A storied legacy of learning

Festive shapes projected on the side of the Boston Public Library greeted visitors and passersby on New Year's Eve. (Evan Richman/Globe staff/File 2006)

IN A city of education giants, the Boston Public Library stands tall. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public, and the first public library to allow users to borrow books. BPL was founded and supported by a group of individuals who believed that free access to information was inherent in the notion of democracy. Edward Everett declared that libraries completed the public education system while George Ticknor was a passionate believer in circulating libraries - still a new concept in the mid-19th century. These two formidable public library supporters were joined by many others who helped the PBL to grow, thrive, and expand.

Charles Coffin Jewett and Justin Winsor, two of its early librarians, helped to shape American librarianship. Jewett, who worked at Brown University and the Smithsonian before coming to Boston, created the prototype for the library catalog we take for granted today. He developed subject access to catalogs, the alphabetical arrangement of entries, and the notion of shared cataloging. His early vision made possible online catalogs and even Google.

Winsor was one of the founders of the American Library Association and the first American publication devoted to librarianship, Library Journal. Both are still thriving 131 years after Winsor helped to create them.

Closer to home, Winsor made significant contributions to the PBL's commitment to service: branch libraries, extended hours, and reading guides. Indeed, these features were instituted nationwide in public libraries.

The generation of librarians who succeeded Jewett and Winsor offered courses in English and other subjects for the throngs of immigrants who arrived in the United States in the 1890s and subsequent decades. They created books for military personnel during World War I. Reading groups, children's and youth services, and other reference and public services have grown exponentially over the past century. In some large cities, public libraries provide reference services in dozens of languages. Today, Americans visit libraries more often than they go to the movies, according to the American Library Association.

Interestingly, circulation is going down while "gate count" is going up. That is because many sources of information are available online. Yet people visit libraries not just for the books and periodicals, but for access to computers. In this digital age, many people still cannot afford to buy computers. Similarly 100 years ago, books were too expensive for most people to purchase - and paperback books weren't widely sold until the 1930s. Then, as now, people flock to libraries to study, meet friends, and attend lectures and reading groups.

Public libraries are havens for free access to information, supplements to school education, and repositories of our cultural heritage. For many, especially the young, they are places of refuge from a difficult world, places where the young and old can be entertained and educated at once, places of safety and nurture.

Throughout its history, the BPL has maintained its stature serving a wide-ranging populace, while balancing its spare resources for the betterment of all of its clientele.

The majestic Charles McKim building of the BPL contains two inscriptions that are emblematic of public libraries everywhere: "The Public Library of the City of Boston. Built by the people and dedicated to the advancement of learning," and "free to all."

It is our duty as citizens of the Commonwealth to ensure that these ideals do not disappear. The BPL has been there for us for the last 150 years. We must support it so that it may continue to support us. It must maintain its place among the other preeminent cultural gems in Boston that serve to entertain, educate, and inspire us.

Michele V. Cloonan is dean and professor of the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science.