Opinion: Who Decides What's Right for Our Library?

Just in time for the New Year, I thought I would share some little-known facts about the :

• When it rains outside the library, it is also raining inside the library.
• Some people who are making big decisions regarding the library revamp are not library users.
• Unlike many township employees, library employees have not had a pay raise in over three years.
• The library is one of the only public buildings in town ANYONE can use, whether they have a library card or not. The 150,000 library visitors in 2011 probably agree with me.
• Many patrons actually LIKE books and enjoy the leisurely pleasure of browsing the shelves in search of their next great read. These folks checked out 168,384 items in 2011 and only 1,028 items were e-book downloads.
• There are people in town that cannot afford an electronic reading device.
• Not one single library employee has ever asked for a new building.

I know exactly what you’re thinking: "She works at the library! How can she be impartial?" Obviously, I’m not impartial. I was born "partial" and immediately began giving my opinion to anyone within earshot. But even if I didn’t work at the library the process that is would still puzzle me. 

On the brink of 2012, a year filled with promise, we are reinventing the wheel yet again. Ragan and Associates, the latest architectural firm to take up this morass of a project, are now being asked to look at encasing many of the rarely circulated books and storing them elsewhere in the library. When a patron requests one of these books, someone from circulation would leave the front desk and travel to Siberia to unlock the case and pull the requested volume. When I try to envision this process, I see a Jetsons robot trundling to these gleaming and impenetrable cases to cull the requested volumes. The circulation desk cannot be left unattended and there is no money in the budget to hire more employees, so how would this work? The bigger question: Why is this even being considered? And, assuming these imprisoned volumes would be stored upstairs in the library, doesn’t that mean less space for what is currently being stored out of the public eye?

Let me take you upstairs to the storage area currently being shared by the buildings office and . It’s pretty dark and dusty up there, filled with row upon row of red shelves that house the many fabulous crafts Mrs. Carroll Old has created over the years. These felt crafts are beloved by the people of Moorestown, as well they should be. The crafts take many hours of preparation before the children sit down to put their own personal touches on them.

There are boxes filled with props used during story time, paints, brushes, pipe cleaners, googly eyes and every imaginable art supply children enrolled in programs might need. Venture into many houses in Mo’town over the holidays and you will find green and red felt stockings, created in special library programs, decorated by children and hung with care, year after year.

In 2011, Mrs. Old revisited the gorgeous felt tree skirt with a workshop for 15 fifth graders. These boys and girls had an abundance of materials to work with, thanks to the Friends of the Library, a group that provides money for many of the programs in the Children’s Department. We in Children’s would be a sad and sorry lot without the help and support of our special “Friends.”

Descending into , one will find the technical services area, the “stacks” and other assorted rooms, including the employee “lounge.” This is where the employees laze around eating bonbons and watching daytime television while a bartender stands by waiting to top off their mimosas. Handsome, calendar-ready men serve lushly catered meals every day. Ah, the life of a civil servant is grand ... and you’re paying for it!

All kidding aside, I feel I must emphasize the fact that ALL of us at the library would be quite happy to stay put in our building. It certainly would be preferable to the incredibly shrinking library town council seems hellbent on building under the pretense of bringing it into the 21st century. Just fix the darned leaks and leave us alone! There is nothing more upsetting than working in a building that drips!

Books have always been my salvation. I learned at an early age that with a book, I could escape practically anything. Whatever was going on in my household, I could hide with a book and go to another world where parents weren’t yelling, or where I wasn’t a child alone in an eerily silent house. Our local library was one of the only air-conditioned buildings in Westmont and because it was a short bike ride away, it became my summer camp. Would you be surprised to know there are parents in Mo’town who use the library in this manner? A place to park the kids for a few hours?

There is nothing selfish about wanting to at least keep the library at roughly the same square footage as it is right now. We employees are not rubbing our greedy little hands together, plotting the screening room and wet bar we’ll need in the future. We work at the library because we love books and we like working with the public. Period.

We don’t demand your respect, but it would be nice to know our opinions are respected and considered in the planning of the new facility. Is it wrong to think the best ideas for the new library should come from people who actually use the library? According to town council it is.

People of Mo’town, welcome to your new maximum-security library KIOSK!