Authored By kendrastantonlee

Here in the Land of Plenty, we sometimes resign that life is “all about the Benjamins!” Let’s flip that coin (do you see what I did there?) and consider what a great thing it would be if life really were more about the Benjamins … Benjamin Franklin’s houses of books, of course! Sir Franklin, that inventive patriot who gave us bifocals and the can’t-live-without-it flexible urinary catheter, also established what came to be our nation’s first public lending library. All hail the houses of the Benjamins (books)!

Nearly 300 years later, we are rocking our bifocals while reading our library books, flexible urinary catheters optional. Chattanooga’s public library system, which includes the main downtown facility and three branches (Northgate, Eastgate and South Chattanooga), offers services that will blow that catheter right out of its insertion point. Seriously, I was amazed at the offerings, from tai chi classes to 3-D printers. Our library system really is a jewel.

Thus, this Betternooga column is less of a critique or a honey-do list of suggestions as to how our library system can improve life for Chattanooga. It is rather a callout to Chattanoogans to improve their lives by investing time and love into their public library system. We can talk turkey about tax dollars another day. Today, the concern is libraries and how they make us and our city better, even for people who defy being shushed.

Libraries are among the vestigial publics. Can you think of another place that welcomes you to just roam, read, play and learn FOR FREE? The MacAuthority store? Really? That’s all you’ve got? Libraries are havens of democracy, and if sitting next to someone who doesn’t smell, speak or look as you do makes you uncomfortable while reading the latest issue of “Ranger Rick,” then you may very well be missing the point of what makes this little experiment called the United States of America so remarkable.

Libraries preserve and promote that little byline in our Declaration of Independence that addresses our unalienable right as men and women to pursue life, liberty and happiness. For some of us, that pursuit looks like a Range Rover. For others, it looks like a library card. The former will cost ya; the latter comes free with proof of ID and residence, whether you live in a McMansion with a three-car garage full of Range Rovers or in a temporary shelter. I love that. And so, too, must have our boy Benjamin Franklin, who appears to have been among the editors of the Declaration of Independence. (The question that keeps me up at night was whether or not he was wearing bifocals whilst editing. My guess is yes, but that is neither here nor there.)

What I do want to call to our focus (or bifocus) is how radical libraries are when we think about how every other institution seems to be failing us of late. We consider the ballooning cost of higher education; the diminishment of newspapers; the fact that being able to buy anything with $1, including a small cup of coffee, is becoming a rarity, if not an impossibility. In the face of so much economic disparity, libraries turn right around and say, “Doors open, players! See you in the stacks!” The downtown branch of The Public Library sees the banks tightening up their beltloops and raises us a Treehouse: “an extensive online library” of expert videos “designed to give you … technology skills to help you land your dream job or build your startup idea!” They are indefatigable, our libraries, and we are so wealthy in Chattanooga to enjoy such a solid, innovative system.

Of course, we have all experienced the underbelly of libraries. The upside of a public space is that everyone is welcome. The downside of a public space is that everyone is welcome. As my friend Justin puts it, “I dislike about public libraries how there are meth heads lurking in the shelving, trying to convince me that they ‘only need $1 for bus fare, since the government took my car because I tried to expose a government secret. Come on! Just $1!'” Librarians are the unwitting bouncers and drug rehab counselors of our community. That said, International Hug-a-Librarian Day falls in March and National Library Week falls in April, but, unlike an overdue book, a hug or balloon in honor of these great stewards of society is never met with a fine.

So what do you say, library patrons? How can we celebrate our good librarians of Chattanooga? Feel free to post a selfie with your favorite librarian here.

Kendra Stanton Lee is a transplant to Chattanooga via Boston. She teaches journalism to university students and enjoys holding their millennial attention spans by jumping on tables and sweeping around like a whirling dervish. She lives with her husband and their young children, with whom she enjoys hiking, road tripping and supporting the ice cream industry. She blogs at kendraspondence.com and welcomes a Twitter follow @kendraspondence; or you can email her directly at [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column belong solely to the author, not Nooga.com or its employees.