Life feels segmented these days. It feels like every day, there is a new subscription service available, promising access for a modest fee. It is amazing to inventory the tangled social web that subscription services create to distribute their costs.
My parents gave me access to their HBO Go account as a holiday gift, my old roommate gave me access to her AppleTV account, and my partner's parents let us mooch from their Netflix. It takes a coordinated effort to watch the latest in TV and movies. Increasingly more, it seems like our lives get broken into small and smaller pieces to be sold back to us for $9.99 a month by the next, big, Silicon Valley idea.
It is a grim portrait to paint, but fortunately, there are institutions that help counter our consumeristic fragmentations.
A library’s existence is an antithesis to the privatization of personal space. These institutions provide more than just access to books. A library card is a key to untapped potential. Libraries have access to computers and the internet, archived newspapers, and space for events or meetings. There are over 100,000 academic, school, government, and public libraries in the United States. That is close to ten times the amount of McDonald’s restaurants! Not all libraries are as easily accessible as the close to 10,000 public libraries, but all provide vital services to the communities they serve.
Libraries are not immune from the pressures of our modern-day, however. These critical institutions have faced challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic, the digital divide, censorship, and the fast-paced nature of our world. NCXT has witnessed the incredible people and services libraries offer through our work with partners like New Jersey State Library, Minnesota Library Leads, and Vermont Public Libraries.
NCXT is proud to work with libraries and support the incredibly vital service they provide in our communities. Building Our Best World™ involves celebrating and supporting institutions that bring such tremendous value in a compassionate and human-focused manner. We envision a world of vibrant and strong libraries acting as community pillars with room for everyone to benefit.
We are passionate about our work with libraries, and if you are interested in learning about how NCXT can help you with your library needs, schedule a meeting with us here!