Heart of the Community: The Libraries We Love

186 Pages·2006·27.58 MB·English

by  Karen Christensen

e
Heart of the Community
[The Librari\es We Love
Treasured Libraries of the United States and Canada
Edited by Karen Christensen and David Levinson
Berkshire Publishing Group
and
Leslie Burger, Nancy Kranich, Kathleen de la Peña McCook,
Tom Phelps, Sally Reed, and others
Berkshire

Publishing grouP
great barrington, Massachusetts
Copyright © 2007 by Berkshire Publishing Group
All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by:
Berkshire books are available at special quantity discounts to
Berkshire Publishing Group LLC use as premiums and sales promotions. Custom editions are also
314 Main Street available. For more information, please write to Special Sales,
Great Barrington, Massachusetts 01230 Berkshire Publishing Group, 314 Main Street, Great Barrington,
Massachusetts 01230, [email protected].
www.berkshirepublishing.com
Printed in China
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Heart of the community : the libraries we love : treasured libraries of the United States and Canada /
edited by Karen Christensen and David Levinson.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-9770159-2-0 (alk. paper)
1. Public libraries—United States. 2. Public libraries—Canada. 3. Libraries and community.
4. Libraries— United States—Pictorial works. 5. Libraries—Canada—Pictorial works. 6. Library
buildings—United States—Pictorial works. 7. Library buildings—Canada—Pictorial works.
8. Library architecture—United States—Pictorial works. 9. Library architecture—Canada—Pictorial
works. I. Christensen, Karen, 1957– II. Levinson, David, 1947–
Z731.H38 2007
027.473—dc22 2006033460
†¢
Contents
iv
Advisory Board
v
Editorial and Production Staff
vi
Mary Pope Osborne on the Magic of Libraries
vii
Henry Winkler: Library Memory
viii
Library Locator
xi
Introduction: The Libraries We Love
2
Treasured Libraries
163
Libraries of Distinction
168
Index
ß
Advisory Board
Clara Bohrer, Director, West Bloomfield Township Public Library
Leslie Burger, President, American Library Association; Director, Princeton Public Library
Barbara Chubb, President, Canadian Library Association
Dana Cummings, Coordinator of Electronic Services, Simon’s Rock College of Bard
Rebecca Hamilton, State Librarian, Louisiana State Library
Kathleen R. T. Imhoff, Executive Director, Lexington Public Library
Deborah Jacobs, Director, Seattle Public Library
Nancy Kranich, Past President, American Library Association
Kathleen de la Peña McCook; Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida,
School of Library and Information Science
Mary Pope Osborne, Magic Tree House series author
Tom Phelps, Director of Library Programs, National Endowment for the Humanities
Sally Reed, Executive Director, Friends of Libraries, U.S.A.
Loriene Roy, Professor, University of Texas at Austin, School of Information Science
Jervey Tervalon, author of Understand This
Nancy Tessman, Director, Salt Lake City Public Library
Bernard Vavrek, Director, The Center for Rural Librarianship at Clarion University
Peter R. Young, Director, National Agricultural Library
iv
ß
Editorial and Production Staff
Editors
Karen Christensen and David Levinson
Project Coordinators
Carrie Owens and Marcy Ross
Writer
Pauline Clarke
Cover and Interior Designer
Joseph DiStefano
Compositor
Brad Walrod/High Text Graphics, Inc.
Editorial and Production Staff
Scott Eldridge II, Rachel Christensen, Tom Christensen, Jake Makler
Copyeditor
Mike Nichols
Proofreader and Indexer
Mary Bagg
Printer
Kings Time Printing Press, Ltd.
v
Mary Pope Osborne on the
Magic of Libraries
Mary Pope Osborne, the author of the popular Magic Tree House books for children, happens to spend
part of her time in Great Barrington, Massachusetts (where Berkshire Publishing Group is based)
and agreed to be on the advisory board for Heart of the Community: The Libraries We Love. Read-
ers of her books know that librarians are important participants in the Magic Tree House stories.
Her characters Jack and Annie go back in time, through magical books laid out by the librarian of
Camelot, Morgan Le Fay, and many of their adventures are part of a quest to become “Master Li-
brarians.” Mary eloquently expresses her own love of libraries in the extract below:
When I was young in New York City and wanted to be a writer, I started spending all my free time
reading and writing in libraries. I sat for many hours at the Jefferson Market Library and the Hud-
son Park Library in my neighborhood in Greenwich Village. I discovered the Mechanic’s Library
in midtown. I was a regular visitor at the libraries of the Carl Jung Institute and the Museum of
Natural History. I loved the reading room at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street and the
austere stacks of the New York University Bobst Library where a village resident could apply for
a community card.
I spent a great deal of time searching for old books about mythology, folklore, and fairy tales. For a collection of mermaid legends,
I found a Japanese Sea Queen at the Jung Library and an Algonquin waterfall maid at the library of the Museum of Natural His-
tory. When I decided to write a book called American Tall Tales, I went to the 42nd Street Library and found the first article writ-
ten about Johnny Appleseed in a nineteenth-century Harper’s Magazine, and I read an 1848 play featuring New York tall tale hero,
Mose the Fireboy.
For my book, My Brother’s Keeper, I studied old newspapers at the New York Historical Society; and for another book, My Secret
ß
War, I studied articles published the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. When I began the Magic Tree House series, I spent years
visiting all my favorite libraries to research dinosaurs, knights, mummies, pirates, ninjas, the rainforest, and dozens of other sub-
jects and places. The imaginary worlds I’ve discovered in libraries over the years are as real to me as if I’d truly visited them. That’s
why libraries seem magical to me. And that’s why the mysterious heroine in the Magic Tree House books—the woman who sends
Jack and Annie on all their missions through time and space—is (you guessed it) a librarian.
vi

Everett
Bainbridge Island
Regina
Seattle
Washington
Wolfville
Portland Montana North Dakota Maine
Westmount
Darby
Minnesota
Oregon Bismarck
New Camden
Hampshire
Vermont Laconia
Brooklyn Center Woodstock
Idaho St. Paul Toronto Utica Brookline
South Dakota Merrill Michigan Boston
Glenn New York MaNssoarcthhus eAttdsams
Wyoming Wisconsin Howell Clinton Township Highland Falls NorfolkBarrBinagrntosntable
Naugatuck R. I.
Belvidere BloomWfieelsdt Southfield Warren CCeonntneecrteicautch
Dubuque Pennsylvania
Queens
Reno Nevada Orem Salt Lake City Nebraska Iowa Batavia Youngstown Pittsburgh Darby Princeton
Rock Island New Jersey
ß
Boulder Indiana Ohio Belcamp Toms River
Delaware
San Jose Utah Sheperdstown
Denver Illinois Cincinnati West Maryland
Virginia
Shawnee Mission
Colorado
California Newport News
Evansville Huntington A t l a n t i c
Kansas Virginia
Lexington
Ojai Missouri Newburgh O c e a n
Aztec Kentucky
Glendale Pierce City
Rugby North Carolina
Los Angeles
Arizona Oklahoma Eureka Springs Tennessee
Albuquerque Holdenville Memphis
Arkansas South
P a c i f i c New Mexico Carolina
Phoenix Birmingham Athens
O c e a n
Georgia
Cross Plains Mississippi Alabama
Montgomery
Texas
Louisiana
Alaska Round Rock
Austin New Orleans
Anchorage
G u l f
Houston
o f
Library Tampa Miami
M e x i c o Florida Shores
Zip Code Library Page Zip Code Library Page
01247 North Adams Public Library 2 25443 Shepherdstown Public Library 44
02116 Boston Public Library–Central Library 4 25701 Cabell County Public Library 46
02445 Brookline Public Library 6 30606 Athens-Clarke County Library 48
02630 Sturgis Library 8 33138 Brockway Memorial Library 50
02806 Barrington Public Library 10 33607 West Tampa Library–Tampa-Hillsborough County Library 52
03246 Laconia Public Library 12 35203 Birmingham Central Public Library 54
04843 Camden Public Library 14 37733 Thomas Hughes Public Library 56
05091 Norman Williams Public Library 16 38111 Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library–Memphis Public
06058 Norfolk Library 18 Library and Information Center 58
06770 Howard Whittemore Memorial Library 20 40504 Village Branch–Lexington Public Library 60
08542 Princeton Public Library 22 44514 Poland Branch–Public Library of Youngstown
08753 Toms River Branch–Ocean County Library 24 and Mahoning County 62
10928 Highland Falls Public Library 26 45219 Corryville Branch–Public Library of Cincinnati and
11355 Flushing Library–Queens Borough Library System 28 Hamilton County 64
11720 Middle Country Public Library 30 47630 Ohio Township Public Library System–Central Library 66
13501 Utica Public Library 32 47711 Oaklyn Branch–Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library 68
15213 Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh–Main 34 48038 Clinton-Macomb Public Library 70
16365 Warren Public Library 36 48076 Southfield Public Library 72
19023 Darby Free Library 38 48323 West Bloomfield Township Public Library 74
21009 Abingdon Branch–Harford County Public Library 40 48843 Howell Carnegie District Library 76
23607 West Avenue Library–Newport News Library System 42 52001 Carnegie-Stout Public Library 78