In This Digital Age, Treasure the Library

To the Editor: 

In the Montreal of my youth, the central municipal library, now “l’ancienne Bibliothèque de Montréal,” was one of my favorite destinations.  As soon as I was allowed to travel through the city on my own, I made it a point to visit the library three or four times a month.  It was a long haul: a 10-minute walk to the closest streetcar stop and an hour-and-a-quarter ride aboard three streetcars.  

Today, I don’t have to go far to satisfy my hunger for books.  The Moorestown Library is a 10-minute walk from my home and is easily accessible by car for those of us who do not live within walking distance.  It is an excellent resource center with books, videos, computers, Internet access, story time for young children, on and on.        

Since 2007, I have been participating in the “Book Group in A Bag.”  Initiated in 2006, that program was the brainchild of librarian Ann DiBlasio, the library’s current office manager. By 2007, DiBlasio had assembled 10 copies of 10 different titles, to which she has been adding 10 new titles every year. The program makes it possible for book groups to borrow from a selection of old and new titles on a wide range of topics.   

Currently, the members of my group are reading Someone Knows My Name, an engrossing novel written by Canadian author Lawrence Hill, a descendant of Africans enslaved in the United States.  Hill takes us to Africa, into the life of a young African girl who, in 1756, was brought to America as a slave.  We follow Aminata through her life journey as she learns to read and write, escapes during the Revolutionary War, serves the British as a Loyalist and is sent to freedom in Nova Scotia, where she and other Blacks meet with hardship and prejudice.   Later this month, my group will discuss that book, bringing our personal experiences and insights into the discussion. 

We will listen respectfully to one another and, as we do so, we will grow into broader understanding of the issues at stake and greater appreciation of who we are, as people who enjoy reading and value what they learn from books and from one another.      

In the age of cyberspace, there is more than ever the need for printed books and the enrichment they bring to our lives.

Monique Begg
Moorestown