by Gregory E. Williams <gwill@inch.com>, Libraries For The Future
provided through OPENAIR-MARKET NET
I enjoyed meeting you at the conference last weekend and hearing about the wonderful ways that you're using the WWW to bring the issue of public markets and the general concept of Public Space into the consciousness of "web surfers" and others interested in these themes.
At Libraries For The Future (LFF) we believe that Markets and Libraries share a common link, which is that they foster democratic ideals and practices in civic participation in the public sphere. Markets do this around the human practice of commerce, helping to develop relationships between merchant and customer and neighbors. They provide fresh fruits and vegetables as well as other goods to many communities that might otherwise not have access to them. Indeed many people visit Public Markets simply to people watch and dialogue with their neighbors about the events of the day and, as I discovered at the conference, they end up buying things that they find they need in the process. This latter point I never really thought about much , but upon reflection I think that I have done this quite a few times when visiting Public markets etc. I remember that as a kid my mother would get me up early in the morning to go to a sort of open air market smorgasbord in Englishtown, New Jersey. I really do not remember ever being particularly concerned about buying anything there, I just enjoyed the sights, sounds, interaction and motion of the people and the eaves dropping on the adult conversation.
The topic that would come up quite often was "bargains" and why did we not have such a market in our own neighborhood. Indeed, I wondered about that point as well, for as a child the distance we had to travel to get there seemed a million miles. The important point here is that this market got people out in the main. It got them talking to one another sharing their thoughts, their ideas. They rubbed up against each other in the crowds and no one complained about being bumped or too close. It was just a part of the human dynamism that was the "market". It provided me with a great feeling about the possibilities for humanity. Since many races were always well represented it gave a tremendous opportunity for all to find out what their neighbors , no matter how distant in terms of physical proximity, thought on a particular issue. In other cases it provided the simple pleasure of being in the company of our fellow human-beings; something that I am afraid we miss very much in society where we do not have access to or stake a claim on our public spaces.
In this sense the public library is very much a part of the practical concept of the "Public Space". For instance, as you may know, Seattle public library operates a market right on its grounds. We feel that the over 15,000 public libraries in the United States are a part of this concept of public space that people often ignore even though they are providing for civic participation every day. We have coined the term the Civic Library for precisely that reason. Many libraries provide meeting space for various community groups whether they be social, political, youth the elderly etc. They provide for community access to the national information infrastructure, literacy education, programs for new Americans, employment services, parenting workshops, health education, career workshops and many other services depending on the needs of the particular community.
Since American democracy has now entered a period of great uncertainty and conflict, following the collapse of the broad social, economic, political and spiritual consensus that for generations has given the United States its special quality as a powerful, yet idealistic and humane nation, libraries are needed even more yet many of them face closings, cutbacks in hours and services and marginalization as some ignorantly believe that they have no place in the emerging digital information age.
Since all information will not be digitized we know that libraries will always be needed and that they are a crucial part of maintaining a civil society where people must continue to not only have the freedom to express their ideas but also the freedom to access and be engaged by the ideas of others.
Libraries are the market place of ideas and together with Public Markets, Public parks etc they foster our democratic process as aspects of the uniquely American Agora.
I am interested in finding out more information on the Self Employment Research Project at RU. Can you provide me with this? Also our technology specialist will be contacting you soon about setting up a link from your web site to ours and vice versa. We are also interested in engaging people on our moderated listserve pub-adv over the issue of civic space and public markets and I invite you to post a question for discussion.
Gregory E. Williams
521 5th Avenue, Suite 1612
New York, New York 10174-1699
1800 542-1918
E-mail gwill@inch.com
http://www.inch.com/~lff