Urban Public Libraries and Big Box

Urban Public Libraries
Readings:
The example of the Near North branch in the article that we read is an unusual case, I would assume. To move the new, expensive library into an area in between an upper class white neighborhood and a lower-middle class predominantly African-American one is probably a rarity. Once this branch did move in, the other improvements that followed, such as new middle to upper class buildings that went up in the neighborhood where lower-income housing used to be, displaced the local population that had visited the library before these other neighborhood improvements. So, as we can see in this article, the good experiments, like the Near North branch turn out the same as many of the other urban branches who move into the rich area and do not open the lower and middle-class patrons. New, complex, beautiful and sometimes ridiculous buildings in urban areas of our cities try to build up an area but mostly fail to reach or cater to, all of the patrons in the area. I believe that this was a good reading to do to show the plusses of urban libraries when these libraries are run by a functioning and even thriving city public library system, like the Chicago Public Library. The article mentions the downside of moving a new urban library into a lower to middle class neighborhood (or actually on the edge of it). It does not dwell long in this negative atmosphere but chooses to venture into more positive aspects of the community programs of the Chicago Public Library as a large city system.

I do dislike at the end of the article, on page 11 of the text, how they refer to the musical programs for the community as offering "serious" music to the young people of that community. Sounds a bit to me like promoting the "right" reading. I also was a bit distracted by the mega-typos in the article. But I still feel that this was a pretty good article to choose for us to read before the presentation because it gets into the gentrification issues a little while still choosing to promote a positive view of the new branch in Chicago. I would have liked to see another article which got into some of the bad parts of these new urban library projects. Fortunately, the presentation sections provided some good and well-rounded oversight of the issues involved.

Presentation of material and ideas:
The presentation of the idea of gentrification and homelessness were looked at in much more depth by our classmates who did a fantastic job. The gentrification that happens when libraries move expensive new buildings into neighborhoods that are suffering financially, is an area that needed to be covered and it was, beautifully. It was all good, every member did a good job but for me personally, Laura's discussion of problems and programs for the homeless in public libraries, is one of the most interesting issues with building new, expensive buildings in urban areas of our cities. Especially in large urban settings, the homeless and "street people" make up a large part of the patron population and we need to think about their needs when we build programs for our new libraries and improve them in the old buildings. This was a very good presentation.

Big Box
Readings:
The New York Times article talks about how books in these new bookstore inspired public libraries place their books in sections, like "neighborhoods," similar to a Borders or Barnes and Noble like bookstore. I personally find this annoying, but I like to know precisely where my item is going to be, and with Dewey classification, you have most of the related books on your subject, or Author placed in a collated fashion, so that it is easy to find on the shelf next to the item that you may have looked up in the catalog with a call number. I personally, would like to see bookstores classify their materials like libraries, but I certainly wouldn't force that idea.

I certainly like browsing, in bookstores and in public libraries but I want the option of finding the material right away, first try that a Dewey classified library can give me and bookstore can't. I like Dewey and so I do not agree with Mr. Courtright on this one.

I think we run the risk here of making our libraries too social and too comfortable and pushing out those patrons who come to study, not to hear someone talking on their cell-phone about the drunken escapades they may have had the night before. I don't want my library to be like my bus in that way! I know that a comfortable library is nice and I want my library comfortable but we need to ensure that studying happens there as a number one priority. I pretty much disagree with this article and it makes me even more interested in libraries and what makes them special and different and a place that I would be much more likely to inhabit for the day than a damn chain-store. The parts of the article where Coffman decides to put forth the idea that we could get away with paying our librarians a barely-livable wage if we wanted to be modern and posh, infuriate me.
Maybe we are really talking about the differences between a capitalist bookstore model-fake, pushy and fluffy; and a socialist library model-real, respectful and solid. Rachel's final comments were particulary nice, we have to be prepared to state to people why we, as librarians are important and worth the extra money. We care, we are not just in it to get extra Christmas spending money. We care about our patrons, not their money.


 Presentation of materials and ideas:
I really enjoyed Elizabeth's use of the pictures and concentration on libraries in our city of Madison, before and after renovations. Since I am brand new to Madison, this was a very enjoyable and informative approach.
I also really enjoyed Tomissa's presentation and how she went into the College Library cafe, here at UW-Madison and how the books are shelved, sort of in "neighborhoods," like the NYTimes article refers to.
The mention of storytime and how it differs in libraries and in bookstores was also really powerful.
I like the idea of keeping the libraries open for more hours, like Barnes and Noble and other such stores are open until 11pm, where most public libraries are only open until 9pm.

This pretty much sums up how I feel about this one,
One of my favorite things about being in a library as opposed to a bookstore: being left the hell alone!-JM