Profiles on Passion: Part V

I can’t be the only one who doesn’t remember the last time I visited a library. Why go when I have the World Wide Web at my fingertips? Sophomore Samia Mohamed wants to change that thought process.

For her Passion Project, Mohamed researched “The Library’s Effect on Community and Teen Development.” She decided that this was her passion after volunteering at a local library and seeing the effect that the often-underused facility has on the surrounding community.

“[The library] caters to teen development,” Mohamed said. “I’m just really interested in reading, and I think it is important to everyone.”

“A lot of students think the library is like the most boring place ever, but it’s actually a really important part of the community because it brings together a lot of different cultures and it hosts a lot of events,” said Mohamed. “And without the library, you wouldn’t be able to develop as a reader.”

While researching libraries and their effect on the community, Mohamed discovered that libraries are losing funding across the country as the government struggles to balance budgets. But even as libraries close their doors, communities are finding new ways to lend each other literature.

“Libraries are now struggling to stay open, and people and the community are opening little places to exchange books once libraries close,” Mohamed said. According to her, these new publically-run little libraries are coming together to “give the community a boost, and to keep their children learning.”

The biggest thing that Mohamed took away from researching was “[the libraries’] ability to keep going and to stay open and to incorporate different ideas. Libraries will hold different events based on what teens want to do. It’s pretty cool because it keeps [the community] interested in the library.”