Keep the Main Library Branch Where It Is

Thanks to my grandchildren, Kate and Jason, I have spent more time in the County Library’s Main Branch in the last year or two than in many prior years. It is the second library in my span of residence, and a marked improvement over the first.
For newcomers, the former library was tucked, (stuffed would be a more correct assessment) into the structure that presently houses the Surrogate’s Office on North Main Street. The façade was spared when the courthouse was being renovated. Thanks to preservationists, the front part was saved from the wrecking ball.
As a youngster, I recall that county library as something similar to an eccentric’s living room. It was piled high with books of all sorts, and little else. It contained seeming mile-high shelves unreachable for short folks. Finding anything was miraculous.
The librarians were, to my recollection, sweet women, including head librarian Sarah Thomas and Mrs. Torgesen. There were others, but I never got to know their names.
Miss Thomas, very short of stature, drove one of those imposing old black sedans, big and bulbous, almost straight out of the movies. Because she was so short, when she was behind the wheel, I used to think the car was driving itself.
Her memory lived on in the present library when a meeting room carried her name. Somewhere in the renovation that room disappeared, and with it Thomas’ memory for new generations of readers.
Oh, the memories that cramped old building held. Once, at a tender yet budding age, I gathered up nerve to attempt to check out one of those “birds and bees” books. This was seemingly the “day before yesterday,” and the motherly librarian flagged it as being something that needed parental permission to check out because of its factual depiction of life as it is. I always suspected, yet could not prove, that she placed a call home before I got there. Remember, these were far different times than the present, light years, it seems.
Well, I will leave it to the reader’s imagination what the conversation was with my folks when I got home.
Imagine doing that today? Oh, the good old days.
Today, I can reach to the top shelves without stepping on a stool. The well-lit library offers virtually every media the borrower can imagine. Now that it seems it can’t get any better, I understand the library is being considered for relocation.
No, I never filled out one of those survey forms asking sentiment to move the library, but my vote (which counts for nothing) goes to keep the Main Branch on Mechanic Street.
Yes, there is a movement to get it shifted near the County Park and Zoo, but I think that would be a bad move.
Yes, parking can be a bear, but the present location also makes the library accessible to Court House schoolchildren. Shift it to Swainton, and walking from school for young pupils will be impossible.
I am sure the corps of librarians could show me statistics to prove otherwise, but, face it, there many free places left in downtown Court House on Mechanic Street to draw a crowd except the library.
Parking? Long ago, I advocated a parking garage, but that never happened. Still, I believe it’s the way to go on the Middle Township-owned lot in the center of the block between Route 9 and Boyd Street, Mechanic Street and Hand Avenue.
The central location of the library makes it an easy walk or bike ride from anywhere in Court House. Shift it out of town, and it means more wasteful driving.
Hire a sharp architect, (the county never seems to have a problem locating one) and tell them, “We want to enlarge the library where it is. What can you do?” I’m sure if we can engineer a gadget that sends photos from Mars years after it was supposed to quit, and land a man on the moon and get him back, we can surely enlarge the Main Branch of the County Library at a fraction of building a new facility.
For those who have not visited the library of late, there’s never been a better time to begin. Pay a visit; survey the upstairs, main floor and downstairs.
In the basement of the library is the county Emergency Management Center. Don’t expect to wander around down there, it’s where officials gather when storm winds blow and all hell is breaking loose.
There is a section on the main floor with DVDs and VCR tapes, Internet-connected computers and downloadable books. There is even a room filled with magazines of all sorts.
Amazingly, both grandchildren, aged 8 and 4, love to go there, grab a magazine and plop into one of the chairs. Such brief stays come only after we visit the children’s library.
On a recent weekend, when returning the youngsters’ books, I checked out a favorite flick from the past, “Camelot.” (I still love the music after all these years.) The next day, when I returned that flick, I paid a visit to the large-print section and checked out another book.
Given the price of good books that are read once, maybe twice, and then pile up in closets or attic, the library makes more sense than ever. Of course, the price is right, and that doesn’t hurt either.
Gee, can’t the library just stay where it is?
I wonder what Sarah Thomas might say.