Opening the Library’s Next Chapter An interview with Emily Smith, Director of the Concord Free Public Library
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Discover CONCORD
| Spring 2022
VC: You say the Teen Lounge can offer an escape from books. What a radical thing to say about a library! ES: Some people come here for a quiet place to read and think, and others come here for social contact. One way they can make that connection is by making a craft. When everyone is new at something, they can learn together, share a laugh, and meet neighbors they might not encounter otherwise. VC: What’s it like to lead a library in Concord, where there is so much literary history? ES: The library is about connecting community members with each other and with resources. One recent example is “Live Like Louisa May Alcott Day,” a program the library did to make history tangible. We made books and had people spinning yarn and roasting chestnuts. And hopefully, we inspired some folks to visit Orchard House. We invite people to come share their knowledge with the town. We have fabulous
lectures, music, and art, and in the Workshop, our new makerspace, we’ll invite people to learn in a different way, to try something new. Where everyone is a beginner, learning together encourages us to be more kind and generous with each other. That can have a ripple effect throughout the community. VC: I’d love to hear your thoughts about the library’s Special Collections, which is such a unique resource. ES: We’re adding more space to make more of the collection available and visible to the public. Anke Voss, the Curator of Special Collections, welcomes folks to examine objects like an original Alcott manuscript. She’ll even take your picture with the manuscript for you to share on social media. Where else can you do that? The Concord Museum is working with us to present an exhibit next year for the 150th anniversary of the founding of the library. We’ve got some exciting things planned.
©Pierre Chiha Photographers
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Victor Curran: On the Concord Free Public Library website, you wrote, “It is a very exciting time to get to know the staff, to serve this wonderful community and all those who support the library.” You’re taking the reins in the final stages of an expansion that will radically change the way you engage with the community—and in the middle of a global pandemic. What do you see as your most urgent priorities? Emily Smith: First, our staff. To open our new spaces and provide new services and programs, we need to have all of our vacancies filled and all of our staff ready to go. Together we’ll be able to bring the dream into reality. Next, to serve the community. Many creative ideas have gone into designing new spaces to offer the services that the community wants. The Library Corporation did the hard work of raising the money and getting it built, and now it’s up us to make it happen. Young people want a space to call their own. The Teen Lounge and the study room will offer a choice of a quiet space or a not-so-quiet space that encourages collaboration. There’s school and there’s home, and the library is a “third space”—a place to just be, to escape the pressures of books, academics, sports, and so forth. We give kids somewhere just to breathe and enjoy being around their peers. In the pandemic, we hope to keep that social connection going here. The library is the place where everyone is welcome. Not everyone comes for the books. Some come for making, for doing things with their hands, and now we have a whole house dedicated to that. Another new space, the Goodwin Forum, can accommodate large meetings without disturbing other patrons using the library. It will include state-of-the-art technology and even a kitchen.
BY VICTOR CURRAN
