lookout point An ode to libraries

These public places offer more than books alone

By Larry Chabot

Public libraries have been around for centuries. America’s first lending library was opened in Philadelphia in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin. It’s been said that there are more libraries in America than there are McDonald’s; one source claims that our country has exactly 117,341 libraries of all kinds, and that the average American checks out eight books a year.

In Marquette, Northern Michigan University has two libraries (and is home to the Central Upper Peninsula archives), Marquette Branch Prison has two (which get heavy prisoner use), and there’s one at the Jacobetti Veterans Home. Other public libraries in Marquette County are in Ishpeming, Negaunee, Richmond Township, Forsyth Township, and the Republic-Michigamme School. Almost every sizable town has a collection of books and other items, as do many homes, businesses, and non-profits.

Marquette’s Peter White Public Library (PWPL) is the largest public library in the Upper Peninsula, with 22,700 cardholders, 63,000 square feet of space on three floors, and about 300,000 items in a stunning variety of categories. Founded in 1871, it’s owned by the citizens of Marquette, and the residents of eight surrounding townships are eligible to hold cards.

Among its many resources are searchable newspapers (area papers and the New York Times), national magazines going way back, what questions were asked of immigrants before and after they sailed to the New World, and a big collection of clipping files on personalities, events, institutions, and calamities. Among the real gems for historians are the more than 250 radio scripts produced by Kenyon Boyer, on an appetizing variety of topics.

Patrons can watch movies, shop the used book store, select items from the free table, find great bargains at the library’s semi-annual used book sale at affordable prices, and enjoy lectures in the community room.

Need to borrow a ukulele (they have two of them), a digital telescope, cameras, even baking dishes? Help yourself. The PWPL’s works of art can be borrowed temporarily for home use, as can all kinds of other good stuff. They only ask that you return them.

The PWPL has 20 computers if you don’t have one of your own, and lessons on how to use them. You can borrow books from them, or from other places through the wonders of interlibrary loan.

An elevator serves all three floors, there are a number of community rooms for meetings, some comfortable chairs by windows with great views, and a huge database of subjects, like Birds of the World for example. Curbside service? They have it.

Unlike earlier institutions which were filled with hard copies of their contents, modern libraries have worldwide access to a wonderland of material, accessible from home through the patron’s own computer. The Catalog Source feature is easier for finding things than roaming the aisles reading book titles, although this, too, can be a pleasant and fruitful walk.

The Library of Congress in Washington is said to be the biggest library in the world, a fabulous place with a great website. It’s collections of free photographs (you own them, after all) is enormous. All of its treasures can’t be listed here, so a trip into its web site will be endlessly fascinating.

Without a doubt, libraries are one of the greatest inventions ever.

About the author: Larry Chabot worked across the street from the Library of Congress and has browsed its online collections many times over the years. He has also shopped at most of the Peter White Public Library’s popular used book sales, sponsored by Friends of the Peter White Public Library (which also runs the used book store), and spent countless hours at their microfiche machine, reading old newspapers and finding story ideas. The library is digitizing local newspapers in a joint venture with Northern Michigan University detailed in a March 2022 MM story.