Everybody's Everything

Public libraries have become a place where almost anything goes. Certainly, we have rules and regulations in place to help guide our patrons, that dictate terms of use, but since we are so inclusive we seem to take on the widest possible focus when it comes to programs, services, opportunities, entertainment and liberties afforded to the public.

We are the place where new moms bring their young to participate in a story time. We are the place where seniors come to read newspapers in the morning and check out large type books to take home for bed time reading. We have computers so folks can fill out job applications, update their Facebook accounts or play Angry Birds. We have all manner of books, movies, music, downloadable titles, videos to stream, access to 3-D printers, puzzles to arrange, toys to play with, fish to watch and chairs to snooze in. We have so many diversions to check out, stories to share and talents to utilize that we are, really, the one stop shopping place for hundreds of people in our community every day.

Libraries. I love what we do for our citizens and believe in what we represent in our communities. I feel that we are here to promote democracy, advocate literacy and bring fun and enjoyment to the widest group of people at the best possible price, and for the most part, that price is free.

Yes, we are everybody’s everything. Wide open, accepting, full aperture focus, private, non-assuming and quiet.

Even cannabis seems to have a place here.

Today I was making the rounds and did what all good librarians do… check out the bathrooms for graffiti, potty accidents and other nefarious things. Today I stumbled on, in the family bathroom of all places, the remains of a blunt building operation. A pile of unwanted tobacco on the floor, a Swisher Sweets package crumpled under the toilet, stray specks of dope and cigar left behind on the lid. I was surprised but not surprised all at the same time. We live in a state where cannabis is legal to folks over the age of 21 but we have a lot of restrictions in place where a person can smoke it, let alone roll it.

I am sure that whoever it was that broke down their cheap cigar in our restroom was someone who, at least, had the sensitivity not to break down his smoke on a table top in the children’s area. I am sure that if I had stumbled upon that kind of scene I would have had them take it outside. But today has been overcast and a bit breezy. It looks almost like it plans on raining. That blunt building operation held in our bathroom was one that was taken on with a sense of desperation.

You might ask me, who am I to rain on someone’s parade? Who am I to take away someone’s cannabis moment when it seems like almost everything else happens here? We support the right to vote by having voter’s registration on our main floor. We have meeting rooms where you can sign up to hold a wedding shower, a real estate promotion or a health class. We have summer reading programs, we have computer classes and we have a teen advisor group. Why can’t we support the needs of cannabis users in Colorado, a state where it is legal to light up?

Now, I like my mota, as you very well know. What I am saying here is that I really don’t want folks coming in stoned out of their minds (it scares kids), nor do I want sales going on in the conference room, nor do I want to see baggies of flower out on the table tops or folks weighing out grams to share with their friends in the genealogy area. What I want is for us to be better able to talk about the goodness of cannabis openly and informatively, to support up-to-date collections about cannabis in the non-fiction area and to have informative, educational classes about marijuana to illuminate the wonders and glories of the sacred plant.

I suppose some would say that isn’t enough. If we can have changing stations in the rest rooms we should have rolling stations, too. I suppose that’s where I draw the line. Let’s not have them in the rest rooms, please. Not only are those areas not sanitary but it would it would put a completely different spin on the term “good shit”.

No, I suggest let libraries take the high ground (no pun intended) on providing all you heads out there with the information and entertainment you need to be the best possible cannabis diplomats you can be out in the world. Let us guide you through the world of pot by providing you with computer terminals where you can log into Leafly and the Cannabist and become a bit more illuminated. Let us send for titles for you that will help you be a better urban pot farmer, a more savvy budtender or an ace cannabis executive. Let us guide you to movies you might need to see when couch locked or cookbooks you will certainly need to help keep those munchies under control.

Just don’t use our bathrooms for blunt rolling, please. And next time, if you do, at least clean up after yourselves. It is folks like you that give upright and considerate stoners a bad name.

Salud!