Another story on the Boston Public Library.
Here’s an interview with Library President Amy Ryan, who wrote her master’s thesis on the role of libraries during economic downturns. As she tells reporter WBUR reporter Deborah Becker, she’s now gaining firsthand experience.
DB: What happened in the 70s and in the Depression?
AR: From 1929 to to 1933, there was a 37 percent increase in the number of books borrowed. And when I look at Boston Public Library statistics, it’s interesting because there’s been a 30 percent increase in people getting new library cards just since last July. So, that’s 71,000 people getting new library cards. And along with that, a statistic that I think is very important is that 7,000 of those people were teenagers.
DB:What makes this particular economic downturn different, do you know?
AR: Well, I think the severity of it. I think it’s an unprecedented downturn. I think people are anxious. More from NPR.
Well, its not an unprecedented downturn
Its just that it is a different sort of downturn.
There are basically two different sorts of downturns. Those based directly on factors that are those of basic economics, the others based on the financial industry itself.
The 1929 Depression was triggered by basic economics. Our internal market was too small to purchase everything we were making or the services being offered. Industrialization in this case kicked off the 1929 Depression. Three tax cuts in the 1920’s left the wealthy with no place to put their excess wealth. Before 1920, they would have put it into a new business of some kind. But after 1919, the U.S. industrial capacity had exceeded its own internal markets and we did not have many external markets. Farms started going under as mechanization resulted in more food being produced than could be purchased, so this started driving farms out of business. This also occured in manufacturing.
The current mess is completely the result of market manipulation.
In both cases libraries start seeing increased usage because its less expensive to borrow books from libraries for entertainment or other purposes than it is to buy them.
Libraries in other areas are also seeing increased usage, and the demographics are a bit different. In some places it is working age adults who are the largestr group and in others its the retired.