ITEM FILE PHOTO
Nahant Library Director Sharon Hawkes is seen in this file photo.
The Nahant public library is extending a great trend of imaginative thinking with last Sunday’s Bill of Rights celebration.
The Bill of Rights will be 225 years old on Dec. 15 and Sunday’s lectures and discussion underscored how vital the document remains in American life. Second Amendment rights cropped up again and again during the presidential election serving as a flashpoint issue for candidates’ followers.
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The First Amendment is perhaps the Bill’s emotional touchstone. It has stood at the center of court rulings on flag burning and has been a lightning rod for other constitutional showdowns. Forged in controversy with federalists and anti-federal power advocates battling over the Bill’s language, the document has proven to be no less incendiary in the 21st century.
To its credit, a small library in a small town is not shying away from the Bill of Rights or other topical subjects when it comes to engaging people in debates and discussions.
The library announced its second “Town-Wide Read” in September and cleverly picked a book about a society that burns books. The “Fahrenheit 451” discussion promises to be interesting with readers commenting on the book’s implications for a modern America where people increasingly shun paper for electronic information and continue to debate the merits and dangers of restricting student access to certain books.
Ray Bradbury’s classic is also topical to the changing roles libraries play in society. Once sturdy stone institutions where books lined shelves and were organized with an index card filing system, libraries are now multi-media crossroads where people look for Wi-Fi, check out videos and sign up for online books. They have moved away from their traditional role to meet shifts in societal interests.
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The Nahant library also resisted shying away from controversy 10 months ago when the first town-wide read focused on Muslims in America. The subject could not have been more topical and organizing a large-scale book reading makes perfect sense in a small town.
Nahant’s librarians understand the enduring values of libraries as places that fuel knowledge and provide a bottomless reservoir of literature, fact and fiction, for insatiable minds. They are as much monuments to the irresistible desire to learn as they are amusement parks for the intellect.
To Nahant’s credit, the town library is also taking a role in stimulating and setting the stage for the constructive discourse that defines democracies.