Column: The Crowd: ‘The library is like a pillar and portal of truth’

Libraries are as important as they ever were.

Google is amazing. There is also no question that the electronic age has changed reading, writing, research and all the rest. Yet the value of your local library as a community research center remains paramount to the health and well being of every town on the American landscape. Reading a published hard- or soft-cover manuscript will hopefully never be totally replaced by electronic media.

Recently, the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation hosted its annual donor reception at the Central Library. Some 85 such events over the decades have brought attention and funding to the foundation supporting many needs of the public library system in this region. The September gathering added $153,125 in support.

This funding supports a “cutting-edge intellectual sanctuary, diverse public programs and reliable sources available to the public such as wireless internet access, a media lab, as well as downloadable ebooks, audio books, and magazines,” said Stacy Kaszton Jones, spokesowoman for the library foundation.

The donor reception welcomed two distinguished special guests, Keith and Suzanne Perry Morrison. Morrison is well known as the face fronting NBC’s “Dateline.” Perry Morrison is a writer, consultant and served as press secretary to former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

“The library is like a rite of passage,” she said. “My first act of independence was to go into the library and check out books that I was interested in reading. The library is like a pillar and portal of truth.”

As a boy, Morrison worked as a page at his local library, helping shelve books.

“With technology now, we have too much access to opinion that is disguised as information,” he said. “We need to be able to discuss and disagree on things and be adults about it.”

In this regard, Morrison added in his address to guests, that the library remains a place to learn, discuss and grow.

A distinguished turnout for the reception was greeted by former library foundation board member Natasha Palmaer, who chaired the reception. Attendees included Elizabeth Stahr, Charles and Suzanne Turner, Jene Witte, Marcia and John Cashion, Tammy and Sam Tang, and Ellen Girardeau-Kempler and Roger Kempler. The crowd enjoyed music from a live jazz ensemble, wines from Hi-Time Wine Cellars and food by Colette’s Catering.

The fundraising efforts enable the library system to provide multi-tier resources to more than 1 million annual visitors. The foundation is membership-driven and receives no government funding, relying on tax-deductible donations.

The spirit of this gathering, and the importance of its mission, reminds me of the significance of the dissemination of authentic information and truth in both the written and electronic word.

“In America, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, however, we are not entitled to our own facts,” the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan offered in his much-used quote.

Perry Morrison is correct. The library is indeed a pillar and portal of truth.

To get involved with the library foundation, visit nbplfoundation.org or contact Kathy McCarrell at [email protected] or (949) 717-3890.

B.W. COOK is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.