EDITORIAL: This is why you can't define a library

The man was elderly. He looked like he was ill. There was an odor about him that hinted at a sad tale.

The man approached a woman as a volunteer at a public library last month. His confusion at times overwhelmed him. He was able to communicate his name, his city of residence and, with great difficulty, why he had come to the library.

The man needed help. Like most Americans, he knew that the library would have intelligent, resourceful professionals who could help him navigate rocky roads.

With great patience and respectful questions, the woman learned that the man had purchased a Cricket phone and that he wanted to activate it, but he couldn’t remember his user name, his password or, to his mounting embarrassment, his account number.

He had come to the library because he couldn’t think of anyone or anywhere else to go. He had no relatives or close friends. He had little money and no car; the library was within walking distance. He just thought someone there might be able to help him re-establish his connection to the outside world.

The woman led him to a library computer and, for the next hour, tried her best to help him activate the new phone. Together, they used a chat function with Cricket, where the human being on the other end also tried to help. However, the man was told that the only way he could activate the phone without the most basic information was to go to an actual Cricket store, not the Walmart where he’d purchased the phone.

We’ll leave it to your imagination how this true story ended, but it’s not inconceivable that the volunteer would end up taking the man to a Cricket store. Well then, why, you might ask, is The Press sharing this strange little vignette with readers?

Because to the old, sick man — and almost certainly others, perhaps many others — the public library is more than a place to check out books, videos and music.

It might be more than a safe place for children and adults where learning takes flight, where programs covering a wide array of interests light tiny fires that burn away the corrosion of ignorance and rekindle the basic human need to satisfy curiosity. To some, the local library might be the one place where even silence soothes the lonely soul.

The beauty of a good library is the depth and breadth of all its stories, those in bound volumes and those with beating hearts.