This year marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It’s an important historical birthday for the United States, and we will be celebrating it all year-round with our new Free to Be series. With respect to Marlo Thomas, our Free to Be posts will be celebrating unique freedoms we enjoy as Americans. And first up, we’re looking at how we’re free to learn.
Our Founding Fathers absolutely recognized the fundamental importance of education, learning, and knowledge. The writer of the Declaration of Independence himself, Thomas Jefferson, frequently extolled the importance of education for citizens of a democratic republic like the United States. In a letter to fellow Virginia politician Littleton Tazewell, he directly noted, “I have looked on our present state of liberty as a short-lived possession unless the mass of the people could be informed to a certain degree.” In the same letter, he expands even further and talks about the importance of “a degree of learning given to every member of the society as will enable him to read, to judge & to vote understandingly on what is passing.”
Jefferson was also an avid reader and book collector who loved to learn. He sold his extensive personal library to the United States to form the basis of the Library of Congress after the original was burnt by the British in the War of 1812. Afterward, he observed to fellow Founding Father John Adams, “I cannot live without books.”
Less known than Jefferson’s role in creating the United States and Library of Congress as we know them is his support for local subscription libraries. In a time before public libraries, subscription libraries filled a gap for readers who wanted books but could not afford to purchase new ones. You had to be a member to participate, but paying a small membership fee opened the entire collection to subscribers.
Jefferson had the financial resources to not have to rely on subscription libraries–indeed, he went about re-building a personal library after selling his collection to Congress–but he still recognized the importance of these organizations. In a letter to John Wyche, Jefferson gushed that “I have often thought that nothing would do more extensive good at small expence than the establishment of a small circulating library in every county to consist of a few well chosen books, to be lent to the people of the county under such regulations as would secure their safe return in due time.” He, in turn, supported two local subscription libraries, by buying shares in them and even recommending books for their collections.
Public libraries in the United States have come a long way from the subscription libraries of Jefferson’s time over the last 250 years, but they still uphold his emphasis on Americans having access to resources for their own learning. And in our case, that is free access, no subscription fee required. Our own Berryville Public Library started as a subscription library over 100 years ago, but now, it is a free resource to thousands of people, not just residents of Carroll County but also Arkansans and Missourians from neighboring counties and anyone who happens to stop in.
Of course, we have plenty of books to choose from (over 29,000), but we also have Storytime backpacks, telescopes, cognitive kits, and more for hands-on learning for all ages. We also offer educational programming for everyone from babies to seniors, including storytimes, book clubs, making workshops, guest speakers, and more.
Stop by the Berryville Public Library, where you’re always free to learn whatever and whenever you want. Thank you, America!
What’s your favorite educational resource at the library? Tell us in the comments!
Berryville Book Buzz 