“I cannot live without books,” said Thomas Jefferson to John Adams as they shipped out the last of Jefferson’s famously large personal library, which he had sold to Congress to replace the congressional library after the British burned the Capitol in 1814. Over 200 years later, in a small town of his namesake, sits an empty library chair in an empty elementary school where — on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4 p.m. — a school library transforms into the public town library. The empty library chair, says town librarian Sally Oliver, is for anyone who wants to stop by, even just to talk.
The library located inside Jefferson Village School is open to anyone residing in Jefferson, but no one from a neighboring town (yes, that means you, Lincoln County reader) is ever turned away. Many people probably don’t know that Jefferson even has a public library, due to the unusual, but mutually beneficial, arrangement where it is closed to the public and overseen by the school during school hours, but becomes open to the public as the town library after school Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 4-7 p.m.
In order to visit, use the main entrance of Jefferson Village School and take an immediate right as you walk into the main lobby. You can’t miss it. A mask is required and only six visitors are allowed at a time, but that is rarely an issue these days. Books are sanitized and isolated for 48 hours upon return. The school also takes every precaution possible to keep students and visitors safe during the pandemic.
The library stocks recent New York Times bestsellers and has an impressive selection of rented and donated books. Programming and events are generally on hold, due to the pandemic, but telescopes and microscopes are available to use and sign out. Wi-Fi and computers are also available, along with magazines, DVDs, audiobooks, and large-print editions, whenever possible.
The library may look small, but there is something for everyone. A 9/11 commemorative quilt hangs on the wall alongside artwork by local artists. Town librarian Sally Oliver is extremely welcoming and is not the shushing type.
In a world ever shifting away from the centuries of wisdom and knowledge of print on paper between the covers of a book — toward the nonsensical whims of unqualified strangers on social media — keeping local libraries alive is as important as ever. Simply funding them is not enough; we must vote with our feet, as it were.
To quote Thomas Jefferson once again, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” Books and libraries, big and small, are our greatest weapons against ignorance. Visit your local library. Visit the Jefferson Public Library.
(Steve and Rebekah Sousa are blessed to live in Jefferson, where they pursue homesteading with their six kids. Contact the Sousas at 612-9243 or thesousas9@gmail.com.)
