Why Libraries Matter

When I was a child, my family’s situation was not the best.

My father was a single parent raising two boys and he was studying during the day and working at night. We didn’t have the means to purchase a lot of books. Especially not to satisfy the amount of reading that we craved--and I mean all three of us.

What we did have was the fortune of living near a library, a branch of the Mississauga Library System.

To this day, I’m an active user of the MLS. Which is why I was shocked when not too long ago I came across a tweet that was asking why governments spend so much on libraries. The tweet went on to suggest that people don’t use the library system, which couldn’t be further from the truth!

I decided to take a closer look at my library system and the many services they offer. Obviously your mileage may vary depending on where you live, how big the community is, the amount of tax revenue collected, etc. But here’s a little extra info about my local library.

The Mississauga Library System

As described in their business plan (which can be found here), the MLS operates 18 libraries of varying sizes, with one large Central Library located at Celebration Square. It provides a physical space where people can gather, attend programs and access the Library’s collections--which are not just limited to book but also include: DVDs, Blu Rays, Video Games, CDs, Pedometers and more.

In a calendar year they get more than 4.5 million in-person visits (plus close to a million extra visits to their website). This leads to about 6.1 million loans to the general public! Which means on average each one of their 1.05 million items are loaned out about six times. That in itself is incredible statistic. I wish each one of my books and other resources could be enjoyed by five other people.

But it’s not just about what physical assets you can obtain from the library. There’s also the fact that the 18 buildings provide access to free Wi-Fi to to anyone that stops by or is in the surrounding areas. They serve hot chocolate in the winter and hand out cold water during the summer. They work with the Homelessness Preventions Outreach team to serve more than 220 at-risk people.