SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Libraries "Palaces For The People"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“In Praise of Public Libraries” was the headline of an extensive piece in the New York Review of Books last month. Reviewed were two new books, The Library Book and Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. Also reviewed was a just-released documentary by master filmmaker Fred Wiseman that was described as “inspirational,” Ex Libris. It is about “the grandest people’s palace of all time: the New York Public Library system, a collection of ninety-two branches.” 

I have a great affection for libraries and great respect for librarians.

We have a wonderful collection of libraries in Suffolk County. But there are difficulties in that although there is a program of New York State grants for the state’s 7,000 libraries (significantly cut in the new state budget), libraries depend on local funding.  

This can be a big problem. For example, last month a proposed budget for the Wyandanch Public Library was voted down, reportedly the first defeat for a library budget in Suffolk in the past five years. A significant tax increase—of nearly 39 percent—came with the $2.8 million budget proposal. There would have been a $272 annual increase for the “average” homeowner in Wyandanch, pushing the library tax to $974 a year.

That’s a lot of money especially to homeowners in Wyandanch, a working-class community, largely African-American. As a result of the defeat of the budget, there was a reversion to the library’s budget of last year and the library’s board decided it needed to eliminate Sunday hours. That’s so sad, a loss of a needed service.

Likewise, a major expansion for the Mastic-Moriches-Shirley Community Library was voted down in February. The plan was exciting. Proponents said it would have turned the library into the finest on Long Island. Kerri Rosalia, the library’s director, told me how the expansion would have allowed it to embrace the dramatic changes in libraries that have been happening across the nation—turning them into community hubs.

Features would have included a small outdoor amphitheater to seat 200 to 300 people and provide outdoor concerts, literature readings, theatrical performances and screening of films. There would be more meeting places for community groups. Other innovations would have included a “Nature Explore Classroom” for children. 

Some people might think that “with Google and eBooks” libraries aren’t important any longer, said Ms. Rosalia, but “we’re certainly not seeing the end of libraries. Recent statistics show library use staying strong and steady.” The Mastic-Moriches-Shirley Community Library has a whopping 46,000 cardholders. But the 30-year bond for the $38.5 million expansion plan was apparently considered too much for a majority of library district voters. The library is now exploring future options. 

All through high school, I worked every weekday afternoon, 20 hours a week, at what was the leading library in Queens, the central branch of the Queensborough Public Library in Jamaica. I held the modest job of shelving books. Working in the library environment, getting to know dedicated librarians, was a terrific experience 

Suffolk libraries include The Smithtown Library. With a main building in Smithtown and branches in Commack, Kings Park and Nesconset, it describes itself as the largest library system on Long Island, the tenth largest in the state. Beyond a wealth of books, like all libraries in Suffolk it is a center for a programs and exhibits. Currently, it’s featuring the “2019 Long Island Room Program Series” with a “focus on some of the ways in which Long Island’s past was driven and shaped by the innovative and inventive ideas of those who lived and worked here.”

When my own family lived in Sayville, the Sayville Library was great. And, having since lived in Noyac for 45 years, we’ve found John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor a treasure, too.  It was built in 1910, its original structure beautiful and historic, but there was no room for expansion. With architectural ingenuity, a tall glass-paneled, light-filled addition—doubling the library’s space—was built and opened in 2016.

The East Hampton Library serves as an important regional history museum. Its Long Island Collection “dedicated to the history and people of Long Island” includes a five-room study area and more than 100,000 items. These include whaling logs, diaries, photographs, postcards, deeds, wills, genealogies, maps, oral histories and early Native American documents and artifacts. I’m thrilled that my articles and the documents I’ve gathered as a Suffolk-based journalist since 1962 have been digitized by the library and now constitute an accessible online “Karl Grossman Research Archive” helping it couple its extraordinary collection of the old with additional material from modern times.

Linking Suffolk’s libraries is the Suffolk County Library System with its Live-brary.com feature allowing patrons to order books for free from any of the system’s 56 libraries and download thousands of eBooks, audiobooks, CDs and DVDs. 

Libraries are indeed “palaces for the people” and should be prized.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.