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Preserving historic libraries brings early headaches and long-lasting rewards

4/27/2013

 
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THE HINDENBURG passes over the Westerly Public Library May 6, 1937, just hours before the German airship, with Nazi symbols on tailfins, explodes in New Jersey. Credit: Westerly Public Library
By Brian C. Jones
Rhode Island Library Report


    WEST WARWICK, R.I. (April 27, 2013) – The workshop was about the chronic heartaches and sometimes heady rewards of preserving the historic character of old library buildings when they are rebuilt to meet modern needs.
    But what drew gasps from the audience was a photograph of the Westerly Public Library in 1937 – not because of an impending crisis for the library, but the disaster awaiting the ghostly shape that could be seen above the library’s distinctive roof.
    Passing over the library was the German airship Hindenburg, tailfins emblazoned with Nazi swastikas. The day of the photo, said library director Kathryn Taylor, was May 6, 1937; the time 1:21 p.m. About six hours later, the Hindenburg would explode while landing in New Jersey, one of the world’s most famous air disasters, which killed 36.
    While technically, the photograph didn’t fit the topic, “New Libraries in Old Buildings,” it was an apt symbol of why many older library buildings are worth preserving: because the structures, just like their print and digital materials inside, dramatically connect their patrons’ pasts with their futures.
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KATHRYN TAYLOR, director of Westerly Public Library. R.I. Library Report photo
    The session, attended by about 30 people, was part of the much larger annual statewide conference sponsored by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, which drew about 500 people from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut to this one-time manufacturing town, now celebrating its centennial.
    Taylor was one of three panelists representing a range of libraries: the Westerly library at the southern edge of the state; the Willett Free Library in the North Kingstown village of Saunderstown, probably the state’s smallest library; and the state’s largest system, the nine-branch Providence Community Library.
    In each case, the buildings discussed are key landmarks on the psychological as well as physical landscapes of their communities. Each has confronted unique challenges; each has managed to come up with solutions.
    Taylor has been executive director of the Memorial and Library Association since 1998. The organization oversees the Westerly library and 15-acre Wilcox Park. Established in in 1894, the library has grown three times, with additions in 1902, 1906 and 1992.
    Completed in 2011 was a $6.5 million project involving interior work, along with a new outside ramp, replacing one constructed years ahead of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, but built with twists and turns that made it difficult for wheelchairs to navigate.   
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OLD STAIRS were preserved in Westerly ramp upgrade. Credit: Westerly library
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RAMP became an elegant walkway, says director Taylor. Credit: Westerly library
    A wrinkle in the ramp upgrade was the insistence of the Historical & Preservation Commission, which helped with the project, that Westerly preserve a set of old stairs, even though they would be obscured by the new construction.
    “They really wanted it to be like an archeological dig, so you could see what used to be there,” Taylor said. That produced many grumbles, and a comment from an official of the Champlin Foundations, which had helped with financing, to the effect that a “small house” could have been built with the resources that went into the ramp.
    However, Taylor said, that project turned out to be a net plus: it features a long, gentle slope that makes it more of a walkway than ramp, running elegantly alongside the building.
    “Look how beautiful that is,” Taylor said, as she brought up a photo of the finished project on a screen in a meeting room in the West Warwick Senior Citizens Center. “I thank the Rhode Island Historic Preservation & Heritage Commission for making us more beautiful than we planned to be.”

                                                          Leaky roof and a faltering stairway
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LAURA MARLANE, director of Providence Community Library
    The next speaker was Laura Marlane, executive director of the Providence Community Library, which in 2009 took over management of nine neighborhood branch libraries that had been run by the Providence Public Library, and which are largely supported by city and state funds.
    Marlane focused on just one of the libraries – the Knight Memorial in the capital city’s Elmwood neighborhood. Its roots go back to 1915, when Elmwood women raised funds for a library which rapidly outgrew its quarters above a fire station. In 1924, the family of Robert Brayton Knight, founder of Fruit of the Loom Company, established the new building.
    “It is truly a spectacular building,” Marlane said, showing photos of stained glass windows and reading rooms with huge windows and sturdy old tables and chairs. Then-and-now pictures documented that the library has changed very little over the decades.
    “In some ways,” she said with a note of irony, “neglect has the benefit of not having buildings suffer through really nasty ‘70s renovations that made things really, really ugly. So while things fall apart, which we’re fixing, you still have all of this stuff preserved.”

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KNIGHT library's well-preserved interior. Credit: Providence Community Library
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STAIRWAY to Knight's front entrance blocked pending repairs. Credit: PCL
    But lack of maintenance has taken a toll, including roof leaks that have eaten at interior plaster.
    Thus, Marlane noted, the staff at Knight Memorial react with “Pavlovian response” when they hear rain falling, grabbing their assigned buckets and rushing them to where leaks occur.
    However, the roof is being worked on, paid for by private donations, and the repairs should be finished in mid-May. Next up: rebuilding iconic stone stairs at the front entrance, which are pulling away from the building and which are now blocked off by a security fence.
    A Community Development Block Grant from the city will pay for much of the work, she said, and the Friends of the Knight Memorial Library on May 9 will hold a fundraiser, with a $13,000 goal to make up the difference.
    Meanwhile, the PCL’s Smith Hill Library will undergo major renovations, helped by the Champlin Foundations, to repair that building’s leaky roof, and bring the interior up to standards outlined in the disabilities’ law.
    Both the Knight Memorial and Smith Hill repairs should be completed by summer, “so then we’ll have two building in really, really good shape, and we are really excited about that,” Marlane said.

                                                            Big changes at a small library
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CLIFFORD RENSHAW
    Clifford “Jack” Renshaw, a Providence architect, discussed the redesign of the Willett Free Library, whose origins trace to a 19th Century “Circle for Mutual Improvement” in the tiny village of Saunderstown, in North Kingstown.
    The current library, designed in the early 1900s by Christopher Grant LaFarge, who helped design the Cathedral of St. John the Devine in New York City, is the state’s smallest library by many measures – it has about 253 cardholders compared to 56,783 at Providence Community Library.
    Popular with residents, who love features like its working fireplace, it was so crammed with books that librarian John Edwards called it more “kiosk” than library, and there was no place to sit down with a laptop computer. So in 2001, Renshaw said, the trustees raised enough money, including a Champlin grant, to renovate the building which reopened this past January.
    The result is that elements like the fireplace were retained. Adding some square footage and slightly raising the roof, resulted in better use of space, helped by having moveable bookcases that can be rolled back to allow seating for events.
    As with the Westerly library, he said that installation of a wheelchair accessible ramp turned out to have unexpected benefits, in this case an added porch that provides space for space for warm weather use.

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WILLETT LIBRARY'S new ramp
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FIREPLACE was retained in Willett upgrade
    “It’s a wonderful community center,” he said. “This has a tremendous sense of place that has the historic integrity that the neighbors just didn’t want to lose.”
    The panel session, moderated by the writer of this article, ended with questions from the audience, including the crucial issue of raising money.
    Marlane, the Providence Community Library director, said some libraries are forming tax-exempt organizations to raise money that municipalities can’t or won’t, and that library directors have to take on new roles.
    “I think libraries have to become advocates much more than ever before,” Marlane said. “Directors need to be political; they need to be really active in their community to generate the fundraising that they need.
     “It’s always been difficult for libraries,” she said. “They are usually the first thing cut in any budget. That’s just been traditionally the way it’s been. But now with the economy where it is, libraries really need to advocate for themselves, and build their position in the community and become more of a community center.”

A "Seed Library" to Open April 30 at the Washington Park Library

4/17/2013

 
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By Gina Macris
Rhode Island Library Report

PROVIDENCE (April 17, 2013) - The Washington Park Library will push the envelope of public service – and honor the memory of a beloved patron- when it opens the David St. Germain Seed Library at the end of the month.
        In addition to checking out conventional materials like books, magazines or CDs, patrons will be able to use their library cards to take home as many as five packets of seeds at a time.
        The David St. Germain Seed Library will open April 30 at 3:30 p.m. and continue every Tuesday afternoon through the summer, said Dylan Little, library manager at Washington Park, which is part of the Providence Community Library system.
       The seed library, he said, aims “not only to hand seeds off to people but to have the vision to connect them with other great programs” in the community, like the Southside Community Land Trust,  and the University of Rhode Island Outreach Center, which has an outpost in Roger Williams Park Botanical Center.      
      “It will be exciting to see where this goes, “Little said. “Hopefully, we’ll get veterans and people who never planted seeds before” coming to the seed library.
      Little said the library has purchased some of the seeds. Others have been donated by the URI Outreach Center, which makes free seeds available to non-profit organizations with gardening programs.
      The seed library has received funding from the First Unitarian Church of Providence in memory of St. Germain, who was a fixture at the church on Benefit Street.
      St. Germain, known as a tireless advocate for the homeless and the disenfranchised, started a social justice committee at the church. When he died in 2010 at the age of 43, he was remembered at a State House vigil as a man with a lasting presence, who connected those experiencing hardship first-hand with those who needed to know about it.
     St. Germain, a disabled paramedic, had been homeless for a year before finding permanent quarters in a Crossroads Rhode Island apartment. But he could not get relief from debilitating pain, and on July 23, 2010, he jumped off the roof of the Providence Place mall garage.
     For the inauguration of the seed library April 30, Michelle Walker from the Southside Community Land Trust will be on hand to offer expert advice on exactly what patrons should do with the seeds they “borrow,” Little said.
     “Hopefully, in the off-season we can get seeds back that growers have collected,” Little said.
     “It might be possible to have a seed swap” in the future, he said.
    In addition to guidance from the Southside Community Land Trust, Little said, the library program has received “great advice and support” from the following groups:

The Fertile Underground

Small State Seeds

Sidewalk Ends Farms

URI CELS Outreach Center
 
Big Train Farms



Need a passport? Check out yours at the Pawtucket Public Library

4/10/2013

 
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By Gina Macris
Rhode Island Library Report


    
    PAWTUCKET, R.I. (April 10, 2013) The Pawtucket Public Library has scored two firsts:
  • It's the first library in Rhode Island to open a U. S. passport office
  • And it is the first organization to offer passport services in the evening.
      And those who use the library for U.S.  passport services will be helping support adult literacy and workforce development classes offered free to adult immigrants.
       U.S. citizens planning to travel abroad may apply for passports at the library, 13 Summer St., from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
      Patrons may use a passport photo machine at the library for a fee of $10.
           Julie Fischer, passport manager, said that library personnel are available to go to other locations, "off-site," to provide passport acceptance services.
      All U. S. passport offices charge the same fees, which are set by the federal government. But a portion of the fee paid at the library will support the Rhode Island Family Literacy Initiative, said Karisa Tashian, the literacy initiative coordinator.     
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        The Pawtucket Public Library is one of five library systems participating in the literacy initiative, which provides 17 classes in 9 libraries and community centers in four communities.
        The classes include English as a second language, citizen preparation, distance learning and workforce development.
     Besides the Pawtucket library, other participating library systems are the Cranston, East Providence, the Providence Public and the Providence Community libraries.
         For more information about passport applications, see the Pawtucket Public Library’s website. The Department of State also gives complete information about the passport application process at its website.





"New libraries in old buildings" to be a topic at upcoming Preservation Conference

4/3/2013

 
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WESTERLY PUBLIC LIBRARY'S interior was renovated at a cost of $6.5 million, completed in 2011. The original building dates to 1894, with three additions since. PHOTO: Westerly Public Library
      WEST WARWICK, R.I. (April 3, 2013) – The challenge of honoring the historic character of  older library buildings,  while updating  them to meet technological and cultural changes, will be among the topics discussed at the 28th Annual Statewide Preservation Conference Saturday, April 27.
      Libraries are often among the most cherished buildings on city and town landscapes, but some venerable structures need costly repairs or expansion for new computer systems and programs, as well as provide facilities and access for handicapped patrons.
      Balancing these needs is the subject of a panel discussion entitled “New Libraries in Old Buildings,” one of 23 programs scheduled for a day-long conference organized by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission.
 
The theme of this year’s conference is “Preservation Works,” and one of the sessions will discuss the impact of state historic preservation tax credits, which would be reinstated under legislation proposed in the current General Assembly session.
    According to the commission, before the tax credit program was closed to new      
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SMITH HILL LIBRARY in Providence will get needed repairs with the help of a $475,000 Champlin Foundations grant
new applicants in 2008, the state saw 215 historic buildings renovated over 11 years, during which $1.35 billion was added to the Rhode Island economy.
      Dr. Jonathan Prude, associate professor of history and American studies at Emory University, will be the keynote speaker, discussing the impact of 19th Century industrialization on communities in areas like the Pawtuxet and Blackstone river valleys.
      West Warwick was chosen as the site of this year’s conference in connection with the town’s celebration of its one-hundred year anniversary. Dr. Prude’s talk will be in Church of St. John the Baptist in Arctic Village.
      The library session will feature Laura Marlane, executive director of the Providence Community Library; architect Clifford Renshaw; and Kathryn Taylor, executive director of the association that runs the Westerly Public Library. Brian Jones, a co-founder of the Library Report, will moderate the discussion.
      Marlane will discuss the nine neighborhood libraries managed by the Providence Community Library, particularly two with pressing renovation needs, the Knight Memorial Library, built in 1924 by the family of the founder of the Fruit of the Loom textile company, and the Smith Hill Library, constructed in 1932. The Smith Hill library will be upgraded with the help of a $475,000 grant awarded the PCL last year by the Champlin Foundations.
      Renshaw is the architect who oversaw a more than $450,000 renovation of Willett Free Library in the North Kingstown village of Saunderstown, one of the state’s smallest libraries, which was the subject of a Library Report story this past January. Willett’s 1904 building was designed by Christopher Grant LaFarge, a prominent architect, who designed the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. (A separate conference session will focus on stained glass windows in Newport created by LaFarge’s father, John LaFarge). Renshaw served several years as historical architect for the Historical Preservation Commission.
     Taylor in 1998 became executive director of the Memorial and Library Association, which maintains the Westerly Public Library and Wilcox Park. A $6.5 million project to renovate the library’s interior was completed in late 2011. The original building dates to 1894, with additions built in 1902, 1906 and 1992.
     Information on the full conference program can be found at the historical commission's Website.
     Reservations, at a cost of $40 per person, can be made by mail in letters postmarked April 17 or earlier. Registration in person can be made on the morning of the conference.
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WILLETT FREE LIBRARY, where renovations included a handicapped accessible ramp

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