THE Library

The New York Public Library is huge...enormous...gigantic...tremendous.  Stealing a line from the Cat in the Hat;  “this place is so big, so deep and so tall there is no way to blog about it, no way at all.”  
Exactly how big is it?

• 3rd largest public library in North America
• 87 separate library locations/branches
• 50+ million items in its collection, including 20 million books
• 636 work spaces in the Rose Reading Room
• 16 million patrons checked out books in 2005
• 1.8 million residents have library cards

That is why I have been avoiding tackling the history of the NYPL for the last four months, it is hard to know where to start.  Today, however, I had a day off, took a deep breath and broke off a corner to chew on.  Of course, the NYPL website offered me a digestible story of their history.  

New York Public Library

Four men are responsible for the creation of this iconic library:  John Jacob Astor, James Lenox, Samuel Tilden and John Bigelow.  Both Astor and Lenox had libraries in New York City before the NYPL was even a chip off the old marble block.  John Jacob Astor was America’s first multi-millionaire and made his vast fortune in fur, real estate and opium.  Shady businesses.  He left $400,000 in his will for the establishment of a research library, which opened in 1846 on Layfayette Street (and is now the home to The Public Theater)   
The Lenox Library was created by philanthropist James Lenox’s  in 1871 to share his private collection of rare books (including a Gutenberg Bible), manuscripts and Americana. The Lenox Library, designed by Richard Morris Hunt,  was located at the present site of the Frick Collection on 5th Avenue.
Samuel Tilden was the governor of New York in 1874.  He was a reformer who successfully broke up the corrupt Tweed Ring and the Canal Ring during his tenure.  His success led him to a presidential nomination in 1876 against Rutherford B. Hayes.  The election was a disaster, several southern states sent duplicate ballots and although he won the popular election, Tilden lost the presidency and retired from politics for good.  According to NYPL, when Tilden died as a bachelor in 1886 he left $2.4 million “to establish and maintain a free library and reading room in the city of New York."
Let’s recap - three giant fortunes, two libraries and some pretty cool books.  But still no place for the masses to read.
Now we come to the most complicated part of the story.  John Bigelow was an attorney, a writer, a diplomat and a trusted friend of Samuel Tilden.  Bigelow was the editor and co-owner (with William Cullen Bryant) of the Saturday Evening Post and served as the Ambassador to France from 1865.  He was the author of several books including editions of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, the biography of William Cullen Bryant and Samuel Tilden and he served as the Secretary of State for NY.  As the president of the Tilden trust, Bigelow came up with the ideas of combining the Astor and Lenox libraries.  Both libraries were struggling with growing collections and shrinking endowments and were rethinking their viability.  Bigelow suggested combining the two libraries with Tilden’s money to build a new institution called “The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations the NYPL”.  The deal was sealed in May of 1895 and was celebrated as an example of private philanthropy being used for the public good.  John Bigelow served as the first president of the NYPL in 1896.
If you look carefully you can see that The Lenox Library, The Astor Library and Tilden Trust are carved above the words New York Public Library on the facade (Schwartzman’s name appear below, but we’ll get to that later) The library honors John Bigelow with the Bigelow Society, an elite group of patrons that have committed to leave their estate to the library, but I was feeling a little dissed on his behalf, I mean he was the man with the plan, the one who put it all together and carried it through to reality - isn’t that worth a marble etched name?  
Ninety years later, Mayor Rudi Giuliani agreed with me and signed a bill naming the area in front of the main branch “John Bigelow Plaza” - I hope John’s looking down and smiling as millions of patrons tramp across his plaza and enter the hallowed halls of his library.

When Beans were Bullets

The National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland has materials on every agriculturally related subject under the sun.  According to their website, their collection fills over 48 miles of shelves, making it one of the largest in the world!

from the National Agricultural Library

Tackling 48 miles of books was overwhelming, even for me, but I was completely captivated by the collection of War Era Food Posters entitled “Beans are Bullets” that the NAL exhibited last year.  Fortunately, Cory Bernat, the curator of the collection, created this phenomenal online exhibit that not only displays the posters but also offers an analysis and comparison of the attempts to get the public support for the war effort.  It makes me wish I was a high school social studies teacher what a great introduction to the World Wars and commentary into how our culture has changed.


By chance, I watched Jamie Oliver on TED last night.  He was passionate as he explained that America is leading the world in obesity-related disease and death.  He spoke about the absolute necessity of Americans eating a healthier diet based on WHOLE FOODS, specifically fruits, veggies and grains that are homemade and unprocessed.  He shared the terrifying statistics from the past century that demonstrates the change in our eating habits and their negative consequences.  When I clicked onto the “When Beans Were Bullets” collection at the NAL, it was as if Oliver had written the slogans himself but, of course, the reasons couldn’t have been more different.
 

Jamie explains that we are killing ourselves with our unhealthy, western diet.  He urges Americans to change their diets for survival and to reduce the crushing cost of health care.  In the early 20th century, the US government offered a similar message to support the war effort.  During both world wars Americans were encouraged to conserve food, have meatless and wheatless days, grow their own crops (and can them) and ration goods.  The posters are great fun to check out.  For one thing, the government doesn’t make a lot of posters and billboards anymore (t.v. has taken over that role) and they are such a blast from the past - the ideas and mottos seem so innocent, naive and hopeful - images of earnest housewives canning food and making ‘stale bread’ pudding for their families are hard for me to reconcile with our modern consumer culture.

Some of the slogans that really cracked me up were:

Have you eaten your pound of potatoes today?

Don’t let your land loaf.

Use your spare time profitably:  the garden is not entirely for the farm wife, men must help.  

Idle minutes can be put to good purpose.

Women!  Carry your own packages, make a parcel in hand a badge of honor

Don’t waste food - save dried bread and bread crumbs

Shall we have enough to eat next winter?

Enjoy the exhibit on your own or use it to teach your kids about this amazing time in American history and don’t forget to thank the library for saving it for us to enjoy.

Hope Springs Eternal

Cornell University

I haven’t given up hope on spring.  I know it seems overly optimistic but I’m sure it’s coming despite the below freezing temperatures, snow and hail we’ve enjoyed throughout April.  Spring is the best time to play around in the garden, do some planting, pull some weeds and plan for the days when the world is not frozen.

All these hopeful thoughts led me the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Library, the world’s largest agriculture research institution, on the grounds of the Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland. The library dates back to 1862, when it was created with the USDA to provide farming information and resources to the public.  The have amassed an incredible collection of 4 million items across a spectrum of agriculture issues including plant and animal sciences, wildlife ecology, nutrition, forestry and meteorology.  The archives include all the Department of Agriculture publications and documentation of agriculture dating back to the 1500s.  NAL is currently working on converting their massive collection to create the National Digital Library for Agriculture.

Another important role that the NAL plays is to connect the network of Land Grant Universities, field libraries and cooperative extensions around the country.  Although both terms rang faint bells in my brain, their definitions were murky at best, so I dug in.

Washington State University offered me some clarity.  Land grant colleges (now mostly Universities) were set up in the late 1800 to teach agriculture, science and engineering (with a smattering of classical arts) to the working classes of America during the industrial revolution.  Beginning in 1862 and lasting over many decades, different Acts of Congress established Land Grant Colleges with different levels of federal support.  

Representative Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont introduced the idea of giving federally controlled land to states so that they could establish and endow "land grant" colleges. The Hatch Act, passed in 1887, created agricultural experiment stations at each college (doesn’t that sound like fun?) to conduct research, solve problems and experiment with best practices.  
Once discoveries were made, the colleges needed a way to get the news out to the farmers scattered across their state.  The Cooperative Extension System was born.  Cooperative Extensions are a nationwide network of offices, staffed by experts who offer practical information to farmers, small businesses, consumers and children in their communities.

Land grant universities continue to offer all Americans a wide range of educational opportunities across the nation.  If you read the list of LG Universities you’ll find some of most renowned research universities in the country.  I discovered that Cornell was NYS’s land grant college, established in 1865.  Cornell is now an ivy league university offering undergraduate and graduate programs in Ithaca, New York City, and Doha, Qatar.  CALS - the College of Agriculture and Life Science is described as “the very best college of its kind in the nation, if not the world. Our mission is to discover, integrate, disseminate, and apply knowledge about agriculture and food sciences, applied social sciences, environmental sciences and the life sciences as a basis for sustainable improvement in the lives of people throughout New York, the nation, and the world.”

The story of land grant colleges demonstrates the power of federal government to create programs that shape the future and provide a positive impact on the world.  Certainly there was a greater need for the creation of infrastructure in the 18oo but it is something to consider as states slash their budgets to bare bones and our federal government stands back to take in the show.

TED books

Go learn something from TED!

What if books were all made into TED talks by the authors (or by their passionate readers) and we could watch them instead of reading them?  I mulled the thought over as the miles crunched beneath my feet and the icy wind blew against me.  The beauty of TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design ) talks is that they are incredibly engaging because the speakers are so passionate and knowledgeable about their subjects.  Honestly, it doesn’t even matter what the subject is because the presentation is so good (just like the articles in The New Yorker).  That got me thinking about the books on my bedside table...how would the experience of learning about a subject be changed by watching it instead of reading it?  I hate to admit that I’d probably get a lot more out of Billy Collins’ ‘180 More’ book of poetry if he read the poems and helped me grasp their meaning.  I’m also pretty sure that a few 18 minute talks by Matthew Battles would open up my eyes more than trying to make meaning of his library history (fascinating but dense, as it is) about the library.  

So what exactly is a library?  If you take away all the trappings and strip it naked, what is the idea of a library?  It’s not the building, the furniture or the cafe, that’s certain.  But maybe its not even the people, or the history or the books.  At its core the library is just a collection of ideas.  A public library is free access to ideas for all people who can read.  That is what got Carnegie so excited a century ago, he was turned on by the ideas he read and the possibilities they opened up in his life.  He wanted to help communities make safe places for ideas so no one would be trapped by their background, so that everyone could learn if they wanted to - the library lets you open the door into the world of thinking - if you can read and understand the books.  If you can’t read (or comprehend what you’re reading) well then, the library is just like a yummy chocolate cake  perched on top of the fridge but just out of reach.

Back to TED -  Chris Anderson was ‘On Point’ with Jane Clayson today and the more I listened, the more I thought about how talks are really a summary of a cool idea expressed in a powerful, passionate, brief way.  In fact many of the speakers have written books on their subject, or lived through their experience and are sharing the best part, the kernel - they are opening the door of the listener’s mind and letting them into their thinking, just like a book.

One big difference between the library and TED is that the library has millions of volumes of information about everything, and TED only has 900 talks.  I have to admit I’ve never been disappointed by a TED talk, but I don’t usually watch to learn a specific thing so everything I learn and hear is gravy.  Certainly we could create a little “Dewey” magic and create a more complex system of scaffolding clips that would provide the basics in every subject and then build up into a network of complexity.  But sometimes I wonder how much information we need, at some point the stampede of knowledge is more of a hindrance then a help and a rancher at the gate would be a blessing.  This, of course, brings up all sort of problems, for instance,  who decides what ideas are worth spreading and what are not, who is an expert, and how can we ensure equity across racial, religious and ethnic groups?  

TED talks and library books are similar because they are free to everyone (with access to a computer, which is free at the library) and they can be watched publicly or privately.  A talk can be an introduction to a group discussion or a business meeting or it can be watched in your jammies in bed on your laptop.  The talks can be serious or silly, and are often both.  They can be mind blowing or entertaining and they can be different things to different people.  It’s easy to envision clubs coming together over wine and talking about a TED idea just we do for books.  

TED’s mission is “Ideas Worth Spreading” but on their website they expand their thinking:  “we believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.”

Curious souls, inspired thinking and free knowledge is the recipe for TED and the library.  Personally, I’ll take both.

Insult, Injury and Innovation

It was bad enough when the town of Westbury-sub-Mendip, in Somerset, England lost their classic red telephone booth but when they were cut out of the bookmobile route things had gone too far.  Talk about from bad to worse...circumstances had gone too far and the locals decided to take matters into their own hands.  

In 2002 there were 95,000 red phone boxes across England but, with the rise of cell phones, no one was using them anymore.  The problem is they are so darn cute, no at all like our tacky blue scratched plastic versions (remember them?).  
British Telecommunications (BT) had removed over 31,00o of the unused ‘kiosks’ when villagers started to miss their familiar landmarks.  BT came up with a plan (known in England as a scheme) allowing village councils to adopt the booths for one pound and keep them for “aesthetic or heritage reasons,” according to the BBC.  

With a glut of phone boxes on their hands, BT decided on a competition (always a good plan in bad times) for the best phone box use (other than as a phone box).  According to Lesley Taylor at The Star, the competition was the talk of the town during a summer tea party (yes, they really do have tea parties) when Janet Fisher came up with the “book exchange” idea.  A mini-library was born.  I kid you not.  The booth holds about 150 items (including movies and music) and is open 24 hours a day.  A red box is conveniently located on the floor and contains the children’s section.  A simple swap allows residents to leave the books they’ve finished and collect the books they want.   Parish councillor, Bob Dolby is the “unofficial custodian of the library, since its at the end of his garden”.  Dolby comments that business was brisk and residents were treating the booth with respect.  He also noted that the sturdy construction of the kiosk has kept out the rain and damp and the books were doing fine.

The blog Out of Print reports that 770 villages have now contacted BT to adopt libraries of their own.  At the opening of a new/old library booth in Staplehay, Janet Fisher explained that she had gotten her idea after reading “The Lonely Phone Booth”, a picture book written by Peter Ackerman.  Ackerman tells the story of a New York City phone booth that is also neglected with the rise of cell phone.  But one day an electric storm shuts down the city cellular network and the phone booth comes to the communication rescue -  phone booths of the world, unite!  
So, as it turns out, the hero of our story is once again an author and a book.

By the way, Westbury-sub-Mendip won the BT prize for innovative use of the phone box and collected 500 pounds.  Maybe they could line the village with phone kiosks and create a research library?

Going Underground in Chicago

Underground Library at the Chicago Zine Fest

A new model for the library?  Underground?  The librarian history lover in me was suspicious... why do we need a new model when the old model seems pretty perfect, a least for me.  Which is, of course, the problem - everyone is not me.  An underground library implies an alternative approach, something subversive, radical, even revolutionary - I had to find out more.    
The Chicago Underground Library opened my eyes and brain to a new way of sorting the library.  C.U.L is a “location specific” library that collects independent and small press materials.  Their holdings include books, magazines and newspapers of any and all types that are created in or by Chicagoans from any time period.   They accept ALL materials, regardless of their “perceived quality or importance” in order to get an in-depth view of the community.  They have completely eliminated the literacy gatekeeper, otherwise know as the librarian.

A video clip on their website provides a little tour that shows off some of their diversity.  There are shelves of books made by students, tiny handmade books, poetry chapbooks, works by self-published authors and neighborhood newspapers.  Their goal is to “map the evolution of Chicago’s communities and movements and encourage the production of new media by providing context, inspiration, and programming designed to support collaboration.”  They hope to encourage people and groups to come together and collaborate to reach new creative heights and allow connections to emerge.

Nell Taylor, the founder of the library, talked to Nina Simon on her blog last year.  Taylor explained that by keeping track of everyone involved in the publication of item (from photographers to interns) CUL hopes to record the migration of ideas across the country through individuals and their interactions with different communities.  They are currently working on software that could be used for collections like this in other cities.   

One of Taylor’s ideas that I though was particularly interesting  was to encourage patrons to value items without judging them by the way they look, or by the importance that other people place on them.  The Underground Library encourages people to think for themselves about what they value, enjoy or are inspired by.  A little different from out current library model that sets up books, provides lists and tell us what we “should” enjoy or what is “good” writing.   Honestly, I am usually pretty happy to have the guidance as I wade through oceans of books, but I also see how our system prevent media from being included in library collections based on subjective criteria.

Thanks to a storm that buried some of the collection in a snowbank this winter, the library has gone mobile while they search for a new home.  In the meantime they are putting together “Pop Up” library exhibits in Chicago neighborhoods that offer specific materials based on interest or location.  I hope Taylor eventually finds a new home, above ground, for her important collection and continues mapping the literacy of the city - I wonder if she’s talked to the the library, they might have just the space she’s looking for.

Procrastination Pays

from Aloha Wanderwell website

Instead of actually buying a car, which is stressful and overwhelming, I have retreated into the wonderful adventure story of Aloha Wanderwell that I discovered in the manuscripts archive at  The National Automotive History Collection in the Detroit Public Library.  Since I couldn’t make it to Detroit today I found the rest of the story on Tmodelman and The Official Site of Aloha Wanderwell.

When we left our beautiful heroine she had accepted a ‘position’ with Captain Wanderwell on his automotive expedition around the world.  Although Aloha (previously named Idris) was fluent, or partially fluent, in Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese and Japanese, Walter Wanderwell wasted no time putting her talent to use as a driver, seamstress, laundress, public relations director, film star and ticket seller.  He also used her as a translator when the need arose.  She was a huge hit.  Everywhere they went Aloha wowed the crowds and impressed people with her abilities (she was, after all, a woman).  Now driving two Fords, the expedition set off from Paris and travelled through Portugal, Italy, Holland, Russia, Greece, Palestine, India, China and Japan.  The details of her journey listed in her biography on the Official Site are incredible.  Aloha camped next to the Spinx, disguised herself as a man in Mecca, barely survived the deserts of Sudan and befriended Chinese bandits.  It reads like a chapter from Indiana Jones.  By the time they boarded a ship for San Francisco, they had driven through 43 countries and 4 continents; showing their films and creating a buzz of excitement at every stop.  It was January, 1925 when they finally arrived back in the U.S.

Not surprisingly, the Captain and Aloha fell in love (I guess she took a little time off from the laundry and selling tickets).  They got married in California and had two children (Nile and Valri) who did not slow them down a bit.  In 1929 the documentary of their global trek, WITH CAR AND CAMERA AROUND THE WORLD, was complete and released to fans around the world and the Wanderwell’s were off for new adventures.  This time they traveled to the Amazon Jungle and when their plane crashed, Aloha was left with the Bororos Tribe for months while Walter went in search of plane parts.  The film Aloha made of her experience is the earliest record of the tribe and is still used as a resource at the Smithsonian.

Captain Wanderwell’s death was just as exciting as his life.  He was murdered in on his yacht in 1932 as he and Aloha prepared for their next adventure.  A disgruntled employee from a previous expedition was suspected but was eventually acquitted and the case remains a mystery to this day.  Aloha eventually married Walter Baker and continued to explore the world and tell her story to fascinated audience around the country.  She ensured that her collection of photos, films, journals and artifacts were preserved in museums and libraries for other to enjoy (which is just what happened to me!)
I hate to end on a sad note but I must come clean with the truth.  When the Wanderwell’s completed their journey, they drove their 2nd Ford, nicknamed “Little Lizzie” to Detroit and presented her to Mr. Ford as a gift.  Fifty years later, Aloha wrote to the Ford Museum to track down her beloved car and received this distressing reply (from the Ford Archives, dated 1979)
“After a considerable amount of research time by our registrar, we learned that this car was included in a group of old vehicles that Henry Ford decided in 1942 were of marginal historical importance. These vehicles were transferred to the Highland Park plant and eventually scrapped (for their metal content as part of the war effort). In subsequent years, many of us associated with the Museum have had occasion to express disappointment and dismay that such a decision was made, but it is a fact we must accept obviously. John A. Conde, Curator.” (from TModelman)

That settles one thing...I’m definitely not buying a Ford.

Escape to Detroit

photo from CMG Worldwide

Some people love buying a new car, but I’m not one of them. Even though its been a decade or so, I dread the dealer games, innumerable choices and spending lots of money (I consider ‘lots’ anything over $1,000), it all stresses me out. So I stopped at the dealership for a no-strings-attached-test-drive and I left with the salesman yelling behind me, “Remember, it’s the last one left in the state of New York!” 
Desperately in need of car dealer detente, I headed to the library ...


The Detroit Public Library offered me just what I needed, a story about a girl, her car and a great adventure. Sign me up.  I was actually in  The National Automotive History Collection, a public archive located in the Rose and Robert Skillman Branch Library.  The collection has been built for over a century and now includes 600,000 automotive items; including books, magazines, advertisements,  literature, photographs, specifications, service and owner's manuals, and personal papers.  There are four collections of photographs that can be viewed online but most of the materials are protected in the safety of the non-circulating library.
The story of Aloha Wanderwell Baker was listed in the manuscript section and just the name alone caught my attention.  The description of the collection cemented my curiosity:
"The World's Most Traveled Girl" who, from 1921 to 1925, completed the four-year-around-the-world endurance competition known as the Million Dollar Wager.
 

Since I don’t have a car, driving to Detroit was out of the question...so I used web magic and clicked to get the scoop.  Tmodelman and The Official Site of Aloha Wanderwell helped to unravel this great yarn.  
Johannes Pieczyski was an adventurer and explorer who changed his name to Captain Walter Wanderwell , during a trip to America in 1914 (get it, wander-well?).  He was in search of action, adventure and excitement and came up with the idea of driving around the world, stopping in every country and recording the adventure for posterity (and maybe just a little notoriety).  He had no money but planned to offer films to paying customers in each destination.  
Wanderwell needed a car that would be reliable and sturdy and would also withstand grueling wear (which is exactly what I told the salesman this morning).  The Model T fit the bill.  An added bonus was being able to find parts and service around the world (maybe people would think I was totally ‘retro’ pulling up to school in a Model T?)    In November, 1921, Wanderwell left Detroit with his crew and the Model T and boarded a tramp steamer to London.  They arrived in Paris in January of 1922.  

Meanwhile, at a convent school in France, a restless teenager was plotting her escape and longing for an adventure of her own.  Idris Hall was a 6 foot, blonde haired, blue eyed Canadian beauty who was driving the nuns crazy with her antics.  She finally escaped to Paris and answered Wanderwell’s advertisement:
"Brains, Beauty & Breeches – World Tour Offer For Lucky Young Woman…. Wanted to join an expedition…Asia, Africa…. imagine the lawsuits that copy would create today!
Walter knew a winner when he saw one.  He quickly saw the advantages of having 16 yr. old Idris star in his fundraising films and attract interested crowds across the world.  He hired her immediately, changed her name to Aloha Wandwell and told her mother, “This is no millionaire’s pleasure tour, Mrs. Vernon. We are to visit as many countries in the world as possible- we’re to earn our way . . I need someone to pose in the moving pictures and to appear on stage when they are being shown.”   What a guy.
Walter Wanderwell is beginning to remind me of my car salesman.  Tomorrow I’ll wander well to some more car lots and pick up Aloha’s story.
ps.  thank you NAHC.

Rising to the Challenge

World Language Storytime

What’s a library to do when about a million non-English speaking immigrants move into town?  In the spirit of John Cotton Dana, Minneapolis Central has been busy creating resources, providing services and meeting the needs of a very diverse population.  You can tell this library’s different when you click onto information pages written in Spanish, Hmong and Somali on their website.  There are also immigration and citizenship pages crammed full of links and resources connecting patrons to programs and outreach groups.  

But what caught my eye was storytime.  Julie Pfitziner’s article in the Star Tribune, R is for 'read', explains that the Hennepin Library System offers regular “world language” storytimes in Somali, Spanish and Hmong.  This month they will start a Korean program as well.  "Research has shown that giving very young children the opportunity to hear stories and songs in their native language is the most effective way to prepare them to develop literacy skills in English," said Susan Glenn, librarian for youth services. 


The very  idea of the library is a new concept for many immigrant parents, along with the luxury of reading for pleasure or learning about personal hobbies and interests.  The libraries are bringing them up to speed, quickly.  Another complication is finding books written in Hmong or Somali.  Both cultures rely mainly on oral storytelling traditions and printed books are rare.  The library is using wordless picture books to tell stories in children’s native language and also in English.  

Renée Reed, Hennepin County's principal librarian for adult services and immigrant resources supervisor, offers insight that sums up Minnesota’s outlook on what some communities would view as a ‘headache’, at best, and makes me proud to be a library cheerleader, "Listening to stories in another language is an opportunity to enjoy and appreciate the wisdom of stories that might be unfamiliar, but have such a richness,” she said. "By exposing children to other cultures when they are young, it can do away with negative feelings and help them embrace many cultures with joy."

In 2005, Barack Obama said, "The true test of the American ideal is whether we're able to recognize our failings and the rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them. Whether chance of birth or circumstance decides life's big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a change to work hard, get ahead, and reach their dreams."

I think Hennepin County Library was listening.

New Neighbors

Minneapolis Central Library

The Minneapolis Library has a lot going for it, the most obvious being a spectacular new building (it almost seems too light to be a called a building) designed by Cesar Pelli in 2006.  Pelli’s was invited back after designing the Wells Fargo Center (designed in 1988), a major player in downtown Minneapolis.  The library (located at 300 Nicollet Mall),  constructed out of glass, concrete and Minnesota limestone, seems almost transparent as it gently rests on its downtown block.  The interior is equally invisible and features glass walls and railings throughout the sun drenches space.  The final touch is a 8,000 foot central atrium topped by a steel roof that is perched like a giant glider prepared for take off.    

After a day or two in the city you also would probably notice a thriving literacy community.  Minneapolis is incredibly lucky to have a facility like Open Book (see yesterday's entry) filled with organizations determined to open the world of books to anyone who cares to wanders by or click in online.  And, according to manta.com,  there are more than 90 bookstores in Minneapolis, a tremendous number for a city of about 400,00 people.

I thought I was getting a clear understand the culture of the city and their devotion to books but I was missing a rather large piece of the puzzle.  According to the library website “one in every five households in Minneapolis speaks a language other than English, and more than 6,000 new immigrants join the community every year.”  Although immigrants currently make up only 6.5 % of MN total population, about half of the national average, over the last 20 years  immigration has exploded in the state, growing over 130% (compared to 57% nationwide).  According to the report, A New Age of Immigrants, commissioned by the Minneapolis Foundation and written by Dr. Greg Owen, there are two reasons that immigrants are drawn to the city, one is the relative  availability of jobs (unemployment was only 6.9% in February, compared to the national average of 8.9%) and the other is the excellent network of social services.  The report states that between 1982 and 2008 over a million immigrants from 182 nations came to Minnesota and approximately a third continue to make it home.

Minnesota began welcoming immigrants in the 1970s and 80 when it created a safe haven for Hmong veterans from the Vietnam War.  Since then the state has protected asylum seekers from Bosnia, Liberia, the Sudan, and (most recently) Somalia and Burma.  Currently, about 23% of the immigrants in the state are refugees (mostly from Laos, Vietnam and Somalia) due to resettlement programs, also more prevalent in Minnesota than in than other parts of the country.

So what’s a library to do?  Tomorrow I’ll find out.

Minneapolis is an Open Book

I know as much about literacy in Minnesota as I know about making cheese in the south of France, which excellent reason to pour myself a cup of coffee and get busy.  A fellow student in my Creative Studies class travels from Minneapolis to take classes at Buff. State on the weekends (Buff State is renowned for it C.S. program) and when she heard I was a runner she suggested I run the Twin Cities Marathon in October and  invited me to stay with her in Minneapolis.  Certainly a testament to the friendly, welcoming people in the Mid-West.  She told me the Marathon was billed as the ‘prettiest marathon in the country’ which was enough to get me thinking and interested in learning more.

The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are better known as the Twin Cities.   Although they are only 10 minutes apart they are in different counties and each serves as its county seat.  In Minneapolis,  St. Anthony Falls (the highest waterfall on the Mississippi) was responsible for the explosion of growth in between 1880 and 1930.  The mighty river powered mills for lumber, cotton, iron, paper and wool.  But the largest industry were the flour mills.  Cadwallader and William Washburn opened the Washburn “B” Mills at the falls and were joined by countless others, including a mill operated by Charles and John Pillsbury.  Pillsbury, General Mills and Smuckers are now part of General Mills giant “foodstuff” conglomerate, but happily their headquarters remain near Minneapolis.  Washburn “A” Mills is now the home of the Mill City Museum, operated by the Minnesota Historical Society, a museum focused on the history of Minneapolis and the flour mills.

Before I even got close to the library, I learned that Minneapolis is the 3rd most literate city in the country, behind Washington, DC and Seattle, which is a remarkable statistic.  I knew something cool must be going on behind the scenes to get people so jazzed about reading (in case you were curious, Buffalo ranked 41st - ouch).  

Minneapolis’s commitment to books is, in fact, written all over the city and probably really got cooking with The Loft Literary Center, a non-profit agency created to support writers, foster a writing community and build an audience for literature.  The Loft is now the largest independent center for literacy in the country and offers writing classes to thousands of writers each year (on site and online).  But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.  I got the feeling the energizer bunny was behind the scenes, pounding on his drum and announcing new programs with every lap, “how about readings, festivals, and apprenticeships?”  “What about a writing contests, grants and magazines?”  “Let’s work in the schools, have a poetry fest, compile an anthology!”  It’s a good thing his batteries don’t wear out.  

Like all great successes, The Loft had humble beginnings and has slowly (but steadily) grown and gained momentum over the decades.  What sets them apart is a passion for writing, reading and books that seems to fuel their continuous growth and innovation.   A seat of the pants operation that began in 1974 with a rented room about Rusoff & Co. Book Dealers has grown into a immeasurable resource not only for Minnesotans but for the country.  

In 1999, The Loft joined forces with Milkweed Editions and the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts to create a facility called “Open Book”.  The $5.5 million project created a spectacular, fresh space that incorporated studio space, meeting rooms, classrooms, a bookstore, a publisher, a restaurant, store and performance hall.  

The Open Book website proclaims that it is is a “space for everyone, a meeting place or quiet sanctuary, a destination for all who are interested in or inspired by the literary and book arts.”  A great destination for book lovers (and coffee drinkers) who can afford to pay to play to indulge their creative muse.