Trending libraries

‘Reading rooms’ evolve into community hotspots

Jeff Baskin (right), executive director of the William F. Laman Public Library System, leads members of the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce upstairs in the old post office on Main Street in North Little Rock. The library purchased the building in September and plans to renovate it to serve as its Argenta branch library, currently housed in the city’s old fire station nearby.
Jeff Baskin (right), executive director of the William F. Laman Public Library System, leads members of the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce upstairs in the old post office on Main Street in North Little Rock. The library purchased the building in September and plans to renovate it to serve as its Argenta branch library, currently housed in the city’s old fire station nearby.

— For decades, the mention of libraries conjured up images of dim, windowless spaces filled with dusty tomes overseen by stern librarians where the No. 1 rule was “Quiet Please!” and any patron who dared break the sounds of silence was quickly shushed.

The public library was one big reading room. Period. Looking for adventure or exploration? Best stick to the ones on the printed pages.

Today’s libraries are hot spots - for Wi-Fi, to socialize over a steaming cup of cappuccino, see a movie, use a computer, attend a festival, enjoy art shows, concerts and lectures; buy a book, attend club meetings and more.

But there are still quiet places to sit and read.

“There’s been a fundamental change in what libraries are coming to mean to their communities,” says David Johnson, executive director of the Fayetteville Public Library.

The library Johnson oversees has had an Emmy-award winning filmmaker shoot a documentary inside of it and seen increasing demand for its meeting rooms and its services since the building opened in 2004. But the 88,000-square-foot library is bursting at the seams and has begun to study a possible expansion that might include opening its first branch.

Libraries in Little Rock and North Little Rock also continue to expand facilities and services.

The number of Arkansans using libraries is steadily increasing, says Ruth Hyatt, manager of library development with the Arkansas State Library.

In 1999, there were 6,070,671 patrons and 9,113,437 items checked out. In 2011, she says there were 10,740,765 visits to libraries and 14,521,204 items checked out.

“This is all with budget reductions and some libraries having to close, which is just amazing to me,” Hyatt says.

When the Central Arkansas Library System opened its state-of-the-art $13 million library in 1997 in the circa 1921 former Fones Bros. Hardware warehouse at Second and Rock streets in Little Rock, the library was a pioneer - as an anchor to the River Market District and as the newest addition to the changing face of public libraries.

But CALS has not rested on the laurels of the five story, 161,000-square foot space which, in addition to traditional book services, has DVDs, a lecture hall, a drive-through book return window, a courtyard, conference rooms, card catalog terminals, computers with Internet connection and, next door at the library’s restored Cox Creative Center, an art gallery, cafe, bookstore, and gift shop.

The library continues to evolve and grow, its plot line moving forward with twists and turns brought about by the constantly advancing technology of the 21st century.

DIGITAL DAZE

“The library’s core is still books and information,” says CALS executive director Bobby Roberts. “But information now comes in so many different ways, from everything from mobile phones to computers - there are so many choices.

“When the Internet started, everybody thought, ‘Well, that will be the end of the public library.’ But high speed Internet costs $80 to $90 a month and half of the people who live in Arkansas can’t afford that.”

Roberts says CALS is the largest provider of free Internet services in Pulaski county.

“We still don’t have enough computers and have to limit usage to 30-minute intervals,” he says of the 250 to 300 computers in the system’s main library, 11 branches, Cox Creative Center and the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies nearby on President Clinton Avenue.

The Butler Center focuses on Arkansas-related resources and collections of historical documents, art and photographs. It also publishes Arkansas-themed books, including a recent collection by True Grit author Charles Portis.

The library also is investing in e-books. This year, CALS circulated more than 100,000 e-books, along with 2.5 million traditional books.

Book circulation is slowing, but e-book circulation is up 130 percent from last year. The number of meetings and programs held at the library has also risen.

What draws people back?

Roberts says it is the desire to connect - face to face.

“In this digital world in which we’re now living, the more you are alone and not face to face with others, the more you want to latch onto and meet with others. While Facebook and other social media websites are great for staying connected with friends and relatives who live far away, there is still something in the basic humanity of us that likes to see people eyeball to eyeball. People are social animals.”

ARKANSAS ENCYCLOPEDIA

Other services CALS offers include movie screenings and its online Arkansas Encyclopedia of History & Culture, established six years ago.

CALS also annually presents the Arkansas Literary Festival and started the Arkansas Sounds Music Festival this year.

“Fifteen years ago, we wouldn’t have dreamed of doing these kinds of things,” Roberts says. “But now our mission has become adding to the community relationship of the library. It’s just a different world than it used to be.”

Plans include replacing the main library’s 88-space surface parking lot with a 220-space parking deck. In 2013, additions to the system will include a branch in Wrightsville owned by the city and operated by CALS and a stand-alone Children’s Library, set to open in about four months at 4800 W. 10th St. near Fair Park Boulevard in Little Rock. Along with book services, the children’s library will include a theater where children can write and produce plays, a community kitchen in which to hold programs on nutrition, an environmental park and a greenhouse.

“We’re hoping it will do the same thing for the children that the new main library has done for the adults,” Roberts says.

The library is also in partnership with developers Moses Tucker Real Estate to construct a building, the Arcade, on the corner of River Market and Clinton avenues, set to open in October. It will have an auditorium for concerts,lectures and movies and supply the library’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies additional workspace.

The driving force behind these changes and community-related programs?

“Money,” says Roberts, noting that the turning point was in July 1993 when residents approved a bond issue for a $17 million expansion which included the downtown library, replacing the old main library at Seventh and Louisiana streets and five smaller branches.

“We finally got enough funding to do programs and once it got rolling, the community wanted more. It’s been 12 years since we’ve had a down year in circulation. Once people get used to better services and better things, it’s hard for them to go back.”

MORTAR-LY WOUNDED

While the new urban libraries of the late 1990s were competing with mega bookstores, online companies like Amazon and the advent of digital books dealt bookstores a blow. One of the highest profile victims - Borders, the nation’s second-largest brick-and-mortar bookseller - filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011.

“People have home and work but always need a third place - somewhere to get away to - and they want to be around other people,” says Jeff Baskin, executive director of the William F. Laman Public Library System in North Little Rock. “That’s why Barnes & Noble became so popular. But we have a greater selection of books and everything you want, for free.”

Baskin stays in tune with what his patrons want.

“It sounds silly but I would keep up with what the popular demand was by going into Best Buy and looking at what they had on their shelves. They have a lot more marketing strategies than libraries do,” Baskin says. “If they moved their CDs to a smaller area to make more room for something new, I took notice of what it was.”

The Laman Public Library, 2801 Orange St. in North Little Rock, has also seen increased activity in recent years, up from 193,440 patrons in 1992 to 439,217 patrons in 2011. In 2002, the library, built in 1962, was remodeled, nearly doubling in size to almost 50,000 square feet. The expansion added a second floor, new space for books and public programs, two public reading rooms, a coffee shop and a teen center.

The library offers wireless Internet access, 25 computers for public use and downloadable audio books, music and electronic magazines via Zinio.

“Anyone with a library card and pin number can go to our website and download music or read 163 different popular magazines ranging from Consumer Reports to Cosmopolitan,” Baskin says.

When it comes to activities and programs, the library is thinking outside the shelves, offering music, exhibitions such as “Norman Rockwell’s Home for the Holidays” art exhibit (through today) and a show of Lionel trains, which opens Thursday. A Harry Potter Quidditch match was recently held at the library’s plaza.

In May 2006, Laman Library opened the Argenta branch on Main Street. Housed in the city’s old fire station, the 2,550-square-foot branch has about 10,000 adult and children’s books, DVDs and six computer stations.

Baskin and his staff, like Roberts and CALS, are looking toward the future.

GOING FIRST-CLASS

The Laman library bought the old U.S. post office on Main Street in September for $775,000 and plans to move its Argenta branch there by the end of 2013 or early 2014. Renovation of the 16,000-square-foot space will cost $3.5 million and be paid for through a bond issue.

The new Argenta branch will have a larger children’s department, 25 computers for public use, 15,000-20,000 books, CDs and DVDs and services including a notary public, a coffee shop with indoor and outdoor seating, an auditorium and space for exhibits.

“The new exhibit hall will meet the American Alliance of Museums standards, which will allow us to bring in exhibits from the Smithsonian and other major museums,” Baskin says.

Despite the steady growth of library usage through Arkansas in recent years, Baskin says it’s often an uphill battle.

“Libraries have always wanted to move forward, but our finances substantially slow us down,” he says. “People donate to all sorts of things, but not to the library. They think because we get tax dollars, we don’t need the money. But in fact, we are always struggling.”

And, he adds, although public libraries have been plentiful throughout this country since 2,500 of them - including Little Rock’s - sprang up in the late 19th century and early 20th century thanks to $60 million in donations from steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, they are often taken for granted.

“Libraries are like mom and apple pie,” Baskin says. “You don’t really concern yourself with them until they’re not there.”

Style, Pages 45 on 12/09/2012

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