Public Libraries Are Doing Just Fine, Thank You: It's the 'Public' in Public Libraries That is Threatened

摘要

Public libraries have been rhetorically cast as being in crisis for decades as an outmoded, unaffordable institution in high-profile venues. However, when chal-lenged as such, public libraries are vigorously defended, and an abundance of data on their actual popularity, usage, and value is deployed. We corne to the question of why this mode of questioning persists despite the manifest value that the public places on public libraries. This article proposes a two-track answer by exploring (1) the long running context of neoliberalism and corrective to our understanding of it and (2) the status of publicness within neoliberalism. The article unpacks the concept of "public" and how it has changed and come under specific threat-informed by our more robust understanding of neoliberalism-over the last several decades. Data and arguments about public libraries and improved quality of life, community, cultural heritage, economic assistance during hard times, or their role as third places do not necessarily fall on deaf ears, but, to deploy a metaphor, those ears have been reengineered not to hear or value them.