —and it got its material and users back!

Readers are invited to meet the man who asks us to consider our social infrastructure when One Community Reads hosts an evening with Eric Klinenberg at the Mimi Ohio Theatre in Playhouse Square at 7 pm on Monday, March 9. Admission is free, however, tickets are required. Click here to register for tickets.

Can’t get downtown? The program will be live-streamed at local libraries including Euclid Public Library Heights Libraries Lee Road Branch, Lakewood Public Library, Rocky River Public Library, and Westlake Porter Public Library. (*Tickets are not required for live-stream locations.)

Captivated by the book's content? Join a discussion of the award-winning book at Bertram Woods Branch Library from 2-3:30 pm Saturday, March 14. Pick up a copy of the book at the Bertram Woods Branch Circulation desk and share your thoughts with other readers.

Finally, don’t just take Eric Klinenberg’s words on the great value of libraries. Other authors echo his sentiments. Consider them, too.
“My alma mater was books, a good library.” —Malcolm X

A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. —E.B. White

“I guess I'll be all right as long as there's a lending library.” —Stephen King

“Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations. Of all the institutions that purport to do this, free libraries stand virtually alone in accomplishing this mission. No committee decides who may enter . . . No tuition is charged, no oath sworn, no visa demanded. —Toni Morrison

“Libraries are the thin red line between civilisation and barbarism.” —Neil Gaiman

“My childhood library was small enough not to be intimidating. And yet I felt the whole world was contained in those two rooms.” —Rita Dove

“In elementary school, they used to hand out catalogs from the Scholastic publishing company . . . I’d study those catalogs for hours and meticulously fill out the order form on the back, as if I could buy them. But I couldn’t. I never turned in the forms because my family was too poor to pay for the books. . . The public libraries and school libraries saved me . .” —Cheryl Strayed

“A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or an affection; for it, and it only, is respected by wars and revolutions, and survives them.”—Mark Twain

“The library is a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever.” ― Susan Orlean

"Libraries are some of the last places left in America where people of all ages and all backgrounds can come and go." - Jenny Offill