by: Eli Rosenberg
The young couple burst through the great bronze doors of the main Brooklyn Public Library 15 minutes before closing time one recent Sunday with an unusual request: Was there somewhere they could recite their vows?
It was a blustery day, and the two — a military man and his fiancée, according to librarians — wanted a place they could finish their nuptials away from the chill at Grand Army Plaza.
Fortunately, the library had not long before opened a $3.25 million addition to its central branch, complete with conference rooms available to anyone with an adult library card. Librarians showed the couple to Room 5, the lack of a reservation notwithstanding.
“This may have technically been a violation of our meeting room policy,” Jesse Montero, the library’s coordinator of information services and public training, acknowledged of the impromptu ceremony, which added “wedding chapel” to the facility’s growing list of descriptions.
The four-month-old Shelby White and Leon Levy Information Commons replaced the branch’s media section, providing a wood-paneled center with space for 70 laptop users, a 36-seat classroom and 7 meeting rooms, including a digital studio with green screen, microphone and video equipment.
It quickly became popular with freelance writers and other creative minds, but its uses have been quite varied, like as a safe space for immigrants to learn about the naturalization process and for parents to hold meetings about charter schools. And yes, even as a warm environment for a wedding.
“This is a sanctuary. It’s beautiful,” said Freddy Quevedo, 64, a retired construction worker originally from Ecuador. He was attending a CitizenshipWorks event, where representatives of groups like the Immigration Advocates Network and Pro Bono Net helped prospective citizens fill out naturalization forms, with lawyers on hand for private counsel in the meeting rooms.
Equipped with a projector (new and working) and a cart of laptop computers (also new and working), the classroom has allowed the library to work with other nonprofit organizations and residents to offer a class on podcasting, hosted by BRIC Arts Media Bklyn, a primer on Medicare and a workshop on Revolutionary War genealogy with the Daughters of the American Revolution.
It’s this diversity of new uses, most of which have little to do with reading or books, that the library says is part of a larger campaign to maintain relevancy in an increasingly digital world.
“The business of being a public library is much more complicated today than it was when it was conceived,” said Linda E. Johnson, the president of the Brooklyn Public Library. “We’re still trying to level the playing field. It’s just not about books as much as it is about access to the Internet.”
The 5,500-square-foot space is among the first of its type for a public library, according to planners, who drew inspiration from the Research Commons at New York University’s Bobst Library, and took aesthetic cues from Apple stores.
The library benefited from the largess of Shelby White, a philanthropist, self-described “Brooklyn girl” and founding trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation, which awarded the library a $100,000 grant in 2009 to study the project, and $3.25 million in 2010 for its construction.
Not that the operation has gone off entirely without a hitch.
The wing initially suffered from slow Wi-Fi service — a striking flaw for laptop users — before an upgrade.
The commons have also suffered the occasional disruption, like when a packed meeting about a Citizens of the World charter school spilled out of a room and disturbed the quiet of the work area; the meeting had been overwhelmed by protesting parents.
But with $1 coffee in the library’s lobby, why would a freelancer spend time working in a cafe or home office again?
“It’s not what you expect when you walk in a library, but to have a professional, upscale place to meet with clients is incredible,” said Don Noble, 40, a film producer from Crown Heights who uses the commons every other day. “It’s good to get away from the house.”
from: NY Times
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