Cub scout troop 108 is on the right track, and we would all do well to take a page out of the boys’ book. The troop has installed a flagpole at the new Hal Kohn Memorial Library and will be dedicating it sometime next week, reaffirming something that as citizens of a democracy we should all know in our bones—learning, libraries and love of this country all go hand in hand.

Tomorrow wraps up National Library Week. This year’s theme: “Worlds connect @ your library” is pertinent today; as it would have been back in the newly-hatched days of the American republic. Libraries had an explosion of going public somewhere around the turn of the last century, and much of that trend was driven by the American ideal of an educated democratic voting citizenry. It is no coincidence that compulsory schooling and publicly-funded, open libraries enjoyed a rise to the commonplace around the same time. Both the American education system and public libraries find roots in the middle 1800s, and one fed off another. Educated American children required reading material after leaving school, and an increasingly industrialized and profitable nation required educated citizens.

By 1918, all states had passed laws requiring children to attend at least elementary school. Thanks to the largess of industrialist Andrew Carnegie, libraries exploded as well. Carnegie’s estate helped goose the building of public libraries, donating $50 million by 1920 to erect 2,500 library buildings, 1,700 of which were in the United States. Carnegie’s donations helped fuel the development of libraries in smaller communities, a standard that happily continues to this day.

Of today’s public libraries, 60 percent are small, serving communities under 10,000. The City of Newberry’s population is more than 11,000, for comparison’s sake. Why, just across our county line in Union, there is an award-winning small town library, The Union County Carnegie Library, which helps support the small town’s satellite university campus, bringing real opportunity to small town America. This category of libraries, however, represents only 10 percent of total public library spending. Big-city libraries enjoy big-city volume and circulation. But we would argue that the 10 percent of the public library spending perhaps offers the most return on its investment. Small communities rely on their libraries for the lifelong learning experiences that can be fewer and further between than in a metropolitan setting.

Yes, the advent of Internet access has opened vast fields of communications and information across the lines of community and culture. Doors to knowledge have been opened like never before. But sifting through such a baffling array of information without a periodic tour guide would be like motoring out into the Pacific Ocean in your john boat without a map or sextant, pointless and occasionally dangerous. One of the factors that made public libraries so revolutionary were the professionals manning the collections and the desks. This is still relevant today, perhaps even more so with the floodgate of global information wide open.

Another driving force behind the library movement was giving a diverse citizenry a common experience, gathering place and source of information. Libraries are resources we as Americans take completely for granted, like our power grid and highway system. But the creation of these conveniences was made possible by our unified American efforts, which live on to keep our still-diverse nation connected and informed. So let’s pledge allegiance like our scouts, and visit the library.