Guest Column: Our Community’s Libraries Are Vital in Effort to Reduce Poverty

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We know that children living in poverty are 5-times more likely to drop out of school. We also know that 15 percent of Lewis County is living in poverty, and another 25 percent are struggling day-to-day. That is why we need our libraries, and more importantly rural libraries, to be successful. Libraries are an integral part of our education system, our social network, and a partner in the United Way of Lewis County’s fight to lift 30 percent of families out of poverty by 2030.

When Timberland Library was formed 50 years ago, there was no internet, no WiFi, and no STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs in the local schools. There were “shushing” librarians, the Dewey Decimal system, and research conducted on microfiche.  Our schools have advanced and our communities have changed. Although the Timberland Library Board has tabled the closure of rural libraries until August 2019, we urge the Board to look at innovative, efficient, and effective programs to implement. To be successful, we need our libraries to evolve.

Tangible materials will always be a part of the library experience. However, for libraries to be successful, they must become early learning centers for pre-school children and families, community centers for teenagers, online research centers for STEM students with no WiFi at home, employment offices for job seekers, and senior centers. Our community needs to create partnerships and work on a vision where libraries can be all those things and more.

Last year, Centralia Timberland Library approached the Centralia City Council for funding for their early learning center. As a Centralia City Councilor,  Peter was proud to make the motion and amendment to fully fund the completion of the children and early learning section. There are few better returns on a community investment than early childhood education. It isn’t hard to see the positive transformation that investment has already had on the Centralia Community.

We urge our state delegation to explore additional funding options, so that librarians can focus on serving the community and managing programs that assist the most vulnerable in our community. It is through new innovative, efficient, and accountable programs that Timberland Library can become self-sufficient and more effective in the delivery of services.

Many Timberland Library branches, like Centralia, Chehalis, Tumwater, Tenino, and Olympia, are making the change. They offer teen writing workshops, literacy classes, film clubs, local comic conventions, and fashion shows. There are resources for unemployed community members and many seeking to improve their position at work or through continued education. Most successful branches have already partnered with public and private community members, like the United Way of Lewis County, to provide resources beyond the traditional book finding.  



Our community and the Timberland Library Board must support libraries in rural communities and commit to this evolution of services. Rural libraries need the support and resources to become the community center for our seniors in the shadow of budget cuts; it must provide fast reliable internet, so low income students have the opportunity to be successful; and it must become the place where the fight against poverty and homelessness starts. This is not only the right thing to do, it is the fiscally responsible thing to do.  The United Way of Lewis County sees our library system as essential to ending intergenerational poverty.

 Please join us by supporting your local Timberland Library branch and the great librarians offering quality services to our community. We applaud the work of so many librarians and branches and hope to see support for a cohesive Timberland-wide vision for delivering services.

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Peter J. Abbarno, Attorney and Centralia City Councilmember.

Debbie Campbell, Executive Director of the United Way of Lewis County