YouTube.com: True Stories of the Lego Library

Reals stories from public libraries, according to the....

Episode 1: The Potty Problem

Source: YouTube


Episode 2: Dumb Questions

And according to the creator, Tony Miller, each one of these questions has really happened.

Source: Youtube

The Ithaca Journal: Building a new Tompkins library, with Legos

By Simon Wheeler
May 28, 2016

From left, Michael Perelstein 8, Terry Wang, 9, work with Peter McCracken all of Ithaca, to find a piece to complete one kit of the Lego model of the Tompkins County Public Library. McCracken, a library trustee, is organizing the building of the model library of the future.

Peter McCracken of Ithaca was working hard managing 100,000 Lego bricks on a recent Saturday at the Tompkins County Public Library.

McCracken, who is on the library's board of trustees, and his 12-year-old son, Andrew, are running the library foundation's ongoing Lego build fundraiser.

For a $50 donation anyone can take home a kit of about 200 bricks along with instructions and build a section of what will become a large Lego model of the library. Each assembled kit is then brought back to the library and it is installed in a one-of-a-kind, 6-foot by 6-foot model of the library. The model is a reimagining of what the library will look like after a renovation to be completed in 2017.

As with many complicated projects not everything was running smoothly on this Saturday. Assembled kits were brought back and they didn't always fit perfectly into the larger structure. McCracken and his son dug into a cardboard box of extra bricks, filling the air with the sound of hard plastic Lego bits being stirred.

McCracken got the idea for the Lego library model after his family visited Durham Cathedral in England in summer 2015. Andrew spotted a sign advertising a Lego build where, for a payment of one pound, visitors could buy one brick to add to a Lego model of the cathedral.

That led the father-son to discuss building a Lego mini figure scale-model of the Ithaca Commons.

"A mini figure, without any hat on, is four bricks tall," said Andrew, of the approximately 1/48 scale of the system.

But realizing the Commons would have "a billion really flat bricks," Andrew said they decided to build the public library because it is so big "we could do a lot of stuff building it."

"Kids love Legos and it's an opportunity to give to the library, so it's kind of win-win, it's two things that we wanted to do anyway," said Peter McCracken.

Fundraising campaign

The Lego build is the final stage of the library's $2.75 million fundraising campaign, according to Susan Smith Jablonski, executive director of the TCPL Foundation. The foundation plans to raise $25,000 through the Lego build.

Launched in November 2014, the campaign's two main goals are to create a new teen space and a digital lab — including a maker space, computers in a classroom, and computer work stations for collaborative and individual work. There will also be an emphasis on making English as a second language services available.

The teen space will have flexible and comfortable seating and technology resources for teens to use for homework help, said Library Director Susan Currie. The collection of teen material will be expanded to add new material.

Also, as part of the renovation, an office will be built for the Tompkins County historian, Currie said.

From left, Peter McCracken, Michael Perelstein, 8, Terry Wang, 9, and McCracken's son Andrew, 12, all of Ithaca, work to assemble the Lego mini figure scale model of the Tompkins County Public Library. (Photo: SIMON WHEELER / Staff Photo)

The opportunity to reconfigure the popular library arose when the Finger Lakes Library System moved to its own building in the Town of Dryden. This opened up a previously non-public area at the southeast corner of the Ithaca library building for reuse.

The final layout of the redesigned library is not yet set, as the library staff work with Tompkins County and an architect to create the design. In addition Tompkins County has committed to replacing the heavily worn carpet throughout the public areas of the library, Currie said.

The Lego model represents the current state of thinking about where all the new spaces might fit in.

While the fundraising campaign has already reached its goal, Smith Jablonski said the actual total will determine if any additional improvements can be included in the final redesign plans.

A campaign celebration will be held 4 to 6 p.m. June 18 when the fundraising total will be announced and the completed Lego model will be revealed. Contributions will be taken until June 30, Smith Jablonski said.

Nine-year-old Terry Wang watches as 12-year-old Andrew McCracken puts a wall into place. The doors in the wall are the entrance to the Ezra Cornell Reading Room at the at the far end of the Avenue of Friends from the entrance. (Photo: SIMON WHEELER / Staff Photo)

Currie would like to add two public meeting rooms to the library. These rooms, holding 15 or 20 people respectively, exist behind walls that would need to be reconfigured. With the addition of new furniture and display equipment, the rooms would be available to the public just as the BorgWarner Room is currently reserved.

"We just can't meet the demand for meeting space as it is," said Currie.

Also on the additional items wish list is a local history reading room surrounding the county historian's office.

A first for Bright Bricks

As much as the redesign of the library is a work in progress, the Lego model of the library of the future is, too. The English company Bright Bricks, which specializes in one-off Lego creations including Durham Cathedral, is creating the Lego library. Even McCracken doesn't know what it will look like when it is complete.

McCracken pulled his son out of summer camp when a opportunity arose to meet Bright Bricks co-owner Ed Diment on a visit to Ithaca in August 2015 to discuss the project.

MIchael Perelstein 8, of Ithaca, works to assemble his section of the wall of the Lego model of the Tompkins County Public Library. (Photo: SIMON WHEELER / Staff Photo)

"We're very lucky to have an amazing trustee and honorary trustee" said Currie talking about McCracken and his son.

Approximately 400 component kits are being offered as part of the Lego build. About 150 have not yet arrived in Ithaca. Bright Bricks custom-made the model based on provided plans, photographs taken by McCracken and descriptions of how the staff think the future building might look.

According to Smith Jablonski, Bright Bricks has never done a project like this before where individuals each build section of the finished piece at home.

Eight-year-old Michael Perelstein of Ithaca came on a recent Saturday to collect his kit but, rather than take it home, he built it on a table next to the model with help from fellow Belle Sherman student Terry Wang.

His mother Anindita Banerjee said she thought the project was important as even small children could feel like stakeholders through the act of putting bricks together.

"I just really like Legos" said Michael, who said he has a lot of Legos at home.

Get involved

There are several ways you can get your hands on some of the bricks and help build.

• Buy a kit: Modules are $50 each and are limited. To reserve a kit, click on the TCPL LEGO Build icon at www.tcplfoundation.org/.
• Buy a few bricks: For $1 at the Ithaca Festival, you can add a few bricks to one of several modules to be built at the library foundation's festival booth.
• Limited edition kits: If you want something to keep as a permanent memento, the library foundation will soon be selling two limited edition kits. One is a miniature version of the library building ($60)and the other is a set of bookshelves and a book cart ($30).

For more information, contact Tompkins County Public Library Foundation Executive Director Suzanne Smith Jablonski at 607-272-4557 ext. 231 or ssmithjablonski@tcpl.org.

The Tompkins County Public Library Foundation is selling limited edition Lego kits of the library for $60. (Photo: Tompkins County Public Library Foundation)

Source: The Ithaca Journal

American Libraries: Engaging Babies in the Library

Engaging Babies in the Library

This is an excerpt from Engaging Babies in the Library: Putting Theory Into Practice by Debra J. Knoll (ALA Editions, 2016).

Babies, toddlers, and care providers are only one set of many populations served by children’s librarians. Nevertheless, baby brain research has galvanized the profession to try to do more, and it has.

Librarians are now beginning to realize the impact they have on a baby’s development can influence his or her developing brain for a lifetime, and they are doing whatever it takes to make these early years happy and positive. The stakes here are high. After all, these are human lives growing and developing very quickly.

Dream big

It makes sense for librarians to contribute to a baby’s brain development. Combining babies’ vigorous growth with widespread public library facilities has the potential not only to promote healthy development all over the country but also to exert a positive cultural influence on the youngest patrons. Why wouldn’t we want to be a part of something that meaningful?

So what would it look like for every community to have a librarian dedicated to serving just infants and toddlers, another librarian for the preschool population, a third for the early grades, and even a fourth for the upper grades, similar to how public schools are structured? Such a library would certainly look more adequately staffed. But it is unrealistic to think that smaller or cash-strapped libraries can replicate this model, or that one or two librarians can do it all. However, if the profession does not take these issues seriously, it runs the risk of becoming irrelevant and ineffective. Serving all children in this way would be optimal, but given the knowledge of infants’ rapid brain growth, libraries should consider providing focused service most intensively to babies and toddlers.

If children’s librarianship had it all—ample personnel, funding, time, and the strong support of the administration and the community—what could the children’s librarian bring to bear on the positive developmental trajectory of every child? More specifically, what if the vocation of librarianship allowed for a full-time position with fair compensation to exclusively serve babies, toddlers, and care providers?

What to do?
Librarians can easily or inexpensively adopt or implement baby steps to begin serving their youngest patrons, or big steps with further investment, support, funding, and collaborative efforts.

Baby steps:

• Establish partnerships with hospital birthing units, introducing yourself as the baby’s first professional education provider and offering a small gift and the library’s contact information.
• Be available for spontaneous interactions that include infant play, book engagement, and conversations with care providers.
• Advocate for the publication of books that will expand babies’ and toddlers’ growing vocabulary base.
• Create or provide programs specifically targeting this entire group with topics of interest to parents and caregivers, such as breast-feeding or nutrition as well as storytimes.
• Collaborate with public service providers for this population, attending professional meetings to stay aware of current issues and concerns.
• Join other community agencies, such as local service groups, faith-based efforts, and state and local job and family services departments, to reach out to this population through in-home visits.
• Mentor a librarian joining the ranks. Explain various publications that will keep him or her informed of best practices, including those outside the field of children’s librarianship.
• Read more about the history of children’s librarianship—its heartfelt mission to children, how it has grown and changed over the years, and how it has succeeded so far—for fresh inspiration.
• Stay informed of ongoing child development research. Zero to Three is a wonderful gateway.
• Host a local services and health fair with professionals, intervention specialists, support groups, vendors, and other community entities interested in the welfare of families.
• Become involved in, or at least make yourself more familiar with, local and state children’s services agencies, faith-based services, or both.
• Visit an unfamiliar library. If possible, take a baby and a toddler. Experience the visit from the patrons’ point of view. Discuss your experience with staff members. Brainstorm how service could be improved.
• Send out invitations to young families not currently using the library. (Local faith-based groups, service agencies, and regularly attending library users can all be sources of referral.) Meet the families at the door and experience the library from the newcomers’ perspective.

Big steps:

• Adapt the courses of library and information study, perhaps even at the graduate level, to require library students to delve into such topics as infant and child development, family dynamics and diversity, emerging literacy, and basic social services.
• Take advantage of opportunities to remain updated through professional development not only within the profession, but also through extended education in such topics as autism, communicable diseases, developmental delays, and other issues.
• Advocate for the power that children’s librarianship possesses for this population, and for all children, at the state and national levels.
• Hire a full-time librarian with child development credentials to provide quality service specific to babies and toddlers and in which outreach, programming, on-the-fly interactions, and connections are made possible.

A call for advocacy from administrators

Children’s librarianship can thrive within an institution only through the defense, support, and dedication of a solid administration and board of trustees. Administrators, embracing such tenets as the ALA Library Bill of Rights and Code of Ethics, set the tone, level of professionalism, and quality standards and expectations for their individual libraries. Children’s librarians, and libraries in general, must broaden their thinking and consider methods for implementing real change.

As advocates and supporters of these important library goals, dedicated administrators can raise the bar and lead the way for other institutions to follow in fully acknowledging this population, not only as future contributors to society but also as deserving human beings. The continuing claim of inadequate dollars is tiring. Money has been available for upgrading software, installing high-surveillance security cameras, purchasing pricey databases, and so on. Some of these expensive investments have come and gone and are now for sale at the Friends’ bargain table. Yes, it is important to keep up with the technological advances and all other wants and needs of a continually adjusting society. But those dollars are not always allocated fairly, and sometimes babies and toddlers are on the losing side of the funding equation.

Administrators who truly respect and honor librarianship to babies, toddlers, children, and the families within their communities need to broadcast that message through better pay for children’s librarians. In the book Fundamentals of Children’s Services, Michael Sullivan reports that “children’s librarians make less than other librarians because they are children’s librarians.” Why? Is it because they work with children? Are the children themselves somehow less worthy of fairly compensated, quality service? At the very least, children’s librarians should be equitably compensated. The profession itself most certainly expects and maintains lofty standards for quality, well-educated professionals, and rightfully so. This should be even more the case when considering the complexities involved in serving babies, toddlers, and families.

What can administrators do?

To truly invoke lasting, powerful, and meaningful change for babies and toddlers, and for all children, administrators should consider the following:

Baby steps:

• Support strict policies that mandate hiring well-prepared candidates.
• Help create the cultural perception of children’s librarians as first education facilitators for babies and toddlers, just as pediatricians are first health providers.
• Equitably compensate children’s librarians.
• Include children’s librarians in administrative meetings because they provide a voice for this population.
• Invite the children’s librarian and security and maintenance personnel to walk through the library, noting how the building itself is aiding or hindering service to families with babies and toddlers.
• Become more informed about children’s librarianship in general and service to babies in particular.
• Advocate for the profession outside the library, speaking highly of the value and importance of what children’s librarians do in general and what they are trying to accomplish for babies and families in particular.
• Interview staff members and evaluate their fitness for public services and behind-the-scenes jobs, perhaps realigning job placement to everyone’s mutual satisfaction.

Big steps:

• Use political clout to call attention to problems faced by families of young children and lobby for changes across the political landscape.
• Advance the work and the workplace of children’s librarians in the larger political arena, lobbying for change.
• Allocate commensurate funding to children’s services.
• Offer continuing education incentives to staff members who are willing to invest in additional coursework on the subject of human development.

The Four Respects

Anne Carroll Moore, a pioneer of children’s librarianship who served New York Public Library from 1906 to 1941, developed the Four Respects that are still embraced by children’s librarians today. They are:

• Respect for children.
• Respect for children’s books.
• Respect for fellow workers.
• Respect for the professional standing of children’s librarians.

Administrators are encouraged to review them and examine their library’s overt or covert prejudices. Recognizing the potential, the patrons, and the profession for all of their worth, and then truly investing in them, ultimately depends on the deeply held convictions and assertive actions of administrators. Babies, toddlers, families, and children’s librarians are counting on, maybe even crying out for, this deep level of support and commitment. The exhortation cannot be more heartfelt: Be the champions for these patrons and the librarians who serve them, on purpose.

Looking forward

There are so many sociocultural issues affecting babies that providing library service for them needs to be taken seriously. Serving infants, toddlers, and their caregivers is a complex and serious yet delightful process but ultimately simple in its delivery. The problem is that quality service takes time, even if only in bits and pieces. And time is a precious resource for many librarians.

It isn’t enough to devote time just to programming, although programs for babies and toddlers are very valuable. If it is to be truly successful, quality service requires the understanding and support of administration not only in hiring wisely but also in advocating for and maintaining a level of respect toward children’s librarians and the patrons they serve.

Source: American Libraries

3DPrint.com: The Importance of Libraries to the Economy: ALA Releases New Publication on Advancing Entrepreneurship

by Clare Scott
June 21, 2016

I’ve made no secret of my love for libraries, and one of my favorite stories to follow here at 3DPrint.com is the ever-growing involvement of the American Library Association in creating public access to technology, particularly 3D printing. Over the last year, the ALA has released several publications intended to help librarians and library officials to learn about 3D printing and how to implement it in their own facilities. Topics covered have included advice on how to set up makerspaces, potential legal issues, and more. Now, in a newly released white paper, the ALA is focusing on the broader topic of entrepreneurship and how libraries can serve as resources for getting startups off the ground.

Just a few days ago, Shapeways and the New York Public Library announced that they would be partnering up to develop curriculum, free to the public, on 3D printing and entrepreneurship. Now, in a new publication entitled “The People’s Incubator: Libraries Propel Entrepreneurship,” Charlie Wapner, senior information policy analyst at ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP), discusses the myriad resources that libraries can provide to individuals and groups trying to start their own businesses.

The Launch Pad Makerspace at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library

"Libaries have always played a powerful role in connecting people with the resources and learning they need to be successful in all aspects of their lives,” said ALA President Sari Feldman. “In the digital age, libraries are transforming to maximize our collections, community connections and expertise alongside new technologies to promote entrepreneurship and business development. Because libraries are open to all, they bring economic opportunity for all.”

The report provides several examples of services libraries can offer to would-be entrepreneurs, including:

• Classes, networking opportunities and mentoring services
• Makerspaces and tools such as 3D printers
• Collaborations with organizations such as the US Small Business Association (SBA) and SCORE
• Access to specialized business databases
• Business plan competitions
• Advice and education on intellectual property
• STEM programs for young people

The report dedicates a few pages to 3D printing and how the presence of 3D printers in libraries have helped entrepreneurs to begin getting their ideas off the ground. According to the publication, more than 420 public libraries now offer 3D printing services (a year ago, the number was only at 250), and the paper gives a couple of examples of successful businesses that were started thanks to local libraries and their 3D printers.

“Recent uses of 3D printing services at the Westport Library (CT) illustrate the utility of the library as a space for product prototyping,” the white paper states. “A woman with no background in business or entrepreneurship used a 3D printer at Westport to prototype a square-shaped headband that imitates the look of wearing sunglasses atop your head. She has now received financial backing and has begun marketing her headband in a variety of colors.”

Scott Rownin of SafeRide

Also highlighted is Scott Rownin, another patron of the Westport Library, who used the library’s 3D printer to prototype a device that would attach to cell phones and prevent drivers from texting while driving. The device was eventually turned into an app called SafeRide.

While libraries play an important role for everyone, they’re especially vital for certain groups such as immigrants; the Los Angeles Public Library and the Austin Public Library, for example, both provide comprehensive resources to help immigrants through the process of attaining citizenship and subsequently beginning new business ventures. (According to a recent report by the Kauffman Foundation, 28.5 new businesses started in 2014 were begun by immigrants.) Libraries, the paper argues, are more crucial to the economy than ever before, and policy makers should take note of the services they provide.

Panel discussion at the National Policy Convening.
[Image: American Libraries Magazine]

Panel discussion at the National Policy Convening. [Image: American Libraries Magazine]
“Economic opportunity is clearly a major concern for voters this year,” said Alan S. Inouye, director of the ALA OITP. “We urge the presidential campaigns and the national policy community to incorporate libraries into their strategies and plans for jumpstarting business development and job creation.”

A few months ago, the ALA held its first-ever National Policy Convening to discuss ways in which libraries and their services can remain on the national and political radar. The conference focused on the role of libraries in economic opportunity, entrepreneurship and workforce development, and, as the ALA’s new white paper illustrates, that role is much more significant than many people may realize. You can read the entire paper here. Discuss further in the Libraries Promoting Economics and 3D Printing forum over at 3DPB.com.

Source: 3DPrint.com

Mississauga News: Bedbugs not a problem at Mississauga libraries, says director

Protocol has kept pests out

By Chris Clay
Jun 17, 2016

Toronto Star file photo

Mississauga library officials say their facilities have never experienced a bedbug infestation. And they plan on keeping it that way.

Rose Vespa, the City of Mississauga’s director of library services, says they have never had to close any of their 18 libraries due to bedbugs or any other sort of pest infestation. Earlier this week, the Essex County library decided to close some of its libraries after finding bedbugs at one location.

Mississauga libraries are well used with over five million visitors and more than seven million items circulated annually. The municipality had adopted a proactive approach by having a bedbug prevention process in place, which is based on advice from Peel Public Health and also looking at protocols used by other public libraries.

The libraries have a licensed pet control company inspect each of their facilities yearly. They use a specially trained dog to sniff out bedbugs or their eggs.

If the dog picks up on any of the pests, the items are treated. Smaller items, such as books, are taken from the buildings to be cleansed.

The inspections started in April and will continue through to November.

“With the amount of visitors and items circulated, we know that exposure to bedbugs at the library is possible but we also know our bedbug prevention process will further reduce the risk,” said Vespa in an email to The News.

Source: Mississauga News

GuelphToday.com: Expert says Libraries need to embrace change to remain vital

By Tony Bridgeman
June 12, 2016

Director of Federation of Ontario Public Libraries said re-branding is key moving forward

Stephan Abram speaks on the future of libraries at the Guelph Public Library main branch. (Troy Bridgeman for GuelphToday.)

Libraries have a public image problem, says Stephan Abram, executive director of the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries.

Rebranding that image and embracing change is the best way to ensure libraries remain a vital part of every community, Abram said in Guelph recently.

“We can’t control change only our attitude toward change,” said Abram.

He said libraries are traditionally underfunded and that is largely because they haven’t done a very good job at defining their business model.

“We have to ask, what business are we in,” he said.  “Are we in the business of books or are books the foundation of what we are trying to achieve?  We are in the question business and questions deserve quality answers.”

Abram maintains a popular blog and website about libraries called Stephen’s Lighthouse  (http://stephenslighthouse.com)

“We have been doing tons of research,” he said.  “I’ve got over 2,000 reports on the value and impact of all types of libraries on my website.”

He shared some of his research and observations about the Changing Roles of Libraries during a presentation at the main branch of the Guelph Public Library.

“I’ve heard him speak a number of times,” said Steve Kraft, CEO of the GPL “He is very inspirational and he really makes you think.”

Kraft was among several library advocates including GPL communications coordinator, Lisa Cunningham that filled the library’s program room to hear Abram speak.

“It is important to keep the conversation about libraries going,” said Cunningham. “We have to find a good balance between new and old.”

Abram said the traditional role of libraries doesn’t have to change but how they carry out that role must move with the times.

“We are change agents,” he said. “If we don’t change we are basically fossilizing. Change is moving significantly faster.  What used to be a 20 or 100-year arc is now a two-year arc.  More information has been published in the last two years than in all of history.”

He said the Internet, e-books and other new digital technologies are not a threat to the future of public libraries but are actually creating opportunities for them.

“Google was built by librarians,” he said. “Librarians built this infrastructure but we are questioning some of the unintended consequences of some of the stuff we built.”

One of those unintended consequences is the perception that libraries are antiquated institutions that have been effectively replaced by Internet search engines.

“Giving everyone an iPhone is not the future of education,” he said. “You have to learn to learn. Google is good for who, what, where, when questions but bad for how and why questions.  How and why questions are the questions of life.”

He said trained librarians help personalize searches and good library programs bring members of the community together.

Nevertheless, building and maintaining libraries is often viewed as a waste of taxpayers’ money.

“Libraries are not a cost,” said Kraft. “They are an investment.”

That is supported by Abram’s research.

“Every dollar invested in a library delivers a 400 to 600 per cent return,” said Abram.  “That is a conservative estimate.”

The contribution to education is often overlooked.

“Public libraries have got zero dollars from the Ministry of Education,” he said. “We know that children that go to an early years program at the library and have stories read to them have a letter grade difference by grade eight.

We know that kids that have a well-run, well-staffed school library have a 20-point increase in their standardized testing scores.”

The impact on society and innovation is significant.

“We have this image that libraries are about nouns but they are about verbs,” said Abram.

“So, it’s not books. It is reading. Every day and every way libraries are throwing pebbles and we don’t know what that pebble is going to do but there is a ripple effect.”

Source: GuelphToday.com

American Libraries: Dewey Decibel Podcast: Library Security

Episode Two features Mary Ann Jacob, Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer, and Steve Albrecht in “Library Security: Making Your Space Safer”

 May 23, 2016

American Libraries can’t thank you enough for the listens, follows, and overwhelmingly positive feedback we’ve gotten since premiering our first Dewey Decibel podcast episode last month.

In Episode Two, we bring you conversations on library security. It’s not an easy topic to talk about, but it is an essential one. We welcome three people from the library world who work to help us understand how to handle safety issues—both large-scale, harrowing encounters and smaller but still disconcerting events—in our buildings and on our campuses.

Mary Ann Jacob, a library aide who works at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and was present during the fatal shootings on December 14, 2012, shares her powerful story. She recounts how library staff reacted that day and how her community has since moved forward, including her work with Everytown for Gun Safety.

Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer, director of New Mexico State Library, explains some of the active shooter training programs she made available to her staff at the New Mexico and New Jersey state libraries. She talks about the programs’ usefulness for frontline staff and the model that was used at Scott County (Ky.) Public Library.

Steve Albrecht, author of Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities (ALA Editions, 2015), provides tips on what libraries can do to stay safe on a day-to-day basis, develop liaison relationships, and keep from overreacting or underreacting in a situation.

A delicate but important installment, we think this episode is especially valuable to library staff members and users. Give it a listen and let us know what you think at deweydecibel@ala.org.

Be sure to come back for Episode Three, featuring interviews with Nancy Pearl and winners of the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, airing June 25.

[You can go directly to the podcast by clicking here.]

Source: American Libraries

An Amphitheater. A Laptop Bar. It’s a New York Library Like No Other.

Buidling Blocks
By DAVID W. DUNLAP 
JUNE 20, 2016

Ching-Yen Donahue, the cataloging coordinator at the 53rd Street branch of the New York Public Library. Credit Santiago Mejia/The New York Times

More a theater for learning than a citadel of research, the new 53rd Street Library offers one surprise after the next as it unfolds below the sidewalks of New York.

Monday was opening day.

The 53rd Street Library is the long-awaited, long-delayed replacement for the Donnell Library Center, a beloved and heavily used branch of the New York Public Library system. Donnell was also that increasingly precious thing: a free civic amenity in one of the poshest areas of Manhattan.

It closed in 2008. Its replacement was supposed to be ready in three years, but the redevelopment of the site, between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas, was derailed by the national economic crisis. Ultimately the library sold the property for $67.4 million in 2011 to Tribeca Associates and Starwood Capital.

Workers installing oak bleachers in the library’s amphitheater. There will be 11 tiers, and they will face a 20-by-9½-foot video screen placed below street-level windows. Credit Santiago Mejia/The New York Times 

Above the space set aside for a replacement library, the developers erected a 50-story hotel and apartment tower called the Baccarat, for which the adjective “luxury” scarcely suffices. One condo near the top of this skyscraper sold last year for $23,289,760.64.

To put that price in perspective, it cost $23 million to build out the library from the core and shell provided by the developers.

(There is a Building Blocks column to be written about secretive plutocrats buying investment aeries in the sky while public institutions are relegated to basements. Some other day.)

For now, the return of a public library branch ought to be welcomed by residents, office workers and visitors who troop along West 53rd Street on their way to or from the Museum of Modern Art complex. Especially a branch that will be open on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

 

The children’s room at the library has a dramatic, sloping ceiling, paneled in wood veneer. Credit Santiago Mejia/The New York Times 

 

However, the new library, designed by TEN Arquitectos (Taller de Enrique Norten), will not remind them of Donnell — or any other public library in the city.

The first surprise is that its main room is an amphitheater. Eleven tiers of oak bleachers face a 20-by-9 ½-foot video screen placed below street-level windows. Eight people can sit on each tier. Felt cushions will be provided. The video displays will be soundless except during special programs — say, a series of vintage movies about New York City.

The room may remind you of the 10th Avenue Square and Overlook on the High Line in Chelsea. Or the Prada store at Broadway and Prince Street in SoHo.

Overlooking this 34-foot-high space is a laptop bar with 10 “Zeb” stools made by the German company Vitra. I’m betting these will be among the most popular seats in any house in Midtown.

The new library features 22 desktop and 46 laptop computers, along with 381 electrical outlets. Credit Santiago Mejia/The New York Times

 

You can even bring lunch.

“We’re going to allow food,” Genoveve Rodriguez-Stowell, the managing librarian at the 53rd Street branch, said as she and other library officials showed off the space. “We’re going to be progressive.”

Christopher Platt, the library vice president who oversees all 88 branches (soon to be 89), winced slightly hearing about the food policy.

“Only here,” Ms. Rodriguez-Stowell reassured him, at the laptop bar. Mr. Platt looked relieved.

The bleachers descend 17 feet from street level, where the second surprise presents itself, around the corner from the lowermost tier. There is, indeed, a reading room — a large reading room of 11,000 square feet. This is where most of the books are, 20,000 of them for starters. The number will grow.

They are all newly purchased books. Donnell’s specialized research collections have been divided among the Library for the Performing Arts (media), the Mid-Manhattan Library (world languages) and the central research library, now known as the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (children’s material).

All of the books at the 53rd Street Library are new purchases. The specialized research collections that were once housed by the Donnell Library Center were divided among other branches. Credit Santiago Mejia/The New York Times 

Every book at the 53rd Street branch will circulate, as will audiobooks, DVDs and music CDs.

There are 22 desktop and 46 laptop computers in the branch, but no Macs. There are also 381 electrical outlets. Twenty librarians, assistants and aides will work there full time, assisted by four part-time pages, helping with reshelving.

What looks like the biggest shelf of all, in the center of the main reading room, is in fact the structural core of the Baccarat tower. The New York Public Library owns its space at the base of the tower as a condominium unit, which it was given by the developers.

The next surprise, when walking around the core, is a community meeting room that can accommodate as many as 120 people.

Every time you think there must be no library left, a new space opens up, most dramatically in the children’s room on the second level below ground. Here, TEN Arquitectos took the liability of the bleachers’ underside and turned it into a marvelous asset: a sloping ceiling, paneled in wood veneer.

There really is no fair way to assess the 53rd Street Library until it is full of people and of programs, which library officials promise it will be. Risa Honig, the library vice president for capital planning and construction, put her finger on what a library is at its best, even in a digital age: “A great place to be alone together.”

 Source: The New York Times

Chicago libraries aim to give away 1 million children's books

By Marion Renault
June 14, 2016

All 80 branches of the Chicago Public Library system will give a dozen free books to any child who registers for the library's summer program. (John Slater / Getty)


When the final bell of the semester rings throughout Chicago schools this week, city leaders don't want it to signal a pause in learning.

To combat the "summer slide" when kids swap reading for Popsicles and bike rides, all 80 branches of the Chicago Public Library system will give a dozen free books to any child who registers for the library's summer program.

The giveaway, announced Tuesday, is not only a new effort unprecedented in scale — it's expected to distribute more than 1 million books — but a way to address a persistent lack of access to books in low-income neighborhoods, organizers said.

There, on average, 300 children share a single book. For middle-income neighborhoods, the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1, library officials said.

"The challenge is that there are many homes in Chicago that do not have age-appropriate books for kids," Chicago Public Library Commissioner Brian Bannon said. "Obviously you can take a library book home, but owning your own is very different."

As part of the giveaway, school-age children will receive a bag filled with a dozen fiction and nonfiction books when they register for summer programming starting Monday. Those younger than 5 also will receive a free transportation-themed book.

"The kids we're serving all have the same ambition, they want to be successful. The only way to get there is to read your way there," said Brian Floriani, founder and executive director of Bernie's Book Bank, an organization that collects and distributes books to at-risk children. "And you can't read what you don't have."

The giveaway and continued public library offerings should contribute to more residents being able to have books in their home, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.

"You don't want a child to only experience books at either school or the library — as if the home is not a part of that," he said.

That difference between having or lacking books in the house as a youngster can have huge, rippling effects, said Dr. Dana Suskind, a University of Chicago surgeon who also studies the effect of language exposure during the first years of life.

Unlike the heart or lungs, she said, a baby's brain is underdeveloped and deeply affected by any stimuli from birth to full development. For that, she said, there's nothing better than reading or being read to, and as early as possible.

Reading creates a powerful bond between caregiver and child. It introduces unimaginable worlds, stokes curiosity and fosters understanding of other cultures and people. In the most basic sense, she said, it teaches children how it feels to handle a book and flip a page.

"You get to learn about things you may never see, like outer space or the Amazon," Suskind said. "There is no more concentrated time of interaction."

But when children miss out on reading during crucial early years — as those born into poverty often do — it becomes extremely difficult to catch up, Suskind said.

"Tragically, it plays out everywhere, even before the kids are ready to enter school," she said.
The Chicago Public Library's giveaway complements a summer learning program intended to encourage other types of learning fueled by creation and discovery.

"For some kids, it can be difficult to read," said Elizabeth McChesney, the library system's director of children's services. "By the age of 9, if it's not easy for them or fun for them … they just turn away from it."

She said she's seen 12-year-olds turn their summer readings into graphic novels. Others might come to explore aviation via homemade hovercrafts or master the basics of physics by building straw bridges.

"Over time, if children aren't continuing to learn summer after summer after summer, you start seeing significant learning loss accumulate," Bannon said.

Without that offseason stimulation, he said, children can start the following school year anywhere from three to six months behind where they left off.

"So September's not really September; it's more like March," Emanuel said.

And children who participated in the library's Summer Learning Challenge in recent years have made gains of 15 percent in reading and 20 percent in math compared with peers, according to ongoing analysis by the University of Chicago's Chapin Hall Center for Children.

"In the summer, you don't click off the brain," Emanuel said. "The kids that participate are starting September as if it's October or November."

Bernie's Book Bank, which is providing almost all of the giveaway's books, began distributing them throughout branches last week, Floriani said. If enrollment in the library's summer program matches last year's almost 100,000, he said, the book giveaway could top 1 million over the course of the season.

Floriani hopes it could be a model for other major metro areas where low-income neighborhoods also continue to grapple with access to age-appropriate books.

"There are variables that we might take for granted," he said. "For a family that's struggling — whether because of money or travel — even getting to the library is a different story."

 Source: Chicago Tribune

The Guardian: Why We Shouldn't Protect Teenagers from Controversial Issues in Fiction

There are certain subjects – sex, drink, drugs, violence – that light fires and push buttons. So how do you write about them for teenagers? YA author Chris Vick shares the guidelines he sets himself to get the balance right.

May 10th, 2016
Chris Vick

"A wild and dangerous ride."

That’s a quotation from a blogger’s review of my book, Kook. A response to the risky, and sometimes illegal, activities the characters get up to. Set in a world of die-hard Cornish surfers, Kook is about a young guy (Sam) falling for a girl who is, in every way, trouble. Jade is obsessed with riding the biggest wave she can find, as soon as she can find it. Whether she’s ready to or not. And that’s only part of what Jade and her crew get up to. It’s not just the surfing. It’s fighting, raves, drinking, getting into trouble with the police.

All of which raises a question around showing such things in YA fiction. How do you write about that? More to the point – should you?

In my view, yes. These things are a part of the teen experience. That makes them not only valid to write about, but actually things that need to be explored. Because this stuff happens. These are things young people will experience and have to form views about, whether they are active participants or not.

I wanted to write about a hinterland of youth and out-of-season sea-side life: how the teen characters react to it, both creatively and destructively. Living in rural, or out-of-season coastal settings, young adults can find themselves adrift. Too old for youth clubs, too young for pubs and clubs, and without the distractions and facilities of urban life, they find themselves “nowhere.” So they look for stimulation; some way to spend all that energy. Because they’re burning and fizzing with it. As well as curiosity and bravado. All fine qualities. But they can become dangerous if fueled by boredom.

Hence young people can, and do, find their own rites of passage. They can, and do, find trouble. Or make it.

In Kook, there is running motif: a piece of graffiti, showing Red Riding Hood, with a basket full of spray cans, painting on a wall: Fear makes the wolf look bigger. It speaks to teens facing fears and assessing risk. Something they both do and are biologically ill-equipped to (the part of the brain that properly assesses risk does not develop till we are in our twenties). And it also speaks to rites of passage. As Sam’s grandma tells him: there are no more wolves to kill. Young adults create their own. In Kook, that’s to surf the legendary Devil’s Horns reef.

To show all this is fine. What is perhaps more controversial is to show how much fun all this can be; how attractive. In Kook it’s all wrapped up in the girl. Sam is drawn to Jade. But also to the life she offers: thrills lacking in his previously urban, studious life. Things he doesn’t even know he is missing, until he experiences them.

The secondary question is how to write about these themes of danger and thrills.

Kook is about learning to surf, being drawn to dangerous things, getting in trouble and severely out of your depth. But Kook would be a one-dimensional book if surfing were the only metaphor for these themes and the only way of exploring them. So there is a certain amount of drugs, violence and law-breaking. This is not new in literature or even YA. It’s a tradition, from A Clockwork Orange to Melvin Burgess, Kevin Brooks, Lucy Christopher, Stephen Chbosky and Sherman Alexi.

Yet even with this tradition, did I think (twice) about including all this? Of course. Actually, I think you can write about pretty much anything in books for young adults. But… (and here I take a deep breath, because I cringe at the idea of ‘guidelines’ for authors) I had to set myself some rules:

Realism - Are the situations that the characters find themselves in, where they may experience or come into contact with sex, drink, drugs, violence etc, likely? Are they part of the landscape of the character’s lives, and does their inclusion drive the plot forward in some way?

Don’t be gratuitous or explicit – Much can be inferred. The imagination is powerful. Emotional truth and impact is the point, not shock.

Show consequences – drink and drugs can destroy lives, dangerous activities can lead to injury or death.

Show complexity – whilst showing the impacts – and yes, appeal – of activities that may be dangerous or illegal, don’t celebrate the activity. But don’t condemn the characters either. No-one likes a wagging finger.

Get close up to my main character – he only gets to ‘know’ anything through experience, making up his own mind, regardless of the confusing and conflicting pressures of media, school, parents and friends. Oh, and use your own memories (I did; in fact the writing got hijacked by them, though they morphed and twisted into parts of the story).

Of course, the problem with exploring any of these subjects is that they are fraught with the danger of misinterpretation. These are subjects – especially drugs – that light fires and push buttons. There’s a danger if you explore these matters at all, people assume what you think. They will believe you are ‘saying’ this, or that. But you’re really not. You’re writing a story. There is an argument that if you explore, but don’t condemn, you must be condoning. But that’s a flawed logic. It’s a novel, not a polemic.

We have to give teen readers credit for knowing the difference between truth and fiction, right and wrong, safe and dangerous. Arguably, fiction is actually a good place for young people to explore such themes and to undergo vicarious rites of passage. And not always through a filter made from vampires or SF dystopia.

I wanted to show a myriad of experiences and consequences. People having fun, sure, but also good times quickly turning sour, and the implications of being out of control.

All of this is in Kook. The good, the bad, the ugly; the fun, the attraction, the highs, and lows. To cut to the chase: I wanted to be honest about stuff that really happens. But to showing consequences too.

Source: The Guardian

Books Vs. E-Readers

Souce: The Onion

Bracebridge Examiner: Rotary club embarks on series of mini-libraries

June 7, 2016

By Brent Cooper

MUSKOKA - A community organization is trying to makes Muskoka a better place to read, one book at a time.

The Rotary Club of Bracebridge-Muskoka Lakes is starting a Little Free Library program, where books would be placed inside an outdoor wooden structure on or near someone’s property.

The books, which would be donated by area libraries or individuals, would be free to take and could be kept or returned to the library by the user, according to Kim Rixon, the president of the Rotary Club of Bracebridge-Muskoka Lakes.

“They are kind of popping up all over the place,” said Rixon. “There is one at Annie Williams Park (in Bracebridge) and there is one in Gravenhurst that I know of, and I know there are a few in some different communities.”

The idea for the club to start its own program came from Rotarian Shelly Duben, who Rixon said asked the membership if it was willing to participate.

The members agreed, and Rixon said the club was initially prepared to build the Little Free Libraries. However, students at Bracebridge-Muskoka Lakes Secondary School have come on board to take over the construction of the containers, with the wood shop class constructing the libraries from scrap wood and the arts students decorating the finished product.

The books in the Little Free Libraries would be mostly focused on teens and young children, and the club is now talking with area libraries about stocking the outdoor libraries while at the same time trying to find people to have them on or near their properties. There is also a need for people to act as caretakers of the libraries, Rixon said.

“We need people to act as monitors, to make sure the content in there is appropriate, and make sure there is nothing inside that is damaged or inappropriate,” she said. “Right now, we are looking for people to have them in their community or neighbourhood who might also be willing to look after them.”

The club has already received a request for one such outdoor Little Free Library in the Dorset area, Rixon said, adding some area libraries have agreed to donate some books to their program.

For more information, or if there is anyone wishing to take on a Little Free Library, contact Rixon at kim@muskokapartyrentals.ca or by calling 705-641-8732.

Source: MuskokaRegiona.com

The Mississauga News: Public-sector design has to strike the right ‘Tone’, says president of Architects Association of Ontario

Public-sector design has to strike the right ‘Tone’, says president of Architects Association of Ontario

May 19, 2016

By Rick Drennan

The buildings are bold, imaginative, spirited, airy, colourful, award winning, and definitely different.

They rose above the clichéd descriptors often used when critics talked about them.

Impressive, spectacular, unique, and one-of-a-kind are just a few of the amped-up words that could be used when describing three remodelled Mississauga Public Libraries: Port Credit, Lorne Park, and Lakeview.

Yes, you read it right. We’re talking libraries here, the most pedestrian of public buildings.

But they don’t have to be, says the president of the Architects Association of Ontario.

Maybe that’s why these three libraries were shortlisted for a prestigious OAA award in a province-wide competition that unveiled its winners on May 13 in Toronto.

While the Mississauga libraries didn’t win, they did cause a buzz, and for OAA president Toon (pronounced Tone) Dreessen, their redesigns announced a paradigm shift in thinking when it comes to the creation or remodelling of public-sector buildings.

They don’t have to be bland.

They should be unique, beautiful, and inviting.

If they are, says Dreessen, they will pay for themselves for years to come because their very designs promise even more usage.

For years, architects were chained to the urn of history. Libraries must be designed to offer users plenty of space where concentration is king.

Did that mean designing dark and bland and utilitarian buildings?

Dreessen says visiting a library shouldn’t leave the same claustrophobic effect on users as sliding into an MRI machine.

Air out the design. Give it space and light. Make it more accommodating for reading and browsing and networking.

That’s what Rounthwaite Dick and Hadley Architects Inc. the Toronto-based firm hired to do the job did in Mississauga accomplished – with flair.

And that delighted Dreessen, also president of Dreessen Cardinal Architects Inc., in Ottawa.

Dreessen says there’s incredible value to be had when cities put so much energy into the design of public buildings. He sees big shifts in embracing the green movement (LEED design). That will shave money off the heating and lighting of these buildings. He’s also heartened by a huge shift in the Request for Proposal (RFP) process.

The days when a city has to choose the “cheapest” alternatives are hopefully over, he says. It will be replaced by going with the best possible design available. That means buildings will be more attractive to end users, they tend to age more gracefully, and as a spin-off, the value of the surrounding neighbourhood will be heightened.

"There’s a vast interest in net value now, “ says Dreessen.

The problem with public buildings is that when they are proposed, everything is political. Dreessen says it’s way past time we “depoliticized” the process of RFP, and he urges a new emphasis on the design of pubic facilities.

It’s all about creating staying power, and more usage.

A beautiful, well-designed public building raises the awareness (and value) of a city, and the neighbourhood in which it sits, he explains.

“We have to focus on the measurable value,” adds Dreessen.

The days of a library being populated by grey old ladies telling you to ‘hush,’ is blessedly over. Libraries should be light-filled, and free from the constraints of designs past.

No more dark corners, or big stacks that chop away at a building’s openness.

Architects like to deal in straight and clean lines, but they also have a whimsical side and look for the telling details that will set a building apart and keep it on the public’s radar for years to come.

The colourless and repressive design from the past doesn’t mean older buildings have little value. A retro movement is afoot too, a blending of old and new into something dramatic. We see it in many cities in Europe. Prague has weaved yesterday, today and tomorrow into a lovely cityscape that is inviting for residents and tourists.

This lovely duality is very much alive in other forward thinking cities, and Mississauga is quickly taking its place amongst them.

Bringing a little mirth to public buildings works not only to draw in users, but retains them, and also attracts new converts in the future.

Visiting public libraries is becoming cool, especially for the young and old in Mississauga.

The Port Credit design is modern and clean and open and bright, and coupled with the new technology that is being offered at libraries, it’s created an eclectic mix.

Dresseen, 45, is in mid-career, and has a host of accomplishments in his back pocket, but he’s leading the charge to get builders and architects and municipalities to work in concert to create iconic buildings that add to the cultural fabric, and stand the test of time.

He points out that some public facilities built during the great Centennial Year (1967) celebrations offered up a frenzy of new designs. Some aged badly. Others are still a big part of a community’s mosaic.

The next great wave of public-sector development is pushing designs into a new and exciting phase.

Dreessen hopes to never again hear our public buildings being described as bland, or boring.

He much prefers descriptors like ‘impressive, spectacular, unique,’ and ‘one-of-a-kind.’

Source: The Mississauga News

Newfoundland and Labrador Library Association: APLA Urges NL Government to Reconsider Library Closures

May 3, 2016

The following letter will be submitted to the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador as well as the Members of the House of Assembly, on behalf of the Atlantic Provinces Library Association (APLA). NLLA thanks all of the library associations who have shown their support for our province’s libraries.

c/o School of Information Management
Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University
Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building
6100 University Avenue Halifax, NS B3H 3J5

May 3, 2016

RE: Open Letter Regarding the Closure of 54 Newfoundland and Labrador Public Libraries

Dear Premier:

The news of the impending cuts to the Newfoundland and Labrador public library system was met with distress and disbelief by the members of our association. APLA represents approximately 400 library workers and library supporters across the Atlantic region. I am writing on their behalf to ask that you reconsider the decision to close 54 of NL’s 95 public libraries.

The importance of public libraries cannot be overstated. They promote literacy by introducing young minds to the joys of reading and the acquisition of knowledge; they are an entry point into the world of lifelong learning; they are safe places for vulnerable members of the community, the young and the old, to engage in wholesome and fulfilling activities; they are meeting places where ideas are shared and plans that further individual and community goals are hatched; they are unique in their mission, providing irreplaceable services to their communities. In short, public libraries improve quality of life for those citizens who have ready access to them.

Even in these difficult economic times, which we certainly acknowledge, it is hard to fathom that such drastic actions are warranted. From newspaper accounts, we understand that the budget reduction goal was one million dollars, and the library closures are presented as providing the necessary savings. However, for dollars saved there are dollars spent on such things as EI and support services for the 64 workers who will lose their livelihood; the impact of lost income on the communities affected; health costs related to stress and other maladies; and the social costs related to educational deficits over time and the weakening of community ties. Is it possible that in the end, the two columns – savings and new expenditures – will cancel each other out? How much money will really be saved?

Each of the libraries slated for closure is the result of community engagement as well as provincial government funding. Their vitality reflects thousands of hours of volunteer work and the direct financial and in kind contributions of the people they serve. They have flourished over many years of constant dedicated effort. Libraries are easier to tear down than to build in the first place, or to rebuild. The damage done, if these closures go ahead, will be irreversible and will make hardly a dent in the province’s bottom line.

The concerns we raise here are not unique to us; in fact, we are certain you share them. We therefore urge you to reconsider these closures – which can only have a devastating impact on affected communities, and we thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
Suzanne van den Hoogen
APLA VP President-Elect
CC: Members of the House of Assembly

See also:
Library Associations Speak Out Against Newfoundland Public Library Lay-offs

Canadian Health Libraries Association Urges NL Government to Reconsider Library Closures & Library Funding

Source: Newfoundland and Labrador Library Association

Next City: Modern Public Libraries Can Help Bridge the Digital Divide

Linda E. Johnson | MAY 27, 2016

A little over a year ago, Brooklyn Public Library patron Kim Best received the shock of her life. She was, for all intents and purposes, an illegal immigrant — terrifying news for the mother of a nine-year-old son.

Not knowing where to turn, Kim came to the library. There, she discovered free classes, study guides and legal advice that help hundreds of immigrants pursue U.S. citizenship every year. With the support of her son, who quizzed her nightly on American history, and after participating in an 11-week workshop at Central Library, Kim became a naturalized citizen on Oct. 14, 2015. It was one of the best days of her life.

Only a generation ago, the advent of the digital age seemed to bode ill for libraries. Who would need them, these bricks-and-mortar artifacts of a simpler time, with so much information accessible at the click of a button?

Yet the digital revolution has proved not to be the demise of libraries, but their rebirth — and today, they are more relevant than ever to the people and communities they serve. Many patrons come to us as generations before them did, in search of good books and helpful research materials. Others, like Kim, pass through our doors determined to change the course of their lives. Taken together, their stories signal a bright future for our society’s most democratic institution.

Libraries are serving more people in more ways than ever before. At Brooklyn Public Library, our 60 branches logged nearly nine million visits last year, and 928,000 people attended our 47,000 public programs and events — all of which were, like everything libraries do, presented free of charge.

In New York City, the digital divide persists. With one-third of city households lacking internet access, families turn to libraries, the largest providers of free WiFi, to get and stay connected. Library computers are equipped with software and databases that freelancers, job seekers and students would not otherwise be able to afford. And free technology classes, job search and résumé assistance, and drop-in computer labs help New Yorkers find their way in a complex, knowledge-based economy.

As anyone who has visited a neighborhood branch recently will attest, the experience of being in a library is not what it once was. The era of shushing is long gone. Today, libraries are home to programs for patrons of all ages and backgrounds, alive with the energy of people from so many walks of life coming together under one roof.

Meanwhile the printed page, for centuries the foundation of library service, is alive and well. As of this writing, our catalogue holds 3.9 million items, the majority in print. In fact, thanks to increased investment from the city and help from private donors, we’ve increased our collections budget to its highest level since the recession.

As for Kim Best, her first year of American citizenship has been dizzying. On April 19, she proudly voted in a presidential election for the first time. Now Kim and her family are planning to travel internationally — perhaps to Guyana, where she has not been since she was a little girl.

But first, she will visit the White House on June 1 to help Brooklyn Public Library accept the 2016 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor for libraries. It will be Kim’s first visit to the nation’s capital, and she will gather beneath those stately marble columns with library supporters and patrons — her fellow citizens — from all over the country.

And then, another door will open to her.

To read the full article, please visit Next City.

National Post: A rural town in Newfoundland is losing its only library. What will Fogo Island do when it’s gone?

Nick Faris | May 31, 2016

The Fogo Island Public Library has more than 14,000 books. Children go there for homework help, fishermen to download work documents and just about everyone else in town to use the Internet. It hosts card game nights, colouring sessions and Easter egg hunts. It is the only library on the island, an hour’s drive by ferry from the rest of Newfoundland and Labrador.

It is closing on Oct. 31.

The library’s demise is a decision that came down to money, set in motion by a Liberal government elected last fall. Their first budget, unveiled in April, projected a record deficit of $2.2 billion. Soon, taxes will rise. Schools will axe teachers and increase class sizes. The public library system will be trimmed by more than half, as 54 of 95 locations shutter their doors in the next two years.

“We’ve been telling people this will touch every single person in this province,” Finance Minister Cathy Bennett told reporters when the budget was released.

Although there are 2,620 public libraries in Canada, according to a 2014 Royal Society of Canada report, it is possible that the condemned branches of Newfoundland are the most important of all. They are located, mainly, in rural communities and small towns, from 1,000-person Arnold’s Cove to the settlement of Woody Point, tucked deep in the expanse of a 1,800-km national park.

Books are often scarce in these areas — but their libraries, like Fogo’s, are not just repositories of printed words. They make the Internet freely accessible, in places where broadband connectivity is not quite universal. They provide public space where movie theatres and sporting arenas have never been built.

And they mean the world to people like Christine Dwyer.

Dwyer, 68, has been a member of Fogo’s library board for 39 years. Before retiring in 2008, she taught for three-plus decades at the island’s only school: Fogo Island Central Academy, where the library is housed. “The school is like family to us, and the library especially,” she told the National Post.

When Newfoundland’s government announced the library closures, they tried to soften the news through a compromise: 85 per cent of residents would still be within a 30-minute drive of a branch, in what Andrew Hunt, executive director of the Provincial Information and Library Resources Board, called a move to a regional “service-centre approach.”

Fogo’s 2,500 or so townspeople are part of the final 15 per cent. The only way to get to and from the mainland is an hour-long commute by ferry, by way of a wharf called “Farewell.”

“If ours closed down and I were to go to a library, I drive 30 minutes to get to the ferry, I wait for God knows how long, I have one hour on the ferry, and then I have a one-hour drive to see which library I want to go to, whether it be Gander, Lewisporte or Twillingate,” Dwyer said.

“So people are just not going to do it. The residents of Fogo Island are just not going to read as much.”

Literacy will not be the only loss, Dwyer said.

Fogo’s library is the regional site for the Community Access Program, a federal initiative to guarantee affordable Internet access across the country. A few years ago, the province closed Fogo’s Employment Assistance office, meaning fishery workers affected by seasonal layoffs must apply for employment insurance online. Those workers will have to turn somewhere else once again.

“I believe the closures are going to be most heartily felt in the rural areas,” said Krista Godfrey, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Library Association. “Libraries are an outlet for those communities: for social support, for finding government information, for finding jobs, learning how to use a computer, learning how to read.

“Now, these communities have lost this connection, and the communities are quite upset about it.”

The Newfoundland closures will not likely be replicated elsewhere in the near future, according to Paul Takala, the incoming chair of the Canadian Urban Libraries Council. Still, he said, “anytime there’s a cut in libraries, it certainly may create an incentive for others to look at cutting libraries.”

I drive 30 minutes to get to the ferry, I wait for God knows how long, I have one hour on the ferry, and then I have a one-hour drive to see which library I want to go to
And beyond a smidgeon of short-term financial relief, Takala doesn’t see much sense in slimming down. Libraries unite people of different cultural backgrounds, he said, and take on pragmatic importance in tougher economic times.

“(Those) are often the times when public libraries are used the most, because people don’t necessarily have the income that they (usually) do, if they’re underemployed or unemployed,” he said. “Oftentimes, they’re trying to upgrade their skills, or spending time looking for different kinds of work.”

Before announcing the 54 closures publicly, Newfoundland’s library board considered four new models to reduce costs, according to Hunt, the executive director. All four were predicated on closing branches to some degree.

The province will remove $1.7 million from its library funding allocation in the next three years, down from $11.2 million in 2015-16. But the money that remains will be concentrated in the 41 surviving branches, and each will be open at least 30 hours a week, Hunt said, up from a current average of 18.

To help offset the closures, the province intends to expand two niche services — electronic books and books-by-mail orders, currently offered to library users who live 24 km or more from the nearest branch. And even as locations close, their materials may not be lost forever.

“The board is more than willing to discuss with municipalities and school districts of turning over the assets of the libraries that are closing to local community groups and things like that, to keep those libraries operating in those areas that we are ceasing operations,” Hunt said.

For now, it is slim consolation to Fogo — and to Sandra Singh, the president of the Canadian Library Association, who said some cities have recently made “incredible” reinvestments in public libraries.

“These are not just stunning pieces of public architecture,” Singh said, listing new or renovated branches in Halifax, Calgary and Kitchener, Ont. “They’re real statements from these communities that they understand that in order to have a sustainable community, you don’t just invest in hard infrastructure. You invest in infrastructure that supports people’s capacity, their access to learning, their access to knowledge, their access to information and ideas.

“I would never advocate closing a library because they play such important roles in local communities,” she added. “But in a place like rural and remote communities, where there isn’t community infrastructure, it’s even more devastating.”

That is the reality Christine Dwyer faces today, five months from her branch’s expiration date. There has been one public library or another on Fogo Island since the 1930s, she said, and residents are not keen on saying goodbye.

Over 100 people attended a protest at the library one Monday afternoon in May, and several got up to speak — a student, a parent, a town councilor, a former librarian. An online petition has circulated the island, and Dwyer said residents have written letters to Hunt, Bennett, Minister of Education Dale Kirby and Premier Dwight Ball, urging them to reconsider.

Fogo was “blindsided” by the decision to shut their library, Dwyer said — partly because, on its own, it will barely save the province any money. Since the library is inside a school, it does not pay rent, janitorial costs or electricity and hydro bills; its only significant expense is a salary for one librarian, at 23 hours per week.

Even after Oct. 31, the room will stay warm, and the lights will continue to shine. It will be up to the people of Fogo to consider what was lost.

“A lot of rural communities depend on their libraries,” Dwyer said. “Some of them will go to a library within driving distance. For Fogo Island, that’s not going to happen. Just not going to happen.”

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