Why I Got a Library Card, and Why You Should Too

by Naiya Patel-Kapka, Editor in Chief

This summer I'd been reading a lot, but there were a few books which I bought, and read, that I just didn’t like. I didn’t even want to put them on my bookshelf; it felt almost sacrilegious. Fake. I tried to combat the sore fact that I’d spent money on them– I justified that I’d gotten them cheap, on Thriftbooks– but still I wished I hadn’t even spent the money. I began to miss going to Mudd and browsing titles, flipping through books and being able to put them right back if the first few chapters didn’t interest me. But until I was back at school, I’d need another solution.

When I was a kid growing up in Portland, Oregon, I was never not reading. My favorite time of year was winter, when I could wake up before everyone else and crawl into my favorite corner of the living room, behind the dying Christmas tree, and sit on the floor heater with my book spread across my knees, the string lights casting their warm glow across the words. My parents always encouraged my reading and bought me books I wanted, but of course there were limits on spending, and back then I was reading one or two books per week. So when I entered second grade, they got me a library card for Multnomah County Library. The huge sandstone building took up an entire block downtown, and I was awestruck by the many high-ceilinged rooms filled with books. The whole place looked like something out of the golden age, similar to The Met, that type of beautiful building which holds its grandeur in a stately way. 

I loved that library. I checked out books there all the time, I studied there with my friends, I used the computers to look things up (a novelty back then, those wells of answers, in the time before everyone had an iPhone). Every time I walked down the wide marble staircase from the adult sections upstairs, passing by the little kids on the first floor, I felt unstoppable with my armful of books. That place nourished my imagination and satiated my childhood curiosities– it was a palace, a sort of Atlantis that I had unlimited access to. 

I stopped going in high school when Covid hit. The last set of books I slid into the return box were the last I would get from there. By mid 2020, the whole area had darkened. Where I had once sat on the front steps with ice cream, addicts now injected things into their taut veins. The cafe across the street shuttered its windows. The Goodwill next door closed. The library doors became manned by security guards with tasers and guns, and children never stepped through– only scared looking university students and scowling old women. 

When I moved to Queens, I only used public libraries as a place to study with my friends. The library buildings near me were boxy and gray, eerily quiet, largely ignored and empty. Alone, I had no interest in spending time there– I only began checking out library books when I got to college. 

So this summer, after quite a few half-read books I’d spent good money on, and a pointed suggestion from my mom, I signed up for a New York Public Library card online. It took me five minutes, and I immediately wished I’d done it sooner. 

With a free NYPL card, one has access not only to physical copies of books at a number of branches, but also ebooks and audiobooks. But there are more hidden benefits to this card! Firstly, you get free access to Mango Languages– any language you’d like to learn is available, for those of you who are tired of Duolingo. Secondly, and most importantly, you get free online access to a wide variety of publications, both US and international, including The New Yorker (my favorite) and The Guardian. Accessible journalism is especially important these days, given the catastrophe of our government and subsequent waves of censorship. People need to be reading well-written news, not only from sources within the US, but international views as well. 

Another huge plus of having a library card is access to movies and shows. You can go and check out physical DVDs or BluRay, but you’ll also receive free online access for certain sites. One site is called Projectr, a platform for independent films which showcases new voices in the industry. As someone who rents quite a few movies every month on Amazon, or else streams them on sketchy websites, it's helpful for me to have free access to a site where I can discover new films that I’d never heard of– without giving money to a terrible corporation or risking a computer virus. 

So, I hope this has convinced at least one or two more people to go and get a library card. Seriously, it takes five minutes, it's free, and it’s a great resource to have in your back pocket. Though I’ve focused on the benefits of an NYPL card specifically, most libraries in the US have moved material online to be more accessible, while also providing physical media. Or, if you’re really only interested in an NYPL card but you don’t live in the state, phone a friend and put in their address instead of yours. The main thing that matters is that our generation takes advantage of the resources we are given, these resources which our taxes go towards, the endless well of knowledge that is accessible to us. 

When I visited Portland this January, I was walking through downtown when I realized I was near the old library. My nerves were instantly on edge, since only a year or so prior there had still been needles and broken glass covering the area. I felt that I was about to walk onto the street of perpetual gloom, though that may sound dramatic now. But when I turned the corner, I saw the clean stone steps of my childhood memories, and the beautiful facade restored to its former grandeur. The sunlight was hitting it in such a way, through the leaves of the tall sidewalk trees, that the building itself looked proud, hit by a spotlight, showing that its glory days were not over. Families were walking in, teenagers were smoking on the front steps with books open next to them. It was an unreal moment. The Goodwill was still shuttered but the cafe had reopened; the security guards were still there but they had no guns, and they were chatting amongst themselves, smiling. It really felt like a still from a movie which I had accidentally walked into, and I’ll never forget it. The library was all fixed up– hopefully just in time for the new generations.