As students at Hilo High in the 1960s, my friends and I would spend evenings at the Hilo Public Library doing our homework and socializing.

It was the only way our parents would let us out on school nights, and it was a safe space where skilled librarians helped point us to the information we needed at a time long before Google.

When I was expelled from the 11th grade for a display of my budding ability to infuriate authority figures — a liability then that became an asset in my long journalism career — I spent many days at the library for lack of anything else to do.

I read literature, history, current events and an occasional Agatha Christie mystery. It probably prepared me for college more than anything I’d have learned at school.

The affinity I developed for public libraries leaves me pained to see the struggles they now face in Hawaii and around the country.

Instead of welcoming places for people to gather, learn and spark their imagination, libraries have become what the New York Times described as “battlegrounds for the culture wars.” Librarians deal as much with the homeless, drug abusers and those with mental health issues as they do books, causing many to burn out and leave the profession.

In Hawaii, Honolulu Civil Beat reported that state Librarian Stacey Aldrich will ask the Legislature for $1.2 million for new security guards after employees reported some 600 incidents this year at the 51 state libraries involving disruptive patrons, including two assaults on staff, and property damage.

Hawaii libraries have other problems besides becoming epicenters for the state’s social problems.

Facilities are aging and maintenance has been neglected. Some libraries have been forced to reduce hours or even close several days a week because of budget cuts. Many of their collections have become thin and outdated. As staffing diminishes, librarians must take on computer services and new media as well as books and periodicals.

The state library endured a hiring freeze during the pandemic, and the Green administration is now proposing to permanently cut nearly 40 of those now-vacant positions.

The library didn’t help itself in terms of perceived priorities when it put out a $175,000 contract to a North Carolina company for a rebranding campaign to include logo design and other materials to increase its visibility.

The library suffers from being under the authority of the Board of Education and having to compete with Hawaii’s perpetually needy public schools for scarce funding.

But the state library, which serves more than 1.3 million people a year, should be recognized for its potential to again provide safe, welcoming and nurturing spaces that our communities sorely need.

It’s a relatively small budget item at less than $50 million annually, and investment of just a few million more could bring staffing to workable levels, fix the buildings, provide proper security, restore collections and add new learning resources.

This modest initiative to recover a cultural anchor for our communities is worth making a priority. A freshly polished statewide public library system would be every bit the civic jewel as a new $400 million stadium, at a tiny fraction of the cost.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.