Local Video
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| Growing pains: Library seeks input on increasingly needed growth |
By: SUZANNE ROOK and DAVID HENKE, Staff Writers
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Posted: Friday, January 30, 2009 10:32 pm
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Fast forward 10, 15, 20 years and imagine the north end of Division Street: an expanded library, additional downtown parking and who knows what else.
It’s a vision Margit Johnson and the city’s Library Board are now considering. Before long, Johnson and the board will want to hear what the public sees for the area’s future.
Last year, the board, with the help of an architect, unveiled several design options for a 19,000 square foot library expansion which would push the building south into a portion of Third Street that accommodates several parking spaces. The designs showed one- and two-story additions, some in a similar architectural style to the current library, others with a more modern appearance.
At the time, Johnson said, board members believed that library staff would prefer one arrangement over the other; that one would provide an easier layout to work within. Staffers, Johnson said, decided neither configuration was vastly superior to the other.
That information now has the board considering asking other city boards and groups including the Northfield Downtown Development Corp. to help it consider redevelopment possibilities for the area surrounding the library.
Architects’ renderings show several parking lot options: underground parking below a library addition or street-level parking that extends along Washington Street to Fourth Street. Those and others could be considered, said Johnson, who talked of completing a master plan for the area.
Once parameters for the conversation are set, the Library Board will invite residents to share their ideas on the library addition and parking options. Johnson hopes that discussion will take place this year.
Paying for the project
The Library Board hopes to jump start the addition construction by conducting a private fundraising campaign to bolster any city construction funds.
But before those efforts begin, the board wants to know how much could realistically be raised.
Johnson and Library Director Lynne Young on Monday told the city council it hopes to soon hire a consultant to conduct a feasibility study on the project.
The board is now conferring with other libraries which have undertaken similar campaigns, getting a handle on costs, timelines and expectations. Library gift funds would be used to pay for the consultant.
The city council will need to approve such an expenditure.
— Suzanne Rook can be reached at srook@northfieldnews.com or 645-1113.
As the economy heads down, public library usage goes up
NORTHFIELD — Usually, Erik Cote satisfies his children’s voracious appetite for books and movies by shopping at Target or other big-name retailers. But lately, Cote has turned to the Northfield Public Library as his source for children’s literature and movies.
His reason: Unlike the pricey new book and movie releases in the stores, the material at the library is free.
A commercial plant breeder by profession, Cote is just one of many local residents who has felt the effects of the economic crunch and is looking to cut corners any way he can.
“I’d say we’ve definitely cut the costs on children’s books,” Cote said. “I think the volume of items I’ve withdrawn has increased, especially movies.”
Cote isn’t alone in his sentiments. The current recession has made library cards a hot item in Northfield; in 2008 circulation rates rose 7 percent compared to 2007, with the biggest jump coming last December, when the circulation increased by 17 percent compared to December 2007.
Circulation isn’t the only area where the library staff has noticed growth; the number of people using the library’s free computers and Internet access rose from 1,375 total logins in December 2007 to more than 2,000 in December 2008.
“I think mostly we are seeing a big effect from the economy,” said Lynne Young, director of the Northfield Public Library. Although the circulation at the library has been on a slow rise for several years, Young said, they’ve never seen anything like the current trend.
To meet the changing needs of its patrons, the library has created a job and employment resources center, stocked with small business manuals, job application and resume resources and dedicated computer access for people hunting for jobs on the Web or filling out online job applications.
However, the library’s efforts to cope with the dramatic increase in traffic are complicated by the bevy of budget cuts that the library itself is facing. The library, which had a budget of just over $1 million dollars in 2008, has already cut its currently approved budget by .4 percent this year, and is currently considering a 10-15 percent total budget cut that would fall later in 2009 and 2010.
According to Young, the cuts would mean a definite decrease in services for library patrons, Young said. Already the library has reduced the number of new materials it purchases, and Young expects that the library will have to shorten its current hours of operation. Young said the library may also cut the Booker bookmobile program from its budget altogether.
“What we’re struggling to do is to try not to cut people,” Young said. “We’re living in interesting times, but I’ve never gone through anything quite this severe.”
— David Henke can be reached at dhenke@northfieldnews.com or 645-1100. |
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It seems the delay in building an expansion will be a gift, in that technology is changing so rapidly. Within a year there will be no reason to archive paper magazines and newspapers when online archives are available. Electronic books can turn the library into a source of computer downloads and print on demand technology will allow seldom requested books to be printed when needed at a lower cost than long-term storage. There will be a need for paper books, but other options will limit the amount of new shelving and floorspace needed to store them.
In short, the library should be able to serve more readers in more ways while reducing the size of an addition and making the design more compatible with the current building and location.
e books and archives are great but the library without books is a long way off, at least I hope so. Even if not, you still need space for all those terminals. Perhaps a town not preoccupied with its liquor store could pay more attention to such a basic town function. This is a beautiful library with devoted librarians and a grateful town; there ought to be a reasonable way to expand it.
Northfielder, I'm not saying books will be gone, but there will be less need to archive everything on the shelves. And you won't need a lot of terminals, as people will 'visit' the library from home and access what they need. And don't underestimate the speed of change. Nobody figured magazines and newspapers would disappear as rapidly as they have, just as nobody thought music downloads would so quickly replace CDs.
Buckle up...it's going to be an interesing ride.
This library has served the community just fine for generations. In these tough economic times we need to think of *true need* versus *wish list*. Every week there is an article about need, which is there, to be sure.. but would you rather have a new Safety Center and fire equipment, or a larger library? Over the years we've acquired the "entitlement mentality" and that's just over now that we're in a recession. There's only so much to go around, something has to give.
Responsible long term planning dictates that we need to see the eventual expansion of the library. The current economic downturn should not keep us from planning for all of our needs. Hopefully, this time, we will plan for future expansion of the city's population so we are not looking at this issue again in 20 years.
Did we not go through this library expansion, planning and public input charade a couple of years ago? I also recall this issue about 10+ years ago.
Not every one has a computer at home,I don't know the numbers but I do know that not every household in America will have a computer in-home with in the next 10 to 15 years. Plenty of people use the library just for the computers. I do have computers in my home but still go to the library at least once a week.
I love books and I like using my computer to get instance info that I want but for me, the internet will never replace books, magazines, and newspapers.
fedup, as I stated several times, the library will be needed in the future. The growth of online services will just reduce the size of an addition, making it more compatible with the site.
As for newspapers, with the rate of bankruptcies and the loss of print readers, experts say the last print editions will of any newspapers will be wrapping fish in 30 years or less.
Anne, I see your point, but it's just as easy to imagine reasons the library will need to be bigger as smaller. Observer, you're right, but Northfield has grown and grown in that time. As to "necessities" it can often be pretty short sighted to decide that things like libraries aren't on the list. When we ditch community resources and interventions, we end up with problems so big that no matter how many police you add, you can't fix them. Of course you are right, there's only so much to go around,and I agree that now might not be the time for this. I wonder if, instead of expansions, we should be thinking --at least temporarily -- in terms of an additional structure somewhere. Here are any number of unused places around town; how about trying a move of a single function, say videos, to one?
Northfielder, that idea has been brought up at planning sessions and the problem is that a major cost of libraries is staffing and an extra site means extra staff, just when the city is looking at cuts. It's the reason most libraries try very hard to get a building on one level, with clear sight lines, to cover the most floor space with the fewest staff.
Anne,
the ebook has not caught on like music downloads or reading news online. people just aren't comfortable with it. the ebook first surfaced in the mid 90s. It still represents less than 1% of readership. Making changes based on what less than 1% of the population uses is shortsighted. The delivery device or ereader is still too expensive for the average user. I remember when the printed book was declared dead in 1995. It seems to have survived. Bookstores were declared extinct at the same time. Yet they have grown since then.
Wow, I guess I'm not being clear at all. I know the numbers on e-books, and I'm not saying downloads will replace paper, but technology can help make the size of the addition more in keeping with the limits of the site. That's all.
Anne, just so you don't have to continue to provide immediate rebuttal and always have the last word, you're probably right that the size of an addition can be scaled to the types of collections and equipment the library will provide in the future. More terminals will probably require less floor space than more bookstacks.
But a library is more than the sum of its physical objects. It is a community gathering space of a kind that is rare. Where else do people mix across socio-economic lines? (Some might say church, but churches *tend* to attract like-minded people of similar socioeconomic backgrounds.) Where else do we find shared resources to inform and entertain the entire community? I'd argue that a library represents one of the last, best forces for democrasizing society. It is the very anthithesis of the individual working at home, downloading his or her material without any human interaction.
For my money, I'd rather expand the library than the safety center, and both over the liquor store. (BTW, thanks to the new council for making the right decision on the liquor store.)
And while I don't know if a library expansion needs to be big or small, I do hope that we will invest the incremental additional cost of making it beautiful. The addition to the original Carnegie building was very well designed, and our community is better for it.
20-20 thanks for such a good job summing up the importance of a library beyond its holdings. One good example of this is the literacy programs, kids reading programs, elder collegium classes, etc which have been held there. We were so lucky to have the original Carnegie library, lucky that townspeople had the foresight to make a very attractive addition, and we ought to hold ourselves to a high standard when/if we add to it. When, I hope.