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The Library As Sanctuary for Inner-City Youth: Protections, Implications, Cohesions, Tensions, Recommendations, and Inspirations

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The Library As Sanctuary for Inner-City Youth: Protections, Implications, Cohesions, Tensions, Recommendations, and Inspirations Sylvia Leigh Lambert. The Library as Sanctuary for Inner-City Youth: Protections, Implications, Cohesions, Tensions, Recommendations, and Inspirations. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S degree. July, 2004. 311 pages. Advisor: Brian Sturm This study explores the library-as-sanctuary, a motif adopted by many in the library community, but not explored elaborately prior to this work. It applies this motif, its history, and recastings to youth services of inner-city public libraries. After studying the context of contemporary low-income urban youths’ lives, a detailed discussion follows with attention to the implications of the sanctuary motif to inner-city youth services. Tensions and cohesions are highlighted. Inspired by the motif, recommendations are made for spatial design, collection development, programming, personnel, advocacy, and public policy. Headings: Library as sanctuary Young adult library services – Aims and objectives Urban libraries Library service – Poverty Public libraries – Aims and objectives THE LIBRARY AS SANCTUARY FOR INNER-CITY YOUTH: PROTECTIONS, IMPLICATIONS, COHESIONS, TENSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND INSPIRATIONS. by Sylvia Leigh Lambert A Master’s paper submitted to the faculty of the School of Information and Library Science of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Library Science. Chapel Hill, North Carolina July 2004 Approved by _____________________________________ Brian Sturm 1 Table of Contents Introduction 2 Chapter 1—History, Reconceptions, and Recastings of Sanctuary and the Sanctuary Motif 4 Chapter 2—Young, Endangered City Lives, City ‘Souls’ 110 Chapter 3—The Public Library as Sanctuary for Inner-City Youth 143 Space 158 Collection 200 Programming 215 Personnel and Advocacy 253 Conclusion 272 Notes 277 Works Cited 278 2 The Library as Sanctuary for Inner-City Youth: Protections, Implications, Cohesions, Tensions, Recommendations, and Inspirations “Libraries offer sanctuary. Like synagogues, churches, mosques, and other sacred spaces, libraries can create a physical reaction, a feeling of peace, respect, humility, and honor that throws the mind wide open and suffuses the body with a near-spiritual pleasure.” -American Library Association* “Libraries could help to create these urban sanctuaries for young people, within their walls and elsewhere in the community.” -Virginia A. Walter* Introduction A recurrent topic in library-related literature is the library-as-sanctuary. Many authors have addressed this subject; they have employed this analogy, using words and phrases such as sanctuary, safe haven, and refuge in order to describe their near-reverence for the institution that is the library. However, many of these writers often simply refer to these words in a cursory manner. They just mention them ‘in passing’ without revealing information about their origins, evolving definitions, and contemporary recasting. While often providing well-intentioned anecdotes, these writers seldom probe deeply into these terms. They seldom offer readers insights into how the history(ies) of these concepts can offer inspiration to our institution. In contrast, this paper attempts to examine in detail the history of the word sanctuary, and in turn, apply this exploration to the spaces, services, missions, and goals of public libraries. It asks, “What are 3 the implications—cohesions, tensions, recommendations, and inspirations—of the protective ‘library-as-sanctuary’ analogy—and in particular, how can thisconception apply to youth services in inner-city public libraries?” It asks, “How can we build, care for, and maintain a library-as-sanctuary-for-inner-city- youth?” 4 History, Reconceptions, and Recastings of Sanctuary and the Sanctuary Motif The etymology of the word sanctuary connects it to the Late Latin sanctuarium, an apparently irregular form of sanctus, meaning “sacred, holy” (Alles 59). The word is also related by analogy to sacrarium, meaning, “shrine” (Alles 59). As a sacred place, it is distinctly set apart from the profane, from the world of ordinary existence. The most primitive sanctuaries were natural settings like groves of trees and hilltops—locations believed especially touched by the presence of divinities (“Sanctuary,” Encyclopaedia Britannica). For example, ancient Germanic peoples perceived some lakes, fountains, and forests as sacred (“Sanctuary,” LoveToKnow). Similarly, early Anglo-Saxons focused upon the spirituality of woods and hills, using them as sanctuaries for pre-Christian worship (“Sanctuary,” LoveToKnow; Alan). Caves also served as ancient sanctuaries, with their mouths providing a natural demarcation between the sacred and the profane (Alles 59). Some early groups of people arranged rings of stones in order to indicate this essential distinction. These primitive arrangements were followed by man-made structures like the Assyrians’ and Babylonians’ ziggurats, terraced pyramids representing the sacred mountain (Alles 59; “Ziggurat”). Another ancient sanctuary-like structure is the sacred lodge, associated with the Native American Algonquin and Sioux 5 (“Sanctuary,” Encyclopaedia Britannica). Perhaps the most well known of the early man-made sanctuaries is the Hebrew Tabernacle—a simple portable tent, constructed by Moses for worship by the Israelites during their wandering— during the Exodus from slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land. This structure was composed of linen hangings, tapestries, and curtains decorated with cherubim (“Tabernacle,” par. 3). The details of the Tabernacle complex were considered to be dictated by Yahweh, whose dwelling place was believed to be the tent’s inner room, the “Holy of Holies,” where this God of Israel sat invisible upon a throne-like slab of gold atop the Ark of the Covenant—the wooden box, where the tablets of the Ten Commandments were kept (“Tabernacle,” pars. 3-4). The Old Testament’s account of the Exodus event not only establishes the idea of the Hebrew Tabernacle as a sanctuary that is a physical place (Lambert’s emphasis) of worship, it also presents one of the first theological accounts of the protection (Lambert’s emphasis) of sanctuary— through reference to Yahweh’s commanding Moses to create several cities of refuge for the Israelites “as well as the stranger and sojourner among you” (Numbers 35:15, qtd. in McConnell 6). Scripture states, “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to the people of Israel, when you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there’” (Numbers 35:9-11, qtd. in Bau 124). These cities—Kedesh, Sheehem, Kirjatharba, Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan—were places to which those “who killed unintentionally or without malice” could flee, in order to escape the “blood-vengeance” of the deceased’s 6 relatives (Ptacek 14; Gonzalez 12). These cities of refuge provided the fugitive with a trial by the city elders, in order to affirm the killing as accidental (Bau 125). If innocence was confirmed, the fugitive was allowed—or rather, required—to remain in the city and “lead a normal life and earn his livelihood” until the high priest’s death, which served as a substitute death to satisfy the “requirement of expiation of killing by blood” (Bau 127, 126). Hence, the high priest became a central figure of the sanctuary privilege (Bau 126). Central figures of this privilege in ancient Egypt were the gods Amon and Osiris, the latter being the god of the underworld, considered a grand symbol of nature’s creative forces (“Osiris” The Columbia Encyclopedia). Both of these Egyptian gods’ temples offered the right of sanctuary (“Sanctuary” The Columbia Encyclopedia). In addition, ancient Egyptians used temples’ sacred chambers for a “form of dream healing called incubation” (Swan 16). Incubation involved careful preparation, followed by one’s sleeping in a sanctuary, wherein he or she received an instructive or healing dream. Reportedly, a woman, who wanted a child but was apparently unable to conceive, slept in the sanctuary of the god Imhotep’s temple, where the god appeared to her in a dream and gave her instructions for preparing a tea for her husband to drink. She followed the instructions, made the recipe, and was pregnant with her husband’s offspring that night (Swan 16). Pharaohs were also known to receive instructive dreams through incubation in temple sanctuaries (Swan 17). Refuge was also found in Greek sanctuaries, erected to honor the protective gods and goddesses of particular communities. These sanctuary 7 structures “were intended to house offerings made to the gods” (Tomlinson 18). Sanctuaries of extremely powerful deities and cities were also the sites of magnificent festivals, attracting tens of thousands of worshippers. Hordes participated in games, dramatic and choral performances, and feasting in the outer, ancillary areas of a sanctuary, not disturbing the strict sanctity of its sacrificial altars and inner temple—“the building in which the god was supposed to live, and which in fact housed a statue or less lifelike image representing him” (Tomlinson 16). Significant protection was afforded by the celia in which stood statues of gods and goddesses in the Greek sanctuaries’ inner temples (“Sanctuary,” LoveToKnow). Popular for its protection was the temple of Apollo at Delphi, known “throughout the Mediterranean world as a haven for fugitives” (“Sanctuary” The Columbia Encyclopedia).
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