Public Libraries in 2015–A Crossroads Moment

In an era tinged with skepticism and partisan divisions of one sort or another, there are few institutions Americans fully trust. Their public library is the exception. Americans not only believe that their local libraries matter, they also believe the library can be trusted because the information accessed there is reliable. That is one of the key findings of the recently released report by The Pew Research Center, “Libraries At The Crossroads”[1], which further concludes that the nation’s public libraries now find themselves standing at the intersection of “aspiration and disruption”—that place where new vision and change meet. And while that may sound contradictory, what matters most to Americans with regard to libraries is rooted in a rather old fashioned notion—libraries continue to promote literacy and a love of reading.