Who will save the libraries?

To the protesters, published texts, no matter how humble or tired or peripheral, still possessed an inviolable potency. They were, as Henry Petroski puts it, the basic data of our civilization.

Stuart Kells, The Library

I worry about our nation's libraries. After all, if a statue of Christopher Columbus or Robert E. Lee or Thomas Jefferson is found offensive, then what about books about Columbus, Lee or Jefferson? As Stuart Kells describes it, revolutionaries eventually start burning books.

To date the rioters in such cities as Portland, Seattle, Washington, New York and Chicago have focused mostly on statues, government buildings and downtown businesses. At some point they are likely to turn their attention to libraries.

Will those public officials unwilling to protect police stations, or for that matter police officers, do anything to save those libraries?

Statues are merely symbols of a culture or a civilization. Libraries, as Henry Petroski said, hold the essence of that culture. What did people like Columbus, Lee and Jefferson actually do? What did they  say? What did they think? What did they believe? You don't learn that from statues, but from books.

And so those determined to destroy a civilization will eventually target libraries. Will anyone step up to save them?