Libraries: The Best Bargain in Town

In the 1997 movie “Good Will Hunting,” the title character – a self-educated working class genius and part-time street tough – gets in a debate in a bar with a pretentious Harvard University student.

The Ivy League man is trying to show up Will Hunting’s friend, Chuckie, to a pretty classmate by spouting theories from vaunted historians and quizzing Chuckie on them. Hunting, who has a photographic memory, beats him at his own game and then says this:

“See, the sad thing about a guy like you is in 50 years you’re gonna start doing some thinkin’ on your own, and you’re gonna [realize] …you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a [expletive] education you coulda got for a dollar-fifty in late charges at the public library.”

And librarians and library patrons everywhere cheered. But we  library-o-files haven’t had much to cheer about in the past two years as Pennsylvania has cut funding for public libraries by more than 30 percent.

With the state running huge deficits, it might be tempting to say those are necessary cuts. But most public libraries in the Lehigh Valley are about as far from a bloated bureaucracy as Meryl Streep is from the cast of  “Jersey Shore.”

Consider the Emmaus Public Library. If there is a leaner quasi-government agency, I’ve never seen it. The staff receives no health care coverage or library-paid pension. Employees’ wages range from $7.50 an hour to $20 an hour and that includes librarians with master’s degrees in library science who have 30 years of experience.

Due to funding cuts, the library had to reduce hours starting last year, which means they close on Fridays now as well as Sundays.  “Everybody essentially took a 10 percent cut in hours, which meant a 10 percent cut in pay,” said Library Director Frances Larash.

It doesn’t take much to see that Larash and her staff look on their work as a vocation, a labor of love and principles.

“It’s part of our whole education system, going back to Ben Franklin,” said Librarian Dolly Russell. “Waves of immigrants have learned English in our public libraries. It’s important to democracy.”

“There’s a great deal of love here,” said Martha Vines, Emmaus’ youth services librarian. “We get to watch the kids grow up here and succeed.”

Long after those kids have graduated from Vines’ story time and book discussion groups, she continues to hear from many of them when they want advice on good reads -- or to know what’s really going on around town.

When I stopped in recently, the library was packed and Russell was proctoring a real estate exam for a patron – one of the library’s many services. She described how another patron had done research to start a small business and even ran it out of the library using the computers and Internet connection for a while. 

The library is bursting at the seams and, despite the tough economic climate, is moving ahead with scaled back plans to build a new children’s wing. The design would expand the building by between 3,000 and 3,500 square-feet. They hope to break ground in June.

But they still need to raise about $250,000 of the expected $700,000 price tag. “We are not using any government money,” Larash said.

To help raise money for the wing, the library plans a Valentine’s Day Gala fundraiser from 7-10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12 at the Brookside Country Club in Lower Macungie Township. It will include hors d’oeuvres, complimentary wine with a cash bar also available, a silent auction and Valley favorite Dave Roper of Bethlehem on piano. Tickets are $60.

As state and local governments continue to tighten their belts, it’s vital to recognize that not all government and quasi-government agencies are created equal. There is no substitute in a community for a good public library. Ben Franklin knew that.

Oh, and the video of “Good Will Hunting”? You can borrow it from the Emmaus library.