Libraries: A National Treasure

"One of the wonders of the 20th century is America's public libraries. They are such a treasure, such an important part of what we, as a people, have become.

The problem, and it's a growing one, is that Americans have come to take them for granted. I worry about what is to become of our libraries in the century ahead."

The speaker is the first lady of Texas, Laura Bush, wife of Governor George W. Bush. A former public school teacher and librarian, she is speaking with your reporter inside San Antonio's magnificent new central public library.

One of the outstanding new architectural sites in the whole country, this is a six-story, chili-red building designed by the great Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta. There is nothing quite like it, architecturally, anywhere in the United States.

Laura Welch Bush is here for the annual conference of the Texas Library Association. She's 51 now, but doesn't look it. The mother of 16-year-old twins, she is trim, with a smashing smile and quiet grace befitting the librarian she was educated to be.

If her husband becomes the Republican presidential nominee in 2000, as many expect, she will be a formidable asset to him. She already is. As one Texan observed during the conference, "People may disagree with the politics of the Bush men, but you can't deny that they know how to pick their wives."

Mrs. Bush shares the Bush family's commitment to promoting literacy. And libraries are her passion. "What America's libraries are to become in the 21st century, I have no idea," she is saying, referring to the technological advances that are causing a quiet revolution in libraries' catalogs and collections worldwide.

"But this much I do know: If libraries do not remain widely and substantially supported, we, our children, and our children's children will sufferÂ…economically, intellectually and spiritually. One reason this has been the 'American Century' has been the rapid development, early in this century, of public libraries." And right she is.

Although public libraries had been around for a while, it was early in this century that steel magnate Andrew Carnegie poured his considerable fortune into endowments for over 2,800 libraries throughout America and Britain.

Carnegie grew up poor. Most institutions of learning had been closed to him as a boy. But he valued learning and wanted future generations to find an easier road to the kind of success he'd attained. Libraries, he believed, represented opportunities to read, learn and grow.

By the 1930s, public libraries were the pride of America's towns and cities, large and small. These beautiful buildings were known as "Palaces of the People."

But several years ago, as "tax revolts" spread across the country, libraries became a favorite target of budget-cutters. Numbers of new libraries declined, acquisitions of new books fell, and preservation of old books became a luxury. Hours were cut bac, sometimes drastically, so that some libraries were open only a few days a week.

Are we now seeing that trend in turnaround? Do San Antonio's new library, and Denver's recently remodeled one, represent a renaissance, a renewed emphasis on public libraries?

Laura Bush finds that a librarian's regard for silence can be politically useful: If she has any specific plans, she doesn't share them now. Instead she smiles demurely and says,"I hope so."

But her bright blue eyes speak loudly. As the Internet bids to become King of the Information Age, as budgets shrink, too few Americans seem to care what happens to the Palaces of the People that are our libraries. But Laura Bush is not among them.

Questions and comments may be sent to Dan Rather, c/o King Features, 235 East 45 Street, New York, NY 10017.

©1998, DJR Inc. Distributed by King Features