“Libraries are not failing ‘because they are
libraries.’ Neglected libraries get neglected, and this cycle, in time,
provides the excuse to close them. Well-run libraries are filled with people
because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor
public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay.”—
English
novelist, essayist, and short-story writer Zadie Smith, “Northwest
London Blues,” originally printed in The New York Review of Books, reprinted in
Feel Free: Essays (2018)
In her fine essay, Smith notes that there are
libraries with different types of functions. One of the better research
libraries—yet one that also had, before the onset of COVID, attracted visitors
because of its sheer beauty—is the Library of Congress. I took this shot of its magnificent entrance hall while visiting the DC area in November 2015.
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