A Library About The Deaf And For Everyone

I'll try to keep this brief, but really... what do we want to do? What is the DCDL, Deaf Culture Digital Library? It's a library about the deaf and for everyone. Of course the DCDL serves the deaf community, too. Yes, it provides needs. Many things it can do, really... help you write your resume, look for a job, training, immigration. The library is not a warehouse for books, no. It starts with books. But those books share information. That's one thing the deaf community needs, a central repository and a center for the deaf community.

What is deafness? What does it mean to be deaf? What happens if you have a deaf baby? What are you going to do, where will you go, where will you find information, where and how? Who's responsible for that? We are. We're responsible for that. We're responsible to develop a collection. Develop different collections of history, culture, experiences, people. But people don't know about this.

The number one problem is that people don't know what it means to be deaf. So, when we set up the DCDL, it'll have a central location that'll serve the entire state or territory. That means that we will have one center that'll collect data, books, history, information, everything and put it in one central location where we can share. Share information. Of course, not just by books, remember we have programs. Bridging the deaf community means that you bring people to the library. Libraries by themselves are weak, but with communities, libraries are powerful. That's really why libraries are community centers. It's a place where the community comes to share information, share problems, share solutions. We want to find solutions and to do that we need to collect data, history, books and more importantly we need to bring organizations here, groups, friends, library friends, regular people. Come here and you can take programs, workshops, book reading, author lectures, children book reading, ASL classes and more.

Again, community centers mean that we bring people here. We bring people here to share information. We bring people here who can give lectures and explain... "My life, my experiences, my skills" Our history is long. Many deaf people have contributed to important things in our world. Not just one deaf person, but many.

But people don't know about it. So, we want to make it so that we have a place where we can truly collect information. These libraries today, where are the deaf books? You'll probably find 3, 4, 5, 10 or 15 books maximum, but they're mostly medically speaking regarding the deaf. Mostly with a narrow focus. Where's the culture? Where is the history? What is the impact of that history? This is what we want to share. This is where we want to push for and create a law that would establish the DCDL, Deaf Culture Digital Library. We want to set that up. Without the law, it'll collapse. Without the law, there's no funding. Without the law, it won't last. We want to set up a permanent library in every state, in every
territory, every commonwealth in our country because we are suffering. We know that history has not been kind to us. We know that the deaf don't have employment, we know that deaf schools are closing down, and why?

We don't have the answers to all that but we do have the answers in a system. That system is public, and that's the public library. We want to find a way to establish a library and bring people to the library. Bring your friends, your neighbors, your teachers, your doctors, people who don't know what it means, who don't see it. When you do that, you bring empowerment, you bring opportunity, you bring access, things that we need but that's easier when they understand what it means to be deaf or blind. We need to bring people to explain and share. Not once, not twice, but regularly. Every organization in the state can host their own programs and my advice is to do it once a month at a different library every time. You will impact people, you will expose people, you will make them understand and give them a reason to appreciate that the deaf community has power, that the deaf community made contributions, that the deaf community has needs.

The deaf community is a part of all of us. We're all together in America, in the world. Think of what you can do to make DCDL a reality for everyone. Remember, a library about the deaf and for everyone. A library that provides services to the deaf community, to support services to the deaf community. You will be better off if we are understanding and sharing with the community - Hello, I'm Alec, hello, I'm Darryl. Socialize and meet. That's what we want to do and I ask you all to think "What can I do to help my community and how can I share that?"

I think one of the best stages or platforms is in a library. It's public. It's free. It's for everyone. You try that. Think about that. And celebrate with each other. We are beautiful people and that is my message to you - please share your story or go and learn another one.

Credit to Alec McFarlane