Part I: The Central Library vs. the Branches: the Library and it’s Systems Structure
When you think of the word architecture, the words “design” and “buildings” easily come to mind. However, archictecture is much more than that; in fact, one definition describes it as being the profession of designing buildings, open areas, communities. The word that strikes me is, communities. And so we talk about the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) and how it is a staple within its community, for which it serves thousands of people across a diversity of ethnic backgrounds.
The mission of the Brooklyn Public Library is to “ensure the preservation and transmission of society's knowledge”, while the vision states “that it will be a leader in traditional library services which reflect the diverse and dynamic spirit of the people of Brooklyn.” To support both the vision and the mission of the library, BPL has a multihue of programs and services, from Book a Librarian to Caribbean Literary and Cultural Center, which allows a patron to utilize the service of librarian for a half hour session, or research [their] history and culture within their Caribbean heritage. Like many libraries across the city, there are also ESL classes, computer and job training classes, to name a few. More importantly, as the econmy changes, some of the 58 branches have faced temporary or permanent closure, even some scaled back hours; however the Brooklyn library system demonstrates the mission and vision by specifically following the course, while providing up to date information to those within their communities.
As reported in a recent article “noise is golden” when it comes to any of the branches of BPL. Like the pitter-patter of little feet heard walking into the children’s department of the library, so are the tunes of salsa, reggae and hip-hop heard throughout this megadome of art and culture known as Brooklyn, and in the center is where the Central branch library sits, along with the famed Brooklyn museum and Botanical Gardens. The face of the library is “an open book” representative of its collection, from books in print, periodicals and digital resources to name a few. While the central branch capcitates an assortment, that isn’t true to the neighborhood branches. The libraries in Brooklyn have implemented what’s known as a floating collection where books can be returned to any of the neighborhood branches. This can be beneficial to a degree, but disappointing when the item is no longer available because it has moved on. Take for example, the Pacific library, which serves a working-class to lower income community made up of people of Middle Eastern, African American and Hispanic descent. On a visit to this neighborhood branch, branch manager, Candace Vasquez exemplified the true meaning of being passionate, where she explained that she works with what she has, and makes do. The Pacific branch has been praised for its newly added auditorium, used for programs, both library related and the general public; the children’s room which is vibrant with color and a large assortment of books and the main library, which needs some tender love, but stands strong admist being the first Carnegie library in Brooklyn. With a junior middle school and high school close in proximity, the Pacific branch runs heavy in teen programming supporting the teen population, just the same as it does for the medical and child day care centers; programming and outreach are in constant rotation.
Taking the 2 or 3 train uptown to the Brooklyn Heights branch, and you are introduced to an area “almost perfect” in comparison the the neighboring branch downtown – streets are a little quieter, streets are cleaner and there is an almost invincible overtone to the neighborhood, consisting of mainly upper class, Caucasian, nanny-driven community. The Brooklyn Heights branch was not as receptive in [my] visit, and was proved further when meeting John Leighton, who’s demeanor appeared rather nonchalant . In a community described as “affluent and wealthy”, I gathered there wasn’t much to look forward to because of this idea of “having it all”. Like the Pacific branch, there were programs, storytimes and arts and crafts, but every other patron seemed to gravitate towards RIF, or Reading is Fundamental, which is a system-wide program where kids can take out two books per week, and after the third week, they may select a book on for their own collection. Mr. Leighton describes this as good incentive, which raises awareness of reading and increases circulation.
Am I wrong for getting the impression that two very different branches of the same library system have a different approach when it comes to serving their communities? One is passionate, and exercises methods of innovation, while the other falls below that scale, and is disengaged because of a well-heeled community. Now more than ever is when library advocates, or trustees need to be in the neighboorhood branches – to be visible to the members of the community and library staff, but also to see what is taking place within their systems branches. So, where are they? Of the 35 board of trustee members for the Brooklyn Public Library, it is yet to be seen any representation of a board member at the Pacific Branch (as denoted by Ms. Vasquez). The board of trustees is organized into two groups, appointed by the Mayor of New York City and the Borough President, respectively – none of which are “assigned” to a branch, but are “encouraged to adopt a branch”, as reported by a library official. The relationship between the board members and branch libraries are past suffering – it’s deplorable.
The structure of the library system has fallen to the pits of hell when it comes to Brooklyn. In reference to the board of trustees, I was told that despite a two day retreat the members of the board attend “we need them to do more” when interviewing a library administrator at the Central branch. It is a crucial part in library operations, to cultivate and act on the ideas discussed to ensure that the mission of a [library] is executed to its fullest capacity.
Part 2: The Initiatives Being Taken
The Brooklyn Public library is taking massive strides in furthering its specific community needs while maintaining a complex system of checks and balances internally. There are multiple skills and resources that Central librarians must use to actively engage with outside community agencies and patron populations.
Operationally, innovation from within is not only cost effective but necessary is guaranteeing the sustainability of new and pre-existing programs. Through Central Library Aid, which amounts to $800,000 per year for materials- staff is able to oversee the development of new and continuing outreach and programming.
Branch questions are filtered thought the Central library via chat and email reference. And most recently, a LSTA grant in the amount of $70,000 was set to be dispersed over the course of 2 years to hire a special librarian whose focus it is to teach branch librarians about the service. With that being said this ideally would alleviate a lot of the pressure and unnessary costs many branch libraries feel from attending to their specific community needs.
Richard stated that Millenium system, a partnership between the NYPL and BPL out of Long Island City, has generated more circulation for both systems, along with Nassau and Suffolk counties which also belong to the consortium.
While branches do some of their own ordering- they are always encouraged to submit profiles on a formal and informal basis, while Central can and will continue to buy as they please.
As of 2 years ago branches were still allowed to spend their own Support Our Shelves program money. And ever since the cluster system dissipated, we have seen a return to a “back to the future” model where each library would be assigned a single supervisory librarian. This helped in not only creating a better system of accountability but also increased the likelihood of fiscal successes amongst smaller special needs branches.
Additionally BPL is planning on improving its relationship between itself and local
public schools, and according to Richard Reyes-Gavilan who identified the library as such-
“At the moment, we’re all things to all people – a cultural center, a tech center, a place for toddlers for seniors for Russian speakers etc. etc. We have embarked upon a strategic plan due to end sometime in the early summer. I hope that when the dust settles we do infact make education our top priority and jettison others. Long term safety exists, I believe, if we can better align ourselves with education.”
BPL has also partnered with Workforce One to provide job force training to low income communities. It has also partnered up with Single Stop USA to provide Social Services assistance and legal help to underrepresented populations throughout the borough.
References
The Brooklyn Public Library’s website
Dialogue between Richard Reyes-Gavilan
Brooklyn Public Library Observation Lenny Adler, Leslie Gallager, Keisha Miller, Phoebe Stein Part Three: Urban Issues at Hand
The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) system faces a number of specifically urban challenges. Large immigrant populations, and varying levels of education and income create a highly diverse community. The library seeks to serve the myriad needs of every individual in that community by creating a five-year plan of service.
BPL’s five-year plan of service is based on a community needs assessment initiative that includes input from Central and branch library staff, demographic data and usage statistics, and patron interviews and mail-in forms. The library system recently hired a full-time data analyst, based in Portland, OR, who tracks and analyzes statistics like library card registrations, program attendance, circulation, security incidents, website hits, and electronic database usage. However, according to Richard Reyes-Gavilan, Director of the Central Branch, this data has not been very useful in determining needs across BPL’s entire system. Instead, input from patrons and library staff, including branch and regional managers, has been the most helpful in establishing community need (R. Reyes-Gavilan, personal communication, October 12, 2010).
For BPL’s most recent five-year plan, there was a major focus on Children’s and Youth services. The library’s goal, as stated in their published Plan of Service for fiscal years 2007-2011, was to “build upon past successes to enhance and increase our services, programming, and resources for children and teens.” The library has addressed this goal by adding more Bookmobile service, including BPL’s first ever Spanish language Bookmobile, the Bibliobús, and by kicking off their Summer Reading program in 2009 with a Block Party that included numerous events and performances. The library has also
made a special goal of serving more children with disabilities and special needs throughout Brooklyn. The Child’s Place for Children with Special Needs is a resource that runs out of the Flatlands, Greenpoint, Red Hook, Saratoga, and Sunset Park branches. Free programs that are offered include After-School Story Time, Toys for Tots, Parenting Workshops, Hospital Storytelling, Garden Club (April-October), and Weekend programs that feature puppeteers, sing-alongs, and interactive storytelling (BPL, 2009). Upon publication of BPL’s 2010 annual report, the public will be able to learn of the quantitative and qualitative successes of Children’s and Youth services over the past year.
BPL’s next five-year plan is due for submission in early 2011. Richard Reyes- Gavilan believes that a large focus of the next plan will be adult education. The library currently offers English Language classes for new Americans and others whose first language is not English. English conversation groups are also offered, and led by specially trained volunteers. ESOL classes and English conversation groups are held at Central Library and at more than 20 libraries throughout the BPL system. According to the BPL’s website (2010), the current offerings for adult education classes are Learn to Read @ The Library, Pre-GED Classes, Writing Development, and Computer Basics. In the next few years when Central Library’s new Information Commons opens, Mr. Reyes- Gavilan hopes that technology education will become a bigger part of BPL’s education initiatives.
Brooklyn Public Library’s Five Year Plan of Service is only the first step in addressing the Brooklyn community’s specific needs. The librarians and library staff who will ultimately implement the Plan need to be patient and skilled at serving a diverse
population of people. Through their interaction with the public, the library as a whole works towards fulfilling its mission “to provide the people of Brooklyn with free and open access to information for education, recreation and reference.”
Works Cited
Brooklyn Public Library website. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/
Brooklyn Public Library. (2009). Annual Report 2009. Brooklyn, NY: BPL
Part 4
Brooklyn Public Library Observation Lenny Adler, Leslie Gallager, Keisha Miller, Phoebe Stein
Part Four: Skills and Resources Needed by Brooklyn Librarians
Urban public libraries are different from other libraries in several ways: they often deal with patrons who are battling against traditional urban woes (e.g. unemployment, poverty, and overcrowding), the patrons they serve are generally more diverse ethnically and linguistically than other populations, and budget crises in urban areas are often more dire than in suburban areas. These differences demand that Brooklyn librarians cultivate the following skills to most effectively serve their patrons: diversity training, marketing skills, and advocacy skills.
Our group interviewed Richard Gavilan-Reyes, the Director Centraltral Library, about common urban issues and how the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) responds and ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣ trained to work more effectively with immigrant populations, Gavilan-Reyes admitted that they do not have as many diversity training opportunities as he would like BPL to have, that it was an ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣-term strategy in place at this time. He ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣Since there is currently a hiring freeze in place at BPL, and Gavilan-Reyes estimates that it will continue for up to two more years, BPL will have to wait to hire more multi-lingual librarians. We wanted to get some back-up demographic data to confirm the statistic that Gavilan-Reyes had given us, so we headed to http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/36/36047.html. Since the data from the 2010 census will take several years to be processed, we had to go with the numbers from 2000, which stated that 46.7% of Brooklynites speak a language rather than English at home. We␣re sure that the Gavilan-Reyes percentage is much more accurate. Diversity does not just mean ethnic and linguistic diversity, but also encompasses sexual orientation diversity, as
well. BPL does have some programming that targets these patrons, but it does not seem to be a big focus at this point.
When books were first printed, they were the latest in technology, and remained the only way to deliver content for centuries. Now that there are many other ways to provide content and alert patrons to the availability of their content, libraries need to remain up on the very latest ways to serve these patrons. This need demands that OPACs, circulation software, and a marketing department (in- or out-of-house) have to be up-to-date with both the latest technological offerings and social media outlets. ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣ times as far as this was concerned.
As far as the staff training that BPL has implemented, Gavilan-Reyes told us that in 2009, BPL signed on with a company named Cornerstone to develop a staff development training ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣line courses for BPL staff in the following categories:
␣ Communication ␣ Conflict ␣ Communication ␣ Interpersonal ␣ Communication ␣ Written ␣ Customer Service ␣ Desktop ␣ Leadership ␣ ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣ ␣ Management ␣ Personal Development ␣ Business
It may be true that ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣ ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣Here is a list of the proposed advocacy events for 2011:
␣ March 2 = Great Read Across America & Dr. ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣ with opportunities to read at local libraries)
␣ March 3 = Support Our Shelves Kick Off (tentative).
␣ March 3 ␣ May = Website tout for SOS/Advocacy ␣ April 1␣ May 13 = Website tout for Love Your Library Day ␣ April 10 ␣ 16 = National Library Week (City Hall event tentatively set 4/13) ␣ May 13 = Advocacy splash screen goes live ␣ May 14 = Love Your Library Day! on Central Plaza ␣ June 9 = Summer Reading kick off
Part of advocating for any library is convincing both its patrons and its elected officials just how important the library is to the very fabric of communal life. BPL rolls out its annual ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣every March through every early July. The money that is raised by this fund goes directly to purchase books, CDs, and DVDs that the patrons can borrow. According to Richard Gavilan-Reyes, BPL has a strong relationship with its City officials, and ␣␣␣␣␣␣Government & Community Affairs department is the connecting point between the library and its host city. Advocating for the BPL directly to our elected officials pays off; earlier this year a whopping 30,000 messages of library support flooded into City ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣ices, and what was once a $20.6 million budget cut shrank to a $3.4 million cut.
According to the final report of the 2008 ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣at Wayne State University (http://slis.wayne.edu/about/urban_libraries_final_report.pdf␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣ ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣would be comfortable in a multilingual, diverse environment with the ability to take on the role of a community-rooted activist with knowledge of urban planning, ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣
The only things that we feel BPL librarians are missing from this great definition are a background in social work (which, incidentally, the current manager of the Pacific branch has) and instructional design. Richard Gavilan-Reyes did mention that he thought that BPL librarians needed to be better trained in ways to educate the public about the use of the library, and that this was a skill that would definitely be honed, system-wide, in the future.
Bibliography:
Educating Urban Librarians Fall Summit, 2008, Wayne State University
http://slis.wayne.edu/about/urban_libraries_final_report.pdf
Checking out the Future: Perspectives from the Library Community on Information Technology and 21st Century Librarians (http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oitp/publications/policybriefs/ala_checking_out_the.pdf
Future of Librarians by Will Sherman
http://collegeonline.org/library/librarians-online/future-librarians
The Landscape of Recession: Unemployment and Safety Net Services Across Urban and Suburban America by Elizabeth Kneebone and Emily Garr http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2009/0722_recession_kneebone/0722_recessi on_report.pdf
The Brooklyn Public Library␣s website
http://brooklynpubliclibrary.org/
Summary of Modules and Future Trends: Why do we market?
http://www.olc.org/marketing/5summary.htm
