Library as a Resource

[bendk]

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff

Envious of your library and resources. Four years ago, our then-new director discontinued ILL, saying it was not cost effective. Next allowed homeless to camp night night and day outside the main doors. The director also looked the other way at the increase in urination, defecation, and ejaculation in the stacks. Also permitted adults to begin prowling the childrens section - forever taboo before. If any staff voiced discontent, they were advised they should quit. Needless to say, patron traffic plunged and senior librarians moved on. The director has now departed, and City Hall has sold the building at a fraction of its value five years earlier. Point is, your library is only as good as its director. Any time your have a change, keep an eye on the newcomer, lest you become like ours. A string of branch locations with no one at the helm.

That sounds terrible. Our library system has a good security presence. Our main library is near a homeless mission, The Haven of Rest. They are allowed to come in the library, but security doesn't let anyone nod off, even in a chair. And after 3pm, there is a police officer in every library.

I've never belonged to a library system with no ILL. I currently belong to three systems: Akron-Summit County, University of Akron, and Cuyahoga Falls. They are all excellent institutions. I consider myself fortunate in this regard.

[bendk]

Some recent activity at the library. I went to see Nick Offerman speak at the Akron Civic Theater. It was a fundraiser for the library system. It was expensive, but it was for a good cause. I paid $65 for my ticket. But I had a good seat and it was on the aisle too. It was packed. At least a couple of thousand people. They advertised it as if you could ask Nick a question. I had hoped to ask him how he got involved in the mini-series DEVS and if he had any anecdotes regarding that production. But I'm out of touch. Apparently, you are supposed to submit questions through an app prior to the show and they would select some to respond to. The only comment he made regarding DEVS was that Alex Garland was a great guy. But it was a good time. He was very funny.

I saw Moonage Daydream at the main library's theater. It is a highly regarded documentary about David Bowie. It was ok.

They finally reached me on the waiting list for The Mysteries by Bill Watterson (Author) and John Kascht (Illustrator). It wasn't earthshattering, but I enjoyed it. It is a familiar fable, the lesson of which we should never lose sight of. The art was dark and brooding. I really liked it. It has only gotten middling reviews, so it should be selling for about $5 on eBay in a few months.

From the interlibrary loan system I got the following book:

A Pictorial Biography of Mikhail Bulgakov edited by Ellendea Proffe. I should reread The Master and Margarita. I read this in my 20s and thought it was excellent. I know I have a copy of his short stories somewhere.

I also consulted the Gale Research series Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. I wanted to see when they covered Fernando Pessoa. They compiled criticism on him in 1988. Ligotti was an Associate Editor for the volume. I have never heard Ligotti mention him.

[Knygathin]

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff

Four years ago, our then-new director discontinued ILL, saying it was not cost effective. Next allowed homeless to camp night night and day outside the main doors. The director also looked the other way at the increase in urination, defecation, and ejaculation in the stacks. Also permitted adults to begin prowling the childrens section - forever taboo before. If any staff voiced discontent, they were advised they should quit. Needless to say, patron traffic plunged and senior librarians moved on. The director has now departed, and City Hall has sold the building at a fraction of its value five years earlier.

That is very dark. He may even have been payed to specifically do this, part of a corrupt and bribed municipal management. Before you know it, some commercial vendor has taken over the locale, and rearranged it. It has been done before. Intentionally letting things deteriorate, for a profit. A common procedure before tearing down beautiful old buildings. Some countries have laws against this, and value preservation of their cultural heritage.

[Zaharoff]

Quote Originally Posted by Knygathin

That is very dark. He may even have been payed to specifically do this, part of a corrupt and bribed municipal management. Before you know it, some commercial vendor has taken over the locale, and rearranged it. It has been done before. Intentionally letting things deteriorate, for a profit. A common procedure before tearing down beautiful old buildings. Some countries have laws against this, and value preservation of their cultural heritage.

I do not believe there was any calculation behind events by City Hall.
True, the downtown building and property were sold to a real estate developer, but that had been discussed for many years.
No, the downfall was pretty much the fault of the new director (who had been a 2nd or 3rd choice if memory serves me correctly).

The individual came from a New York or DC library, although this was their first time at the helm.
Coming from a major city, they were accustomed to homeless people in the library. Those metropolitan libraries, however, had programs in place to aid the homeless, give them guidelines, and there were firm policies about inappropriate behavior and consequences.
Our new director was simply laissez-faire, ignoring the urination, the vomit, the fistfights. Patrons fled and City Hall never intervened to my knowledge.

I used the ILL and World Cat for years, and rolled my eyes when those were all but eliminated. Likewise, Zelda took advantage of transfers from adjoining systems, and she was bitterly disappointed when that was discontinued.

Again, your library is only as good as the people running it, and you must be vigilant. I always recommend belonging to the Patrons or Friends or Read Squad or whatever your community has. Also, encourage your library to do things for children and young professionals. Get youngsters in the habit of learning, and remind 20 somethings that the library can be a valuable resource for them.

When - if - we ever get a new director, they will have a monumental task trying to restore staff morale, increase patron traffic, rebuild the activities (like classical or jazz concerts, like visiting authors).
As with politics, it is astonishing how one individual can devastate norms when unchecked.

[xylokopos]

I spent a few brief minutes looking up the impact of the US homeless crisis on city and college libraries. Simply stunned.

[bendk]

In my ongoing attempt to educate myself about my library's resources, I have learned a few more things.

On an app called Libby, they have online magazines. Titles such as Rue Morgue, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, Popular Mechanics, and numerous science magazines, among others.

They also provide what they call a "Library of Things". You can borrow things like laptop computers, artwork, and various kitchen appliances like a rice cooker, a movie projector, cd and DVD players. I think this is a great idea to help those with limited budgets.

Library employee recommendations.

One of the non-monetary perks of working for the library is that management allows employees to express themselves by allowing them to recommend items to the public. They used to do this at Blockbuster and Family Video stores. These usually consist of a fixed tabletop with an arrangement of books and movies with the employee's name on it. They occasionally have more elaborate collections housed in a wall display behind sliding glass. Some of these have included items that could not be checked out, like photographs, and other things from an employee's private collection. They have done it for years. I remember this guy who worked in the audio/visual department had a display featuring the actress, Myrna Loy. He talked me into watching all of The Thin Man movies. They were fun. Not too long ago, I went to the library to see a movie. I was early, so I was looking around. This one table of recommendations by "Chris" was full of horror books and DVDs. My to-read list is full, so I picked up something that I could just browse through. It was this oversized book of movie posters.



I checked it out. It was not only fun to look through, but I learned quite a bit. It showed many famous zombie movie posters and their foreign poster counterparts. I've seen most of the well-known zombie movies. The book also mentioned lesser-known masterpieces like Valley of the Zombies, Zombies on Broadway, and Astro-Zombies. I learned that Bob Hope and Fay Ray both starred in a zombie movie. It showed a cool poster for the movie Pontypool. I liked the movie, and the novel has been on my to-read list for a while. It also contained some nice fan art. One illustration caught my eye. It was an older drawing by Alexander King from a book The Magic Island by William Seabrook, published in 1929. It is about his visit to Haiti and witnessing the practice of Voodoo. Of course, I bought an inexpensive Dover edition of the book on eBay. The introduction is by George A. Romero!



Everything leads to another book. sigh

[bendk]

I think I just witnessed the incipient stages of the destruction of my library system. I woke up to an email on Saturday morning from the library stating that they were doing away with fines. Which means they are doing away with accountability. I had planned to see a movie at their theater that day. I go down to the library, and as soon as I walk in, a homeless person is sleeping on an inside chair with all of their stuff strewn about. Bypassing that, I go to the theater. The movie is supposed to start at 3 PM. I go in at 2:50, and the movie is already playing. Just to make sure I had the time right, I checked with the reception desk. They confirmed the time. I asked them about it, but they seemed unconcerned. I can't watch a movie unless I watch it from start to finish, so that was out.
I still thought I could salvage something because I had planned to look up some authors and specific works in the Gale Research books. While I was doing that, a fight broke out in the stacks and no one responded. I eventually got the information I needed, and then I walked through the entire library. There was no police officer. This has never been the case at the downtown Main Library. My guess is certain people pushed through a defunding the police initiative. Things are about to turn to ####. It's a shame.

[Zaharoff]

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff

...Point is, your library is only as good as its director...

Write the director. Not an email, a stamped letter. Those are so rare, they get more attention.
Voice your comments, and remind them you are sending copies to your councilman, as well as the mayor or city manager.
Post letters to councilman and mayor.
Contact your Beacon Journal, and tell them there may be a story at the downtown library should they tour incognito.
Contact local TV about the library. WJW (FOX). If they go for a story, shoot it in black & white, which is always creepier.
Be stubborn. I have fought with library directors several times over the years. Won some, lost some.
Good luck out there.

[bendk]

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff ...Point is, your library is only as good as its director... Write the director. Not an email, a stamped letter. Those are so rare, they get more attention. Voice your comments, and remind them you are sending copies to your councilman, as well as the mayor or city manager. Post letters to councilman and mayor. Contact your Beacon Journal, and tell them there may be a story at the downtown library should they tour incognito. Contact local TV about the library. WJW (FOX). If they go for a story, shoot it in black & white, which is always creepier. Be stubborn. I have fought with library directors several times over the years. Won some, lost some. Good luck out there.

These are very helpful suggestions. Thank you, Zaharoff.

[Zaharoff]

Bear in mind, downtown libraries suffer profound challenges.
Chief among them is diminishing foot-traffic, exacerbated during the Covid pandemic.
Many downtown employees now want to work at home in their pajamas.
They ain't hitting the stacks during lunch breaks or around 3:00 - 5:00.
I honestly do not know what the library can do to entice folks back.
There are free concerts (Jazz, Classical), children's activities (painting, story-time), movie screenings (on time, as you suggested).
I suspect our then-director perceived the homeless as foot-traffic. Patrons shied away in droves.
Our downtown location is now sold and gone. There are several suitable downtown buildings that stand empty. Owners have steadfastly refused City Hall offers, since, when asked about the homeless, officials respond with, "What can we do?!" which is no answer. And no owner wants their property trashed.
I am sad to see this germinating in your city. If you and others (neighborhood associations) confront this early, you may be able to turn the tide.