Stunning in Seattle

Today is one of the most treasured of all days for teachers and students:  a snow day!  Actually,  its a ‘cold day’, with wind-chills at -19 degrees...brrrrr.  A perfect day to stay inside, sip hot coffee and visit the library.  I headed to Seattle (it is a toasty 46 degrees).
The story of the Seattle Public Library is one of growth, progress and the love of books.  This is a city that has its priorities straight and when it came time to come up with the cash to build their ‘temple’ they did it.  In 1998 the voters approved a $197 million bond issue (there was a 69% approval rating) - the largest ever for a library.  In addition to the bond (called ‘Libraries For All’) the library foundation raised $82 million from 22,000 donors, including $22.5 million from Paul Allen and $20 million from Bill & Melinda Gates.    
The architects, OMA in partnership with LMN Architects in Seattle, created a modern library masterpiece - winning the Pritzker Prize, Time Magazine’s building of the year (2004) and the hearts and minds of the world.  Joshua Prince-Ramus served as the partner in charge of the project and when I headed to his video at ted.com I was completely captivated by his intelligence, enthusiasm and thoughtfulness (you thought I was going to say his stunning good looks, but that was just a bonus).  I immediately decided to spend my ‘cold day’ morning with him...isn’t the Internet wonderful?
Ramus talks about the creative journey his firm and the library team embarked on during the creation of the library.  The journey resulted in two main ideas:  books and socializing.  At the heart of project is the word  BOOKS, which, he reminds us, are technology, and are now learning to share their dominance with other kinds of information technology.  The second idea, and he asserts that it is equally important, although at first the librarians were unconvinced, was to foster socialization.   
As background Ramus explains that the idea of ‘high modern’ design.  In a nutshell this idea asserts that spaces should have complete flexibility so they can be used for any activity - the starting point is the design and not the function of the space.  This leads to spaces that are generic and nondescript.  “Aha,” I said to my laptop, “ that is the feeling that I often get from modern libraries, although they are beautiful there is no personality or soul in the space.”  Ramus explains that in high modernism the reading room looks just like the copy room, the furniture is just different.  He goes on to explain that his firm took a compartmentalized approach and examined the specific uses of each space in the library.
The library team initially identified all the ways they wanted to use the library and then OMA created five functional boxes.  The boxes, each with their own specific function, are at the core of the design.  They are stacked, off kilter like a tower of presents and covered by a skin that provides structural stability and holds panes of treated glass (opaque from the outside and transparent from the inside).  In my simple mind, I see the library as five shoe boxes, stacked up and covered with plastic wrap and now it makes perfect sense and is delightful.  The library is not an abstract, modern marvel beyond my understanding...it is a series of spaces for people to meet, read, learn, and think, just like it always has been, this one, thanks to Ramus and his team, just happens to be stunning.

The Giving Pledge

From Harper's Weekly 1903

Last week Paul Allen’s Family Foundation awarded $8.5 million dollars to non-profit organizations in the Northwest and half a million was directed to libraries.  The Seattle Times reported that the grant’s goal was to help librarians meet the needs of patrons and promote libraries as places of lifelong learning - hey...doesn’t that remind you of what Andrew Carnegie was doing about 100 years ago?  Even though it seems that we are in the midst of an unprecedented library crisis; funding slashed daily, branches closing and librarians losing their jobs, we have really just made a big circle loop back to our library roots - relying on private philanthropists (and the occasional corporate neighbor) to support the library as a community resource.  Not exactly progress.

Carnegie believed that the rich had a responsibility to give away their money to ‘do good’ during their lifetime.  He certainly put his money where his mouth was and spent the end of his life dolling out grants to create 2,500 libraries around the world (this was just one of the projects he spent his great fortune on).  Carnegie thought that “the best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladder upon which the aspiring can rise”.

Carnegie would have been on of the first to sign “The Giving Pledge” a moral imperative established by Bill & Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet in 2010.  Wealthy families and individuals who sign the pledge promise to give away the majority (at least 50%) of their wealth to charitable causes during their lifetime.  The Giving Pledge website provide a list and the original commitment letters of the families and individuals who have accepted the challenge (Paul Allen is at the top of the alphabetical list).  Warren Buffet’s letter explains that his goal is to give away 99% of his fortune before his death.  He told ABC news that “the idea that you should be able to do nothing in this world for the rest of your life and [the lives of] your children and grandchildren … does not really seem to be very American.  I want my money to have the greatest impact on improving the lives of the most people,”

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest foundations in the world, has made major contributions to libraries across the country with the understanding that if people can get to a library, then they can get to the Internet and the world.  In 2008 they gave $8.1 million to libraries in low income areas in eleven states to upgrade outdated computers and support free, public access to computers (yes, I do know where the computers are coming from but I still feel good about it).  Just like Carnegie, the Gates Foundation requires that communities provide matching funds.
So, as scary as it seems, we are once again at the mercy of the affluent when it comes to providing crucial services to sustain our democracy.  For the moment, the wealthy seem to have money to burn and  understand the critical role that the library plays in promoting an educated citizenry - let’s just hope it stays that way.

Michael R. Bloomberg: "If you want to do something for your children and show how much you love them, the single best thing - by far - is to support organizations that will create a better world for them and their children. And by giving, we inspire others to give of themselves, whether their money or their time."

Still Going Strong

80% of Utah’s population live in the vicinity of Salt Lake City.  What remains is a vast expanse of rural counties across the  80,000 square miles.  This could be a library nightmare...but never fear, the Utah Bookmobile to the rescue!  Mary Titcomb’s crusade (see yesterday) inspired me to look for more bookmobiles and I definitely found them in Utah.  

Utah has nine separate county bookmobiles that travel 150,000 miles each year.  They make 303 stops and serve 89 schools.  Everything is bigger out west, including bookmobiles.  These vehicles are HUGE trucks, tractor trailers filled with books!  Each one has about 5,000 volumes and includes cds, dvds, Internet access, audio books and it’s easy to get more books through inter-library loan.  The library cards are free, of course, and there are NO late fees (really!).

Each bookmobile is linked to a map and a detailed bookmobile schedule.  The trucks stop in the towns as well as in schools, head start programs and senior centers.  State, county and local taxes pay for the bookmobile service which is obviously much cheaper than constructing and maintaining a stand alone library.  The mayor of Alpine, Utah loves the bookmobile and says it would be impossible to raise the money to build a library while keeping taxes low.  

Of course, the bookmobile is a blessing to the 200,000 Utah readers who have free access to books, information and knowledge but it certainly doesn’t provide communities with places to gather or give kids a place to read and do their homework together.  I thought about my two room rural library in Wilson, literally a storefront on the main street, tucked between a bar and the gas station.  It isn’t much but it’s worth its weight in gold to me and many people in my community.  I know it’s there when I need it for whatever reason.  It’s a little disappointing to realize that children in rural Utah can only visit the bookmobile once every two weeks but they can stop by Walmart on their way home from school everyday.

You Go Girl

Mary Titcomb was a rebel rouser.  An innovator that couldn’t leave well enough alone.  She was frustrated by the fact that so many people were going without library books in rural Washington County, Maryland.  The current system shipped boxes of 30 books to 66 local post offices and generals stores, but Mary just wasn’t satisfied.  She came up with a brilliant idea and presented it to the Board of Trustees in 1905.  A bookmobile.  

Actually, it was a library wagon, pulled by two elderly horses, Dandy and Black Beauty, and commandeered by Mr. Thomas, the janitor, and it traveled to homes and communities handing out books like candy.  Can you imagine how exciting it must have been to see the library wagon pulling into town in 1905?  Mrs. Titcomb oversaw the design of the wagon and directed the painter to refrain from “gilt and scrollwork” and make the letters “plain and dignified”, it was a library after all.  It was so reserved that one resident saw it coming and said, “We ain’t got no use for the dead wagon here.”  Mary decided to loosen up a bit and paint the trim red.

In 1910 the beautiful wagon met a violent end when it was demolished by a freight train, all that remained was splinters.  From the ashes a new motorized bookmobile arose in 1912 and continued its work in Washington County.  There are some marvelous pictures and more history of the early bookmobile days at the Western Maryland Regional Library website.

Margaret Binkley Du Vernet remembered going out to homes in the ‘Dodge truck version’ of the Book Wagon, still under the direction of Mrs. Titcomb, and following a route that would take them to each place twice a year.  Twice a year!  Imagine waiting six months for your next book?  I have trouble waiting six hours for a book I want.  Immediately I wondered how many books they could take out at a time.  They were probably so thrilled just to have a book that they were very grateful (not greedy like me!)  Margaret remembered a stop at one derelict home with rags stuck into the broken windows,

“Miss Chrissinger drove up and she tooted the horn. And eventually this woman came down with her brood of children and a wheelbarrow full of books, and she was very eagerly getting new ones, and I realized as I checked in her old ones they were all books of travel, and I often wondered whether Miss Chrissinger had guided her into that as an escape from the miserable existence she seemed to have.”

I was relieved and excited to learn that Washington County still has a bookmobile, the horses are gone but the 32 ft. bus now holds 4,000 books, has four Internet stations, air conditioning, a wheelchair lift and an lighted awning.  Mary would be proud.  

Saving Grace

I am a sucker for author success stories.  You know the kind of story I mean; single mother on welfare writes bestseller at corner cafe and becomes as rich as the Queen?  I find them so satisfying, better than Cinderella and her lame Prince Charming.  My favorite, to date, is the story of Gary Paulsen, probably because his savior was the library.  I ‘met’ Gary Paulsen when I graduated from teaching 1st grade a few years ago and wheeled my supplies to the 4th grade wing.  During that summer of preparation I charged through the recommended reading list and fell in love with Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen.  As an author worshipper, I imagined a distinguished man sitting in his study, green-shaded library lamp casting shadows across the bookcases while he rattled off stories of survival and adventure.  Then I heard him interviewed on public radio and imagined something altogether different.

Jim Trelease (another idol of mine) has a thorough biography of Gary Paulsen, and other authors, on his website.  Paulsen grew up poor and neglected as the child of alcoholic parents in Minnesota.  When he was old enough, he started selling papers to earn money and one frigid night had the great fortune of taking shelter in a warm library.  It was there that he met a compassionate librarian who changed his life.  

Paulsen retells the story in his book Shelf Life, a collection of short stories for teens that expresses the power of books, 


“I stopped in the library to warm up. The librarian noticed me, called me over, and asked if I wanted a library card and gave me a book.  Later that night back at home, I took the book, a box of crackers, and a jar of grape jelly down to the basement, to a hideaway I’d created behind the furnace.  I sat in the corner plodding through the book. It took me forever to read. I was such a poor reader that, by the time I’d finished a page, I’d have forgotten what I’d read on the page before and I’d have to go back.

The current library in
Thief River Falls, MN

Paulsen returned to the library again and again for his new salvation, books.  The librarian took the time to pick out books from every genre that she thought would engage him, she even talked with him about the books when he brought them back.  This next quote is the part that gets me, the part that makes me hyperventilate at the thought of closing small public libraries across America...

“But she wasn’t just giving me books, she was giving me ... everything,” Paulsen writes, “ She gave me the first hint I’d ever had in my entire life that there was something other than my drunken parents screaming at each other in the kitchen. She handed me a world where I wasn't going to get beaten up by the school bullies. She showed me places where it didn’t hurt all the time.  I read terribly at first but as I did more of it, the books became more a part of me and within a short time they gave me a life, a look at life outside myself that made me look forward instead of backward.”

Gary Paulsen went on to weave a fascinating life that I will continue to read and write about in future blogs.  He is considered one of the most important writers for young adults and has written over 175 books, including three Newberry Honor books.  When I think about the positive impact that Gary Paulsen has had on our world, and how it might never have existed, without the help of a kind librarian, I am reminded that the library is truly “a fitting temple for the great thoughts of generations” and worth every penny.  

A Jewel In The Crown

The words ‘Goldman Sachs’ never reminded me of the library - until today.  Although I have been to NYC many times to take in all its wonder, I never knew about Battery Park City, a planned community of about 10,000 people established in 1968, but not populated until the 1990s.  The 92 acre area, located at the very tip of Manhattan, was created with excavated rocks and soil from the construction of The World Trade Center and sand dredged from Staten Island.  The neighborhood is bordered by the Hudson River and the financial district and it is home to the World Financial Center.  All in all a pretty nice piece of real estate.  

Michael Moran

One day Goldman Sachs, the now infamous investment banking and securities firm,  moved into the Battery Park City neighborhood and, instead of baking brownies, made a generous donation of $3.5 million towards a spectacular new library (and $1 million toward a new community center).  The city and state added an addition $6.7 million and, viola, the Battery Park City Library was born.  

Located at 175 North End Avenue, the library is a 10,000 square foot jewel … if I lived in NYC I would be hopping on the subway with my little terrors in tow and barging right in to lounge on the built in couches, plop into the bean bags, read magazines in the recycled chairs, and log onto one of the 36 computers (I’m sure the patrons would love that).  The space is not only bright, airy, modern and fun but it is also the first of the NYPL branches to be LEED certified.  The rugs are made from old tires, the circulation desk constructed from recycled cardboard and the staircase is crafted from recycled glass chips.  An it is all exquisite.  The branch is a perfect illustration of beauty, function and environmental respect - it will be an ongoing joy and inspiration to the children and families of Battery Park City.  While I know there is a certain standard to uphold in the neighborhoods of the super-wealthy, I wonder if the added expense of such a space is appreciated, were residents really after a beautiful place to read and play with their kids or did they want a design showplace.  Again, the current state of libraries in America rears it not-so-pretty head an reminds us that the rich get beautiful libraries and the poor get what they get (and they should be grateful).      

JFK Online

January 20th marked the 50th anniversary of JFK’s inauguration.  To celebrate, the JFK Presidential Library (Columbia Point in Boston, MA)  unveilled the first, and largest online presidential archive.  The $10 million project sifted through papers (200,000), recordings (1,200), film, and photographs to capture important aspects of JFK’s presidency.  The library will continues to add 100,000 items to the archive each year and it will still take 100 years to digitize the entire collection!  Imagine how much room that would take up in the attic.  This collection will give the world the chance to virtually experience the material while  also preserving the original documents.

This site is honestly a fun way to spend an evening (if you are a geek like me).  First, I watched the presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon in 1960, what a riot - the debate looked like it was set up in someones garage with an old sheet as the background.  I was struck by how remarkably respectful and polite Nixon and Kennedy were to one another as they discussed domestic policy.  I don’t know how they felt on the inside but they didn’t display the disdain and superiority that I see in candidate today.  
Next, I headed into the personal papers of Kennedy and found a letter that his father, Joseph, had written to him in September, 1940.  The letters have been scanned and as I read the ‘original’ it really felt like I had found this old letter at the bottom of a suitcase, I could even imagine the typewriter he used to create it.   Joseph writes to John about the book Profiles in Courage, which was published in 1956 and won JFK the Pulitzer Prize (I put this on my book list).  There was actually some debate about JFK’s role in writing the book, some suspected that Ted Sorensen had actually written the majority of the book with JFK’s notes.  Anyway, Joe tells John that the Duchess of Kent came over for dinner and was curious how such a young man could have written such a powerful book (can’t you just hear her saying that?).  Joe reports that he told the Duchess that his sons had always been precocious!  
Personal letters, photographs and artifacts are a powerful way to learn and understand historic events.  This archive is a gift to students who are now able to sift through JFK’s “scrapbooks”, reading primary source materials, even though they might live on the other side of the planet.    It’s also a treasure to Americans who can better understand JFK as a person, a son, a father, and a brother struggling to do his best during a turbulent time in American history.  After reading his letters and flipping through the family photos I feel just a little wiser about the JFK than I did  yesterday which qualifies today as a successful day.

The Quiet Room

There are certain times when the library is indispensable.  Often these are times in life when their is a pause in the action and we emerge from our ‘busy’ness to rediscover the joy of reading- but sometimes our peaks in library attendance are due to more pressing matters.  In particular I am remembering a wintry time when I lived in a very small house in with a very active toddler.  I was not working full time, in order to have more mommy time, and therefore had zero funds for external toddler supervision.  There were three places that saved me from going crazy:  the laundrymat, the playplace at McDonalds and the library.  Hannah and I revelled in our local library and made library trips religiously (we were always testing supplemental branches for wild-child friendliness).  

The Middletown Library on West Main Road in Middletown, RI, was an oasis, definitely designed by someone who knew that generations do not always get along when forced to mix in public spaces.  The children’s room had a separate parking area and entrance.  It was closed off from the main library with solid (probably sound proof) doors that mischievous hands could not open and bolt through and had its own circulation desk.  Completely self contained.  It was a physical safety zone full of equally rambunctious children.  Hannah’s favorite part of the room was the corner with the giant Dr. Seuss characters (they were as big as she was) that she could re-arrange and read to and the Playschool barn (the one that ‘moos’ when you close the gate).  She would play happily, strewing pigs and chicken across the rug while I caught my breath and peacefully browsed through beautiful picture books, accumulating a giant stack to bring home to our tiny cottage.

by Nancy Agafitei

In Harris County Texas (surrounding Houston) they have turned the pecking order around - instead of having a noisy children’s room isolated from a quiet library, they have “quiet rooms” (no talking, typing, eating, ringing, singing, buzzing, sipping, etc.) walled off in certain areas of their bustling libraries.  Harris County is the largest county in Texas (3 millionish people) and the 3rd largest county in the US and their libraries have it all going on:  video gaming rooms, family nights, blood drives, film festivals, Internet cafes, chess club, knitting groups, tech training and, get this, Barbara Bush and her poodle Mini even stopped by a few weeks ago to read to a group of kids.  Hand me my ten gallon hat - I’m going to Harris County, and I’m bringing a whole bunch of kids with me (and leaving them outside my quiet room).  

I love Texas because Texas is future-oriented, because Texans think anything is possible. Texans think big - Senator Phil Gramm

Bates 'Temple'

Libraries create powerful  feelings.  The sights, sounds and smells all swirl together to create an ineffable vibe that either welcomes or repels.   There is a moment of anticipation, just before opening the door,  and then the scene floods in and you get the feeling.  Often there are no big surprises...certainly it is easy to predict the interior of a small ranch-style library from 1970 or a towering university glass box.  
But what about the feeling when you enter Bates Hall at the Boston Public Library at 700 Boylston Street?
If it doesn’t take your breath away you’re probably not breathing.  Honestly, I get the same  feeling when I  enter  St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC - it is transformational.  
First of all the scale is astounding:  218 ft. long, 42 ft. wide and 50 ft. high.  Along the wall are 15 massive arched windows perched above English oak bookcases.  But the real problem is the vaulted ceiling - how can you concentrate on reading when you can  tip your head back and take in such glory overhead?   Just imagine the heating bill.  The library restored this room and the rest of the McKim building (listed on the National Register of Historic Places)  as part of a $50 million, 10 year project.  
The space is named after Joshus Bates, from Weymouth, MA, who donated $50,000 to the library in 1852.  He wrote to the Mayor of Boston and offered the money on the condition that "the building shall be such as to be an ornament to the City, that there shall be a room for one hundred to one hundred and fifty persons to sit at reading tables, and that it be perfectly free to all."  The library happily agreed.   Thank you Mr. Bates and Mr. McKim, this sanctuary  is truly a “fitting temple for great thoughts of generations past, present and to be”.

Golden Oldie

So this is what I’m wondering...how does a city decide whether or not to restore an old library or build a new one?  Were some buildings built with better methods and materials  than others and therefore they last longer?  Is urban renewal at work?  Or maybe it is an operating and upkeep issue.  Once again I have far too many questions and not enough answers...

However, I was stunned when I stumbled across this picture of the old Buffalo Library (it was also located downtown at 1 Layfayette Square, the same address as the current library).  I had no idea that such a beautiful structure had existed on what is now a series of cement planter boxes and a windswept plaza.  This Gothic/Romanesque structure was designed by Cyrus Eidlitz (he also designed the famous New York Times Building, the namesake of Times Square, in 1905) and completed in 1887.  The cost was over $5 million dollars (roughly adjusted to current dollars).  The new modern library was built directly behind it in 1963 for the bargain price of $70 million dollars (adjusted to current dollars), the books were transferred to the new building and this treasure was levelled.  Seventy-six years...that’s it?  Doesn’t that  seem like the prime of life for such a substantial building?  The lions in front of the NYPL have been on guard since 1911 and they’re still going strong, The Redwood Library in Newport, RI is built around its original structure from 1750 and “The Old Library” at St. John’s College, part of the University of Cambridge, was built in the 1620s!  Even my house, which has had little TLC in the last 50 years,  is 130 years old and only falling apart in some places.
Heritage Press Magazine recounts author George Kunz’s memories of the library, “‘drafty, rambling, illogical’ but nonetheless having charm. It leaked, was hot in summer and cold in winter, and the wooden floors creaked.  When the Broadway streetcar rounded the bend on Washington Street, the huge windows in the reading room trembled and the floor shook until it passed.”  
Are these just the signs of an old building or inferior  construction?  As I search for answers I truly hope this beautiful building was not destroyed in order to provide quiet floors and geometric interiors.  While I know that Buffalo is famous for its urban renewal decisions, I find it hard to believe that they let this jewel go.
   
Muschamp, Herbert - "Landmarks are not created by architects. They are fashioned by those who encounter them after they are built. The essential feature of a landmark is not its design, but the place it holds in a city's memory. Compared to the place it occupies in social history, a landmark's artistic qualities are incidental."

Ghostbusters

The best class gift I ever received was the “Nook” - did my students know me, or what?  I read several books on it this summer when I was camping - a little ironic to be reading on a  Nook by the campfire, but it worked for me.  One of the first e-books I read was “Switch” by Dan and Chip Heath.  It is an awesome read about how organizations can facilitate lasting change.  The Heath brothers also have a column in Fast Company Magazine (my new favorite) and this month highlighted how companies create feelings that motivate employees (or consumers) to take action.  Knowledge, they argue, isn’t always enough to create change, people have to want to change.  As an example, they sited the New York Public Library.  
Last year the NYPL was at risk of having their budget slashed by 37 million dollars.  The cuts would have result in the closure of 10 libraries, the elimination of 1 in 4 jobs and the reduction of hours across all branches.  The library began a campaign for public support called, “Don’t Close the Book on the Library”.  To raise awareness they made the brilliant move of hiring the company “ Improv Everywhere”  to stage a ghostbusting event in the Rose Reading Room of the main library.  Once the video of the incident hit youtube, it went viral.   Stop reading...check out the video.   I don’t know if I laugh harder at the ghosts sauntering in and getting to work or at the faces of the other patrons trying to figure out what is going on.  At the end of the clip  millions of people were directed to the library’s website and encouraged to write letters in protest and make donations.   
Thanks to online donations ($144,000) and the public outcry ($130,000),  Mayor Bloomberg and the City  Council restored enough money to the library budget to prevent closings and to keep the doors open five days a week.  You can still make a donation at the NYPL  website (why don’t all libraries have a ‘donate’ button?).   
Ghostbusters at the library is the kind of thinking we need in libraries and shcools as the comfortable budgetary ground shifts under us - new, creative approaches to problem solving.  I can hardly wait to see what they’ll do next year...

Little Black Jeans?

I’m not a library Luddite, honest - I love using the Internet to order books on CD and I think the self-checkout is pretty cool (no condescending looks from the librarian).  24 hour libraries even seem like a pretty awesome innovation (at the University of South Florida the library is open from Sunday at noon until Friday at 6:00 pm, Saturday 10-6 and Starbucks is open until 3 am!)  -

BUT I do get a little skittish about the “library as a community center” concept.  I love the library because it is introspective; a place to learn, think, study and discuss ideas quietly.  It is peaceful, calm and orderly - it is the opposite of the mall (thankfully).  

On the other hand, a community center reaches out to the community to offer anything the residents might need:  tax help, after school programs, movie nights, gymnasiums, food, career counseling, etc.    It is a boisterous place for everyone, particularly extroverts, who want to meet people and share experiences that may include learning (but usually don’t include books).  I love community centers - I wish my community had one - but they are not the library.  Kinda like the difference between jeans and a little black dress - there is a time and a place for each but  they must never be merged.   

Art & Architecture Room NYPL

But what if...there was a vast space,  with several floors, different rooms, sound proof walls...could the library be an introvert and an extrovert?  Could the nerds slip into the exquisite Art & Architecture Room at the NY Public Library while the chatty Cathies met for lattes and teens learned to play the guitar?   It is possible that we don’t have to choose one over the other but can sustain two missions that are separate, but equal (hmmm, that phrase sounds familiar).

More About Melville

Although I am no paragon of normalcy, I must say that Melville Dewey, the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System, was an odd bird.  Although he had a huge impact on the world of libraries (the OCLC calls him the “father of modern librarianship” ) he was known for his difficult personality, his ability to make enemies everywhere he went and his dogmatic views.  And then there’s the racism and womanizing.  He was quite a guy.   

Dewey was a fellow New Yorker, born in 1851  during a time when central New York was overflowing with religious revivals and reform movements.  The Mormons, Millerites, Abolitionists, Oneida Society and Shakers all called the upstate wilderness of New York home.  This environment may have encouraged Dewey’s  life long  devotion to improve and organize his world.  
To begin with, he hated wasting time and strove to use every minute of the day.   Anna Elliott writes that when Melville was a boy he  inventoried and organized his mother’s pantry, without asking, for “fun”.  Soon after he arrived at Amherst College,  he created his famous Dewey Decimal System and eventually  became the school’s librarian.  The system was based on previous cataloguing efforts, but Dewey’s  combined them and made an easy to use system that was efficient and effective (no more time wasting!).   The system caught on quickly across the country and around the world.

Dewey also believed passionately in the reform of spelling (only a librarian or a teacher could actually get fired up about  spelling).  Apparently, there was a movement called the Spelling Reform Association that advocated phonetic spelling - wouldn’t my 4th graders love that!   Dewey wrote, “"Speling Skolars agree that we hav the most unsyentifik, unskolarli, illojikal & wasteful speling ani languaj ever ataind."  For a time he even changed his name to Melvil Dui.  Wow.

In 1895 Dewey founded the Lake Placid Club, a private sports club in the Adirondacks and inspired Americans to try winter sports - by 1932 Lake Placid had gained enough attention to host the Olympics.  Unfortunately, Dewey attempted to organize the membership of the club as he had organized the library.  Members to the club were accepted based on their physical health, moral and social standing  and their race.  This precluded people from the tuberculosis  sanatoriums, smokers, drinkers and, because of his prejudice, the entire Jewish community (quite prominent in the area at the time).  His stand made the N.Y. Board of Regents a little uneasy and eventually led to Dewey resigning his board position.  
Dewey will need a few more entries, he wasted very few minutes in 80 years and made many waves.  He started the first Library School at Columbia, was the edictor of  the Library Journal and one of the founders of the American Library Association.  The one thing Melvil didn’t do much of was read.  He was never known to discuss or recommend books, he really just wanted to organize them, what a shame.

What Does That Number Mean?

I have a vague memory of elementary school librarians explaining how to use the card catalog (remember card catalogs?) and the Dewey Decimal systems.  I recall the unsettling feeling of confusion as I looked at all the tiny numbers and followed the librarian through rows and rows of books while glancing  sideways at my classmates to see if I was the only clueless one ...

Thirty some years later I have discovered that the Dewey Decimal system is not that difficult, in fact it’s really quite clever and very practical.  Here are the cliff notes:  Melville Dewey divided all knowledge  into 10 classes (religion, history, language, etc. ), each class was segmented into 10 divisions and each division dissected into 10 sections.  Therefore, all books can be organized by precise subject and by number.  For instance, a book on butterflies would have the number 595.789 because 500 is natural science, 90 is zoological science, 5 is other invertebrates, .7 is insects, .08 is lepidoptera and .009 is butterflies.  Believe it or not, every new book is assigned a Dewey Decimal number by a division of the Library of Congress (I think this means an actual person!) and then the number  gets approved by OCLC (the Online Computer Library Center) - imagine how the books would stack up if you were out sick for a day or two?  Currently, the DDC is mostly used by public libraries and k-12 schools (about 200,000) in 135 countries but academic libraries have taken up with Dewey’s rival, The Library of Congress Classification.  

The Library of Congress System (LC)  was developed to organize the books in the Library of Congress.  The LC system added classes into its system only when they were needed to add a new book in the Library.  This approach made it easier to add branches for new areas of knowledge (computer science and engineering) and incorporate new subject matter that Melville Dewey never imagined!  The system uses 21 letters of the alphabet for initial classes ( T is for technology, but they don’t all work out that neatly) and each letter has alphabetical subclasses and is then further classified by numbers.  The authors last name and the publication date are added under the LC code and the result is a unique four line name for every book in the library.  The LC system is more efficient  in academic libraries that have larger, comprehensive collections.

And all this time I have just been writing down the number and following the little signs on the shelf.  Tomorrow I will tackle the most interesting thing about either system - Melville Dewey.  He may have been a rockin’ librarian but he was about as eccentric as they come....

Happy Birthday!

Martin Luther King Jr.  week arrived in 4th grade and  I started wondering about King’s papers and documents  - could there be a new library to explore?  Actually, there are many MLK  libraries to explore but let’s start with ‘The King Library and Archives’ located at The King Center in Atlanta.  The library has preserved King’s papers and is home to records, interviews and documents of people and organizations that are crucial to understanding the Civil Rights Movement in America.
The center is located at 449 Auburn Ave, SE in Atlanta and was built by Coretta Scott King in 1968 - it features exhibits to teach the public about MLK Jr., Coretta Scott King and Mahatma Gandhi, and it’s the site of MLK Jr. and Coretta Scott King’s graves.  The website has lots of goodies, including a beautiful introduction with  King’s  ‘The Drum Major Instinct’, a video clip of King receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, a link to Martin Luther King III’s article about his dad’s speech and an online gift shop!

Sixteen libraries are listed as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. libraries in Wikipedia - way too many to visit in one night … so I headed  to San Jose, CA to a particularly interesting venture between San Jose State University and the City of San Jose.  This Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. library, finished in 2003, was the first in America to combine a major university and a city library - a simple, powerful concept - more books, less overhead.

Check out the eight story glass atrium pouring sunlight over 475,000 square feet of library - home to over 1.3 million volumes (don’t worry, the books aren’t left out in the sunlight).   The city and university worked together to create spaces for everyone and everything, from contemplation to connection - more resort than library by New England standards.  Stop on the first four floors to hang out with friends and have a coffee, or drop by the teen or children’s  room.  Take an elevator ride straight to the top and enjoy a quiet space for reading, thinking and learning, the 8th floor reading room.  

This is a collaborative community project to celebrate.  But what about the historic libraries that would have to come down in order to create these new, improved spaces.  Is it possible to preserve our history while moving forward?  Of course it’s possible, it’ll just cost you.
 New York Times Editorial (on the destruction of Penn Station)- "We will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."