Libraries bring communities together to celebrate the power of the written word, but as we know, they do so much more. And we know how fortunate we are to have the jewel that is the Morristown and Morris Township Library in our small part of the world.
At a time when libraries elsewhere are closing, struggling, or being asked to do more with less, our library is not merely surviving — it is thriving.
Knowing what we have makes me doubly aware of how much libraries mean to their communities. I am in awe of what some libraries are compelled to provide as their communities need them to function in a myriad of ways beyond their traditional roles. And I identify with the sense of profound loss that communities report when they lose their libraries entirely for lack of funds.
I read a column in The New York Times about rural areas of our country losing their libraries because they couldn’t afford to keep them open, and I thought about Robert Frost’s line about home being “the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” There are places that can offer connection and refuge where one can feel “at home.” For many, it’s the public library.
So, to lose it, is to lose “a place where a mom can go with her kids for an hour to hang out and get some kind of enriching entertainment,” said a librarian in Tieton, Washington, population 1,610. He continued:
“A library is in a lot of ways a kind of civic symbol, a demonstration of a community’s commitment to itself. So what does it mean if that goes away?”
The thought registered again when I came across a column in The Guardian about public libraries in the U.K. and what they mean to their communities.
The library is not only a provider of the latest book, but now “an informal citizens advice bureau, a business development centre, a community centre and a mental health provider. It is an unofficial Sure Start centre, a homelessness shelter, a literacy and foreign language-learning centre, a calm space where tutors can help struggling kids, an asylum support provider, a citizenship and driving theory test centre, and a place to sit still all day and stare at the wall, if that is what you need to do, without anyone expecting you to buy anything.”
There is more.
Chad Leinaweaver, Mary Lynn Becza and James Collins of the Morristown & Township Library at the final Downton Abbey Support Group meeting, Dec. 10, 2025. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
“You can borrow more than just books. Libraries from Newcastle to Portsmouth loan out Fifa-grade footballs. Cambridgeshire offers free hearing aid batteries, ferrules for walking sticks, and winter coats. Wisbech hosts a food bank, while Brixton lends outfits to people doing job interviews. There are clubs for knitting and coding and gardening, for board games, junk-modelling and stitching. There are breastfeeding groups and play-reading groups and choirs. There are autism and bereavement cafes. Library premises are hired out for children’s parties, visa processing, life-drawing, NHS health checks and English language lessons.”
Part of the magic of a library, the author says, is “its capaciousness as social infrastructure.” It is important for there to be “somewhere where everybody can come…. And in its disparity of needs and personalities and ages sharing a common space — its tolerance and resilience — the modern library can feel like nothing so much as a big and rackety family.”
BY THE NUMBERS: THE MORRISTOWN & TOWNSHIP LIBRARY
And so I turn to our Morristown and Morris Township Library and the many ways we know what it means to our communities, and why residents continue to provide the additional support needed to fulfill its mission.
Geoffrey Brooks, president of the Library Foundation, writes a letter to the communities that benefit from the library’s existence at the end of each year, detailing projects, changes, improvements and additional services as it continues “its abiding mission to serve as the epicenter of information, education and culture for all of the residents and other constituents of Morristown and Morris Township.”
And serve it does.
Christine Comerci and Susan Mathias of Pioneer Productions, in a scene from ‘The Odd Couple,’ Morristown & Township Library, Oct. 13, 2023. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
The metrics reveal total circulation jumping 44% in the past five years; 301,500 items circulated in 2024, up from about 209,000 in 2019. Programming has expanded to 951 programs in 2024, attracting 28,000 attendees, while library visits have grown from 179,000 in 2019 to 206,000 in 2024. Use of public WiFi surged to 20,000 users in 2024, compared with 12,300 just two years earlier.
My favorite statistic is this one: The library signed up 10,000 new library cards since 2020. There are now 23,120 cardholders — and securing a card is often one of the first things new residents do.
Circulation growth continues for both printed books and electronic ones, and overall use of the physical space keeps pace with that growth.
Audience members at the Morristown & Township Library raise hands when host Candace Kelley asks if they think Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is guilty of charges in federal case. July 1, 2025. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Geoff concludes: “Counter to popular perceptions of libraries (and books) as declining in public importance, our library suggests nothing could be further from the truth. Even as electronic usage of our resources certainly grows, overall utilization of the physical space keeps humming right along (and growing too)!”
The report, at its heart, tells us how cherished our library is — for what it holds and lends, for the programs and services it offers, and for me, and others, for being a place to call home.
How fortunate we are.
Yet elsewhere, as noted, libraries are closing. And it’s not only the home that is being taken away — it’s what the librarian in the U.K. described as “its capaciousness as social infrastructure.”
Benjamin Franklin would agree. In his autobiography, written four years before the American Revolution, Franklin observed that “libraries have improved the general conversation of the Americans.”
How crucial it is to acknowledge the importance of these words as we approach the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence — and support our libraries.