UPDATE: Q & A with library board candidates from LWV Forum on May 15
Monday May 19, 2008
by Christine Yeres
Editor’s Note: Technical difficulties prevented the live broadcast of Candidates Night on May 15. As of Friday, the program has replayed. The vote for Library budget and one board seat is Tuesday, May 20, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Horace Greeley High School.
Answers to questions are both direct quotes from candidates and paraphrases of their answers. The tape of the Candidates’ Forum is available for viewing on NCCTV on Monday, May 19 at 8:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Channel 75, and available at 10:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. on Channel 77. Check the NCCTV website ncctv.org for additional replay times on Tuesday. It is also available in “video-on-demand” on NCCTV’s website.
Opening Statements
Katherine Campbell Nesbit declared herself eager and willing to put in the time and effort to build on the successes of the library that are already in place. She saw two main challenges ahead: enlarging children’s space and solving the parking problem, “so that patrons don’t have to have that New York City parking place anxiety.” She appreciates the small town feel of the library, seeing familiar faces, attending programs, visiting to get a movie, a book or computer help. She makes heavy use of the library’s research capabilities and materials. “Having spent the majority of my adult life in the arts, I feel I can bring a different perspective to the board,” she said, as well as an “enthusiasm and passion for reading and books,” as a performer, teacher and parent.
Barbara Lowenthal identified herself also as “Barbara Voelker (her children’s last name).” She’s running for the board seat because, she says,“ I’d like to return the favor.” She told Thursday night’s audience that “Libraries have been very, very good to me. I was a page in high school and I met my husband in the undergraduate library at the University of Michigan.” After college she went to Princeton University where she got her masters of architecture degree. She is a registered architect in New York with many years of practice, and runs the masters program and teaches non-residential design at the New York School of Interior Design. She believes that her knowledge and skill as an architect, her work on committees, and that the fact that she is a “good listener” will be of value to the board. She sees two issues that as critical over the next 5 years: maintaining funding and space limitations. High on her list of are figuring out the best, most cost-effective way of expanding the children’s room and solving the parking crunch. “Like my opponent, I’d like to say that I am committed to the library as a comfortable, inviting and stimulating place.”
Q: [Moderator’s question] What unique qualities do you bring to the board that will help address what you see as the major challenges facing the library?
Lowenthal: “I am a regular user and grateful patron of the library. I know how to run jobs, oversee jobs. I like to laugh and I hope we’ll enjoy ourselves [as a board].”
Campbell-Nesbit: “I’m not an architect, but I have spent the last six or seven years addicted to Home and Garden TV. And I feel we have the interior space that we can adjust to meet the needs of the library, to redesign, redistribute the existing space and to relieve the parking—without a lot of cost.”
Q: It is difficult to find parking at the library. What ideas do you have that might help alleviate the problem?
Campbell-Nesbit: Recently, she said, the town and library looked at creating “six-hour parking spots on the street”, but said the library also needs a real crosswalk [between Library and Town Hall]. “We should talk to the church next door (St. Mary the Virgin), and also educate patrons to realize that they can park on the street.” She stated that situations like these, in which there is overlap, need to be worked on in cooperation with the town.
Lowenthal: “ In 2007 the Library adopted a long range plan,” says Lowenthal, “and the most important thing to know it that it’s not a simple problem. There are many constituencies, including our Smith Street neighbors and wetlands issues.”
Q: A lot of teenagers gather in the library. What kinds of programs could be put in place that would engage them more?
Lowenthal: “Always a hard question to answer, ‘What will engage teenagers?’ The YA section is small and there has been some discussion of having a separate area for them. That might be good for the Bell students. For the Greeley students? I’m not really sure. Better ways to steal music for your iPod? I honestly haven’t given it serious thought. But it’s a good question.”
Campbell-Nesbit: “Possibly a more dedicated space for the teens with more privacy. Right now it’s out in the middle of things.” She believes that performing arts programs at the library might engage them more.
Q: You have a background in performing arts. What do you have in mind for the library?
Campbell-Nesbit: “I’ve conducted the Scarborough singers and have performed here. I know this space quite well.” She would like to see some cabaret performances for teens here. “Incorporate some of the talent we have here and connect it more to the schools. I was an actress for a long time I’d love to see even a resident theatre company here within the library space that might draw in community members.”
Lowenthal: “Interesting ideas, although I think that Greeley has a fantastic performing arts program. One of the best programs the library has run was ‘Rocking in the Stacks’ recently, a battle of the bands. Perhaps more of that and some more rock-and-roll in the town might answer the question of what to do with the teen agers and the space.”
Campbell-Nesbit: “It’s important for older adults to have performing arts as well.”
Q: What is your vision of what will happen to libraries in the computer age?
Lowenthal: “This is something the long range plan of the library has addressed: better WiFi access to the library and [it would be] great if the library had a color printer. Those are existing technologies that are around that we haven’t got yet. It’s hard to know what’s really going to happen in the future, so you have to deal with it as it comes. I do think that it’s important to maintain the traditional role of the library. I don’t think books are going to go away no matter what Microsoft thinks, and the pleasures of wandering in the stacks is one of the great pleasures of the library and the internet doesn’t give you that. So I’d like to see whatever new technologies are adopted go hand in hand with maintaining the pleasures of the book collection.”
Campbell-Nesbit: “I agree. We cannot lose sight of the original intent of the library, and that’s books. I love to send electronically for books and have them come from other libraries. Libraries have to keep up, but alongside that [we should] preserve the integrity of the original intent of the very first library.
Q: [Moderator’s question:] What do you know about the library budget which will be voted upon when the candidates are voted on?
Campbell-Nesbit: “Pam [Thornton, Library Director] has found a way to save money so that the budget is less than it was previously. There are some increases due to inflation—postage, things like that. So the budget seems appropriate and applicable. There is one extreme increase in professional fees, and I know there’s an issue with a lawsuit, so that could be less or more. But there are very few things in life that cost less, and this year’s budget is less.”
Lowenthal: “I wish that the Chappaqua Library Board could handle our gas prices. They’ve done a fantastic job, by lowering the cost. In addition I know they’ve had some ideas floating around about establishment of a library foundation [to raise money].”
Nesbit: “I also love the idea of a foundation.”
Closing:
Lowenthal: “In closing, I’d like to talk about the many things I really like about the library: the friendly staff, the ability to borrow from any place in the Westchester Library system, the serendipity of stumbling on something unexpected and learning about new things, the satisfaction of knowing there’s somewhere to go and somebody to talk to when I need an answer. Reading has been for me a lifelong avocation, so it’s really important to me that he library continue to be a vibrant cultural center. As an architect and educator I think I could be really useful to the library.”
Campbell-Nesbit: “I’ve come to be a library lover somewhat late in life but I’ve been really appreciative of what the library has meant to me in the last ten or twenty years of my life. I believe the library is our greatest national and local resource and I really hope we can, as a community, find ways to improve an already thriving and productive place and make residents of all ages feel that the library is indeed the heartbeat of our community. Education, enlightenment and entertainment can all be had here. It’s a great day when your child, instead of saying, ‘Mom, let’s go to Target,’ says, ‘Mom, let’s go to the library.’ I would sincerely embrace and look forward to having the honor of serving on the library board.
To read NewCastleNOW.org’s May 16, 2008 Q & A with the candidates for library board, click here.
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