Library Extravaganza

At the end of my summer semester I moved out of Ann Arbor to save some money. I moved in with Jean and Jan. A mother and daughter who own a house in Chelsea, MI. It is about 15 mins outside of Ann Arbor. I love it here. Today I ventured for the first time into the Chelsea Library. It is a very new beautiful building with all the fine things that up and coming libraries have,,,except for books. I smiled to myself when i asked the librarian for help finding a book on Family Therapy. She said they didn't have those kinds of books. Maybe they spent all their money on the building and forgot to save some for the books. I realized that UM has SO many libraries, I've become quite the resource snob.

In Detroit, in one of the neighborhoods that I do some community work, the libraries shut down on a regular basis. Sometimes they have a hard time getting people into the libraries. Low-income neighborhoods are full of hard working people who don't have the luxury of access to Family Therapy or whatever kind of books, because of time and money, and education.

My problem of being at the wrong library to do my homework is so trivial, when I think about why I'm having this problem. I am working on a Master's program that is kicking my butt, but its definitely a luxury. It really helps me to think about the residents of Detroit when I start to whine about how difficult this program is. I realize it is a far less worisome to consider where I should do my homework than it is to think about where I can go to high school because the schools in my neighborhood are closing down. Or why the libraries are so far away because they close on a regular basis, or don't have the funding they need to provide services that are meaningful.