The burning of Spellow community library – how libraries can help to restore peace and security for our children and young people

Rachel Johnston
Harrow SLS

Librarian’s view:

From the many images of senseless destruction in the riots following the tragic murders in Southport this summer, those of the blackened, ransacked public library in Spellow, Liverpool seemed to encapsulate the horror of attacks driven by social media misinformation. The community had lost not only its library but also all that it had represented in terms of shared cultural heritage and access to learning.  In those first hours it seemed an insurmountable challenge to recover from such a blow to a key part of the community’s identity.

In the days that followed, the community’s response was defiant and determined. A crowd-funding campaign started by a local resident to buy replacement books raised nearly £300,000 in a few days. “We will rise and we will move above this, stated the library manager, ‘and we will come back stronger and better than we ever were before.” (1)

Libraries are places where such positivity can flourish, providing ‘safe places’ of stability and calm, where members of the community can meet and celebrate their diversity as well as all that binds them together.  In these repositories of accumulated wisdom from the past, the essential ingredients for strong communities of the future are freely available to all.   Our school and public libraries offer a wealth of reading materials that widen the horizons of our young people and enable them to develop vital critical thinking skills to counter the misinformation and bias of social media. Alongside information sources, libraries provide stories, myths and legends, through which complex issues of peace and conflict can be more easily understood, even by very young children. 

As with real life, stories are full of conflict familiar to many children from their daily lives, whether friendship issues, more serious domestic and racial violence in our communities, or even wars. Stories enable children to enter worlds in which they can begin to process their experiences, to gain a better understanding of the causes of conflict and their own emotional response, and to empathise with others, vital skills for children growing up in a diverse and unpredictable world. 

Libraries can also help by creating the most inclusive collections and environments for the communities they serve.  Where individuals and groups in society feel marginalised or continue to experience discrimination and deprivation, libraries can create a place for belonging and human flourishing that enriches our communities and helps to provide a basis for peace.  Children can discover through reading that there is always more that connects people than separates them; stories show how individuals share the same desire for a world in which friendship, kindness and honesty create understanding between people.  Children can find hope from the stories of those whose courage and commitment to healing and reconciliation have brought about peaceful change.

Whether we live in areas directly affected by the events of this summer or not, our libraries stand as a testament to a shared responsibility for the events of our own time, enabling all of us to remember, to grieve and to find ways to hope for the future. 

Reference:
‘Fight back’: Wrecked Liverpool library stands defiant against UK riots (yahoo.com)