Like most professors, I love libraries. From story time when I was little and later volunteering at my local library as a Boy Scout to my book filled carrel while a graduate student, to appreciating the deep collections of humanity scattered in libraries around the globe, libraries are sacred places to myself and many others.
In recent years, academics, community activists, and urban planners have regarded libraries as critical pieces of social infrastructure; institutions that shape the way people interact and engage with their communities by providing not only books and internet access but welcoming spaces for every possible demographic. One scholar went so far as to call libraries "'the best exemplars’ of our collective life."
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