Massillon Public Library

News & Notes - December 2019

A Message from the Director

Friends,

I just read the following anecdote. The now elderly New York City columnist, Pete Hamill, was interviewed on a recent CBS Sunday Morning program. When he offered that "We grew up poor...but not impoverished," Tony Dokoupil responded, "What was the difference?" Hamill replied, "The library." I was stunned and more than a little moved by that plainspoken acknowledgement about a library’s impact on lives. Many of you have shared similar stories with me.

In a busy time of the year when our managers, Fiscal Officer, and I work feverishly on balancing a budget for next year, I needed that reminder. When we try to prioritize all the services and programs we provide, and factor in the staff it takes to do those things, while maintaining an historic building, it can be easy to forget the WHY. It’s also hard to explain sometimes to non-library-users (Who ARE these people? They are missing out!) what a library is, and that yes, people do still need it.

Just in the last few days, we gave local authors a forum to talk about and sell their books. We provided family fun and problem-solving at the Harry Potter Escape Room program. We welcomed teens to Video Game Club, hosted two Fourth Grade field trips, and taught seniors about Computer Basics…all of this in the midst of buying, processing, and lending books and movies, and paying for your access to online research materials. I could go on, but our wonderful Public Relations Department doesn’t want me hogging the whole newsletter!

As I write this, Thanksgiving has not yet arrived. When you read these words, we will be closing in on the end of another year. Please join me in gratitude for what the public library means to each of us, and in sincere appreciation to the community who supports that cause.

Book Recommendation: I had only a few days to read my own book club’s selection for the month, Ruth Hogan’s The Keeper of Lost Things, but happily I found the audio version on hoopla. I listened to it while doing other things, like driving to a library directors’ meeting. I usually prefer print, but this lent itself so well to the British accent of the characters. Imagine inheriting a lovely home, but with it the instructions to find the owners of a roomful of objects such as a puzzle piece or button that the previous owner used as inspiration for his writing career. It is touching and page-turning, with a bit of a romantic ghost story.

 

Happy reading (or listening)!

 

Sherie Brown
Director, Massillon Public Library

 

 

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