The Library Serves Everyone

To the Editor:

By now most people who love the Booth Library the way I do wonder if the Legislative Council really appreciates what such a loss in service the recent drastic cuts in its budget would bring. That red brick mansion-institution has become the very heart of our town. People who work elsewhere all day don’t want to find the reference room dark on weekday nights. Parents don’t want to find children’s story hours cut. Every week, yes, every week, 135 kids between 2 and 5 years old, come for story hours. The department cannot accommodate more than 135 children, so some 40 children are consistently on the waiting list, then listed at the top for the next story hour so they don’t miss out. Every week there are four story hours for 2 year olds, and four more for those aged 3 to 5.

I am writing as a handicapped person on a walker who counts on roaming the book-lined corridors three or four times a week for exercise and for getting books I need for projects from Inter-Library Loan. I couldn’t progress if Bibliomation were cut. Being in the library so much, I am aware of what happens. In Reference, on the third floor, there are some 12 or more computers, many donated by generous community organizations. Almost every afternoon, most are in use. Meg Savarese, the library’s bookkeeper, says that use of the Internet has increased 23 percent. If asked, almost every room with its special function could report an increase in use. Adult circulation of books has increased 14 percent, that of children, 12 percent. Programs like author-signings, movies, talks by artists, story hours for kids, income tax assistance, have increased overall attendance by 30 percent. All are in danger of either being cut or curtailed, if the budget is not reinstated.

The Children’s Department used to handle the needs of Young Adults. But the needs of this age group became so pressing another librarian was hired to provide a center in the southwest wing for this large segment of our student population. Here Margaret Brown helps teenagers with school projects and organizes competitions in creative writing. Right now each child has chosen a country and is writing a paper about it. Those kids count on this help. It would be a cardinal sin to eliminate it.

On Sunday afternoon you can see entire families enjoying what has become for many a Sunday habit. Grandparents go to the Reading Room for the Sunday New York Times. Parents go to the “Books for Sale” shelf, or to Fiction or up to Reference. Children head for the video corners. If you’re in an investment club, you go upstairs for information about securities. I had two Canadian guests some for a weekend who were vegetarians. If I hadn’t had access to the library’s vegetarian shelf I’d have fed them nothing but quiche from the Big Y!

I think I can speak for everyone for whom the library habit is key when I pleaded with the Legislative Council to reinstate the funds they have cut out with such a cavalier pencil.

One afternoon recently I talked to a senior at Newtown High School who was helping to shelve books as a part-time job. “If I want to go into any subject in depth,” she said, “I come here to do it.”

Let’s hope those books will always be there, and more will keep on coming.

Mary Mitchell

12 Budd Drive, Newtown                                           March 22, 2004