Read Local - Share Global

Our family has many Christmas traditions, but a favorite is adopting, anonymously, a family in need. For several months we would plan what would make wonderful personalized gifts, what could be made, what could be reused, what we could include for the holiday feast and especially what books would be selected to share. I think from the age of five I have had the desire to share good books: You must read this!
For several decades I continued this tradition, with local families in Scotland and Minnesota from Oxfam, Goodwill, the Salvation Army, the Women’s shelter or church organizations. Some years the need is immediate, for example Katrina, Haiti, Sarajevo and now New Zealand and Japan. The heartfelt note from the Katrina family thanking me for the cookbooks, the children’s books, the fix-it-up, do-it-yourself manuals, the romance, the travel guides, etc., found me filling another box to help replace and restore their love of books, their pleasure in reading. Nearly all of the books have been purchased from the Friends of the Library Bookstore. This is truly a treasure trove of quality reading material at incredible prices. Quite a few books have been purchased in the Friends Book Sales or Rochesterfest Booksale where the selection is eclectic and extremely affordable.
Last year, knowing how involved I have become with the Library and the Friends’ Bookstore, a friend asked me if I could help her send children’s books to American Samoa, where her son has been stationed as part of the Americorp program. The school children of Vatia at Mt Alava Elementary had so few books that nearly anything would be welcome. It is astonishing how many books you can pack into a flat rate U.S. Postal mailing box! Two boxes went winging across the Pacific, and a third was transported by the visiting parents. Subject matter ranged from primers and picture dictionaries to chapter books, history books and children’s classics. I really had no idea what they would need or want so sent a wide selection requesting additional information on what they most needed.
The response has been overwhelming. A Christmas card from their teacher Leslie Blaich arrived thanking us for the donation: “Talofa! Wow. Fa afetai tele” These books now form the school’s library. The children are absolutely delighted with each and every book. Each of the six children in this classroom have personally written a wonderful thank you note that is a pleasure to share with the Rochester community. These books were donated to the Library, as duplicates they became available for sale in our Bookstore in mint condition (where the proceeds would directly return to the Library) for a family or an organization to benefit from them. That this should be half way around the globe is one of the miracles of our modern day world.
I remain an avid user of our Rochester Public Library and the Friends Bookstore.

School Books

Excerpt ascribed to Creesbrook School, Kirkby Lonsdale

Guide to the Use and Purpose of Books in the School Library

1. The primary use of a book is not that it should be used as a weapon.
Further: it is no excuse to say: "We were so inspired by Froissart that we decided to re-enact the Battle of Hastings, but we had no arrows", or similarly,
"Hercules had a giant wooden club; this is just a slim octavo of poetry."
To say  "It is only a paperback and wouldn't hurt a flea" is also an unacceptable excuse".
2. Every copy of Kennedy's Shorter Latin Primer in the school has now been changed to read Kennedy's Shortbread Eating Primer; you should not waste your whole reading period thinking of imaginative ways to re-title Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, or whatever other book you are pretending to read.
3. You should not write:
"If my  name you wish to see
Turn to page one-o-three"
and then write on p. 103;
"If my name you wish to know
"to page eight, you must go"
and similarly throughout the book until you are bored and tail off with 'Ha, Ha'.
4. Book illustrators are professional artists; you are not. It is not acceptable to say that a moustache adds dignity to Queen Victoria nor a skirt encircling Julius Caesar balances the composition.
5. You should remember that Mrs Curtis-Twigg who replaces me on my day off (Wednesday) is as much a human being as a librarian. You should not obviously cross yourself before entering the library, nor say just outside the door, in intentionally audible voice, "I've got some onion from the stew at lunch in my pocket; do you think it will works as well as garlic?"

I suspect that quite a few lovely comments could be added to this!!

Libraries, Carnegie Library, Rochester Public Library

On April 9th, in 1833 America's first tax-supported public library opened, in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Today, there are more than 9,000 public libraries in the United States, including the Peterborough Town Library, which is still going strong.

Continuing with our previous Scottish theme, many libraries built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. More than 2,500 Carnegie libraries were built, between 1883 and 1929, (1,689 were built in the United States, 660 in Britain and Ireland, 125 in Canada, and others in Australia and New Zealand, Serbia, the Caribbean, and Fiji). The first of Carnegie's public libraries opened in his hometown, Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1883. As well as Carnegie's name, the building displays a motto - "Let there be light" - and a carving of the sun over the entrance. When the last grant was made in 1919, there were 3,500 libraries in the United States, nearly half of them built with construction grants paid by Carnegie.

Books and libraries were an important part of Carnegie's life, beginning with his childhood in Scotland. There he listened to readings and discussions of books from the Tradesman's Subscription Library, which his father helped create. Later, in the United States, while working for the local telegraph company in Pennsylvania, Carnegie borrowed books from the personal library of Colonel James Anderson, who opened the collection to his workers every Saturday. In his autobiography, Carnegie credited Anderson with providing an opportunity for "working boys" (that some said should not be "entitled to books") to acquire the knowledge to improve themselves. Carnegie's personal experience as an immigrant, who with help from others worked his way into a position of wealth, reinforced his belief in a society based on merit, where anyone who worked hard could become successful. This conviction was a major element of his philosophy of giving in general.

"The Carnegie Formula" required matching contributions from the town that received the donation. The town was required to: demonstrate the need for a public library; provide the building site; annually provide ten percent of the cost of the library's construction to support its operation; and, provide free service to all.

The Libraries also created an opportunity for people to browse and discover books on their own. "The Carnegie libraries were important because they had open stacks which encouraged people to browse....People could choose for themselves what books they wanted to read." Before Carnegie, patrons had to ask a clerk to retrieve books from closed stacks.

While hundreds of the library buildings have been converted into museums, community centers, office buildings and residences, more than half of those in the United States still serve their communities as libraries over a century after their construction. For example, Carnegie libraries still form the nucleus of the New York Public Library system in New York City, with 31 of the original 39 buildings still in operation. Also, the main library and eighteen branches of the Pittsburgh public library system are Carnegie libraries. The public library system there is named the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. The Historical Society of Washington, D.C. is located in a former Carnegie library and is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

In December 1865, library service began in Rochester, when interested citizens organized the Rochester Library Association. The sum of $1,000 was raised by subscription for the purchase of books, which were housed in the store owned by W.W. Ireland on what was then known as the Haney Block
A catalog of library holdings published in 1881 runs to 35 pages. In 1883 the Library Association was reorganized as the Free Library and Reading Room Association. Entertainments provided the source of income for the library until 1886, when the City Council voted an appropriation of $200 annually for its support.
In 1895 the Rochester Public Library was officially established under a state statute providing for the organization of public libraries. The population of Rochester in 1895 was 6,843.
In 1895 the collection contained 3,318 volumes and an assortment of unbound periodicals. The first Annual Report indicates that circulation in that beginning year of operation was 10,744 volumes. By 1917 the library was providing small collections of books housed in the schools, since at this time there were no school libraries.
The bookmobile finally became a reality on October 24, 1966, when the first vehicle costing $22,418 went into service with a rotating collection of 5,000 volumes.
Today we have nearly 500,000 library materials, with a circulation of over 1.6 million in a town with over 100,000 people.



Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest.
Lady Bird Johnson