Library Visit

It seems apt to begin this entry with a confession: I don’t like public libraries much. In fact, I tend to avoid them. When I want to browse, I head to a bookstore ten times out of ten and will generally buy something used on Amazon before checking it out of the library. Between the dreariness of the atmosphere, the often supercilious attitudes of the librarians, the inscrutability of the collections, and the poor condition of the books, public libraries tend to depress me; bookstores, on the other hand, lift my spirits. Go figure.

That having been said, Chevy Chase’s library, on Connecticut Avenue, NW, between McKinley and Northampton, is no exception. I’ll begin by addressing the questions posed in our syllabus and then highlight a few of the more interesting books that I was able to find.

The children’s section at CC library occupies the entire second floor of the building. It is well-lighted, clean, and spacious, with ample tables for studying or perusing, if one can tolerate the free-for-all vocal stylings of the library’s youngest patrons. (I don’t do this well.) On the day that I went, there were astonishingly few displays. The central display, on elections, was in a glass case at the center of the room, facing the stairwell. In that display, two of approximately ten books dealt with topics of concern in this class: Madam President: The Extraordinary, True (and Evolving) Story of Women in Politics, by Catherine Thimmesh, and Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote, by Tanya Lee Stone. I’ll discuss these in greater detail below, but for now I’ll just note that both books were interesting and substantive, unlike the cheesy new picture book Madam President that I wrote about in my bookstore entry. A careful search of the room revealed only two other displays – a haphazardly organized table on gardening and a bookshelf that appeared to me to have no discernible theme. The rest of the books were organized according to the good old Dewey Decimal System, tucked away on shelves or, in rare cases, in picture book bins.

As a result of the way that the library is organized, it’s impossible to answer most of Vivian’s questions with any degree of confidence. I have no idea whether there were an appropriate number of books on a satisfactory range of topics, whether the authorship of the books was diverse, or whether they employed cultural stereotypes. When I told the librarian why I was there and asked about books on social issues or dealing with diverse cultures, she took exception to the term “social issues,” pointing out that that could cover any topic from adoption to transgender issues. She explained with great forbearance that there was no single place where such books were collected and directed me to the 100s and 300s section of the nonfiction, where I came across books on animal rights, astrology, and the Great Depression, among other topics. Nestled between these two sections was the 200s section, which contained books on religion. When I tried to plumb the question further, the librarian informed me that librarians go to school to learn the Dewey Decimal system and brought out a number of posters to help me correlate numbers with topics. She also referred me to the online card catalog.

The upshot of this experience was that I had the chance to survey a somewhat random smattering of books on social issues but concluded that the books are chiefly accessible to either those who are very motivated to uncover them or those who are focused at the outset of their search. The library does not do much to meet people halfway in stretching their consciousness about different issues or cultures, though it may well support those already engaged in that pursuit.

The library does not seem to be especially influenced by its location in wealthy, liberal-leaning Chevy Chase, except perhaps in the fact that it is clean and well-lighted. Rather, it seems more to be a product of a city government that tends to be entrenched and weary, not actively searching for new ideas. The librarian was quick to note, when discussing the election collection, that, while the library does have on its shelves children’s books on both Obama and Clinton (which were, interestingly, not included in the elections display case), it does not have any on McCain.

Here are a few of the more interesting books that I came across in my search for books on social issues and representing diverse cultures:

Pink and Say, Patricia Polacco



This book was in a picture bin and just happened to be “displayed” by virtue of the fact that someone had set it down in an empty section. The story is about two teenaged boys – both Union soldiers – one white and one a former slave. Although it’s a picture book, the story is text-heavy and deals with difficult subjects, including the Confederate execution of an innocent teen as well as the murder of the boy’s mother. It’s definitely not appropriate for very young children, but it would be appealing to older elementary and middle school-aged children. In vintage Polacco style, the book takes important social topics – slavery, the Civil War, and race relations – and treats them in an intimate, personal way, ultimately drawing a meaningful personal connection, as so many of Polacco’s books do, between the author and the characters in the story.

Madam President: The Extraordinary, True (and Evolving) Story of Women in Politics, by Catherine Thimmesh



Unlike the cheesy book by the same title that I wrote about in my bookstore entry, this book, part of the children’s section’s central glass display case, actually attempts to take a meaningful look at the issue of women’s participation in governance around the world. Although not comprehensive by any stretch, it does highlight the fact that women have achieved much higher levels of participation in governance in other countries (67, to be specific) than they have in the U.S. It also notes that the U.S. has lost ground in this area over the past twenty years, falling from the 52nd position to 68th.

The book artfully intersperses a dialogue between two young female characters about the quest of one girl to be president with informative, two-page profiles of women who have broken barriers in U.S. politics, as well as abroad. I learned, for example, that FDR had the first woman cabinet member in U.S. History – Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor. At the back of the book is an interesting, if incomplete, timeline of women’s achievements in government with a focus on the U.S.

Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote, by Tanya Lee Stone



This book, featured in the central glass display case and tailored to a younger audience than Madam President, begins with a very direct and engaging question: “What would you do if someone told you you can’t be what you want to be because you are a girl?” Using succinct and on-point text interspersed with attractive and inviting pictures, the book chronicles the life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, offering even very young readers compelling insights into Mrs. Cady Stanton’s life, from a childhood in which her father often told her that it was a shame, given her talents, that she wasn’t a boy to her reading of the “Declaration of Rights and Sentiments” at the 1948 Seneca Falls Convention that she spearheaded.

Children of the Great Depression, Russell Freedman



This beautiful book was tucked away on a shelf in the 300s section and caught my attention because my podcast deals with the Great Depression. Written for upper elementary and older children, the book combines a textual account of the experiences of children in the Depression with some of the gorgeous, haunting photos taken by Russell Lee and other FSA photographs to document the Depression. The book is effective in its effort to help today’s children understand the experience of their counterparts in the 1930s, supplementing photos and text with things like charts comparing the prices of typical items in the 1930s with other charts outlining typical salaries and wages of the era.

Rights for Animals?, Deidre Rochford



I wish I’d checked to see whether this book was shelved in Dewey’s “Controversial Knowledge” section or the “Ethics” section (001.9 and the 170s, respectively). It seemed to be in that general neighborhood. The book caught my attention immediately, as my children and I are vegetarians who avoid meat on grounds of conscience. The book seemed to present a fairly balanced view of the issues surrounding cosmetic, agricultural, medical, and other uses of animals without actually taking a position. For example, it pointed out that “[s]ome people think breeding animals for meat is an inefficient way to feed the world when 11 million children die of hunger each year: For every 20 pounds (10 kg) of grain fed to animals, only 2 pounds (1kg) are converted to meat. On average, a meat eater’s diet uses twice as much land as a vegetarian’s, and good land is scarce throughout the world.” On the other hand, it noted issues surrounding the growing of grains and vegetables without manure as a fertilizer and concluded, somewhat abruptly, that “it is not yet possible for the world to be vegan.” Notwithstanding its shortcomings, the book had effective photographs and fairly solid text for a book geared toward an upper elementary or middle school-aged audience – sort of a neutral, junior introduction to vegetarianism for children too young for Animal Liberation.