I Love My Librarian Award Remarks - 11/30/16
It is such an honor to receive this award among these other incredible librarians. Librarians who are supporting and uplifting their communities in a myriad of ways and impacting positive change for the patrons they serve. I am deeply humbled and grateful to be included among these individuals. Thank you to the American Library Association, the Carnegie Corporation, the New York Public Library and the New York Times for your efforts to highlight and acknowledge the meaningful work of librarians.
I tell people all the time, that in a school, the library is the best place to call home. When you walk into our school library, the first thing students see is a large quote by President Obama permanently hung on the wall that reads, “The moment we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold into a library, we’ve changed their lives forever for the better. It’s an enormous force for good.” I want my students to take in this sentiment, every time they walk through the doors – to know that the library has the power to change lives in profound ways. The school library represents all that is good about education. It is the great equalizer. The place in which all students are welcome and the freedom to explore their own curiosities still reins supreme. And in an age of countless testing mandates, accountability standards and structured schedules that leave little room for imagination, the library is the safe haven. It is the place that so many of our children can exhale and know they have the freedom to explore, create and share their ideas openly and without restraint.
But it is not enough to simply exist in this capacity, we have to serve as the beating heart of a school. Our communities, our children have to know that we care, we hear them, and their stories matter. Our collections must be filled with books that contain mirrors and windows into our world. Now, more than ever, our patrons need to experience the world from various viewpoints different than their own while also seeing their own reflection in the stories they read. To quote Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, “Reading becomes a means of self-affirmation as children see their own lives reflected in the larger human experience.” The words that lie within the pages of the books that fill our shelves offer reflections of stories often left untold. Stories of social justice and change. They tell the stories of how libraries and librarians helped marginalized individuals in society know their worth. From Pat Mora’s Tomas and the Library Lady to Patricia McKissack’s Goin’ Someplace Special, we learn empathy from characters who found refuge in the library. And it is the art of story and the power of an author’s words that allow us to address difficult topics such as privilege and racism in honest and open ways with children. Conversations that enable students to feel seen and understood, sometimes for the very first time.
Every day libraries serve as incubators for social justice and librarians the agents of change. Elie Wiesel once said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” It is up to each and every one of us to ensure that our libraries are places in which voices that can so often be silenced, get lifted higher for others to hear the beauty in their words. To ensure that intellectual freedom remains at the heart of our work and that all viewpoints, opinions and experiences are echoed through our stacks. To provide access and opportunity to all who walk through our doors. The library thus becomes the beacon to which all other institutions can subscribe. It represents truth, freedom and justice.
When other institutions or society seeks to build walls, libraries build bridges. One patron, one story, one personal connection at a time. And bridges built on that are the strongest you’ll ever walk across. Thank you.
