Homeland Insecurity

I love libraries. Unfortunately, the Oakland Public Library is in big trouble. Sadly, this is not the first time that the library has been in crisis mode due to the City of Oakland's monetary woes. In fact, crisis mode is par for the course. I worked there as an aide in the Acquisitions Department from the spring of 2001 to the spring of 2003. That was an odd time. When I first started my job, we were still in an economic boom. Everyone in the library was excited by the prosperity. The librarians talked excitedly of ordering new books, starting new programs and even building a new Main Library.

The Main Library building was built in 1949, an oblong concrete structure that is woefully inadequate to serve the public's needs today. I'm not sure it's earthquake-safe and I know it's not safe in other ways. I worked in the basement where the roof leaked for an entire winter. We taped a plastic garbage bag over the flimsy ceiling tiles to catch the water that was dripping -- or sometimes rushing -- from the leak. The City took months to fix it. In the meantime, we joked grimly about inhaling asbestos. That was one of the more dramatic malfunctions, but there were scores of others. The elevator from the basement to the first floor regularly broke down. The wall clock was permanently stopped at half past three. There was no air conditioning so the basement became a sweltering furnace during the summer. We didn't have enough paper supplies and had to re-use manila envelopes for mailing out our inter-library loan books. The windows were coated with layers of grime, the bookshelves with dust. It was embarrassing to show my friends my workspace. On the whole, the library had the air of a run-down thrift shop; in particular my department (with its stacks of incoming and discarded books and desks crowded with huge, out-of-date computers) resembled Grey Gardens.

911 changed everything. The City had to pay so much out in needless "homeland security" expenses that all talk of expansion and improvement immediately ceased. The library employees walked around looking grim and depressed, their hopes dashed.  Some of the best and brightest left, getting jobs at better libraries. Then, about one month after 911, we had our Anthrax Scare --  suspicious white powder in one of the book deliveries. We were required to attend a City Hall Meeting where a federal employee flew in to explain about the dangers of anthrax. We should immediately take showers if exposed, we were told.  Like the library is lined with shower stalls.  "Who do they think we are? The YMCA?  If that powder was anthrax, we'd already be dead," was the general consensus, followed by "Yeah, I'm sure Islamic Fundamentalists really have it in for the Oakland Public Library."