The story of the quiet revolutionaries who made a simple idea of a public library happen. From the pioneering women behi | dG1fNjFvdThGMG5YSTA
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00:00That moment when you pick your first book.
00:05The kids sort of, you mean I can take it home?
00:08You must say you're on a very nice little establishment here.
00:13Then don't be such a stranger.
00:15As soon as they think of a library, they think, quiet.
00:19You know, it's supposed to be quiet in the library.
00:22Well, if they come here, it's not quiet.
00:24My philosophy is that I'm throwing a party
00:29every day and everybody is invited to the party.
00:32This is not the old maid stereotype.
00:37Public libraries reflect what's going on.
00:41The library of all public institutions in America,
00:44we are the most trusted place.
00:46The United States built up a great network of public libraries.
00:51They were designed by men and they were built by men.
00:54But it was the women that gave these buildings meaning.
00:57And there's something spectacularly American that this information was available to everybody.
01:05In a nation where literacy was the line between citizen and slave,
01:11there is no greater place to me in the world than a library.
01:16For the first time ever, the Carnegie Library System says it's shutting down branches.
01:23We didn't realize how dire the situation was.
01:26As of right now, the Douglas County Library System is closing.
01:29Kind of saddened. Our libraries are going away.
01:32Why public libraries? Why do we need a library? Everything's going to be online.
01:37We need them because we care about learning and we care about knowledge and we need to express that together.
01:43Our country is divided.
01:45That means that we need to offer all points of view and be the people who bring people together.
01:51In a time that people are needing a safe place, public libraries are there.
01:58The public library is one of the purest expressions of the possibility of democracy in America.
02:05You see it in many Carnegie libraries. It's on the threshold or on the frees above. Free for all.
02:11Public resource. How amazing is that? Right at your fingertips. Right in your neighborhood. And free.
02:20Why would you pay?
02:30adulation.
02:32Leave.
02:35I don't think you got.
02:41I feel like I'm saying you think that hopefully does anything for a little bit.