Article by emily cook

The Modern Library

From information to socialization

Emily Cook

Libraries like this one continued to pop up all over the country throughout the rest of America’s history.

This basic idea of a library being a place of scholarly learning largely remained unchanged The sculpture “Toad’s Book Club” outside the Mountain View Public Library. throughout the centuries, t can be hard to imagine aside from the specific a life without libraries. content kept in the libraries.

The idea of having a However, when the Internet childhood without reading was born in the late twentieth picture books at the local century, people no longer library or even the idea needed to go to a library to of lacking literacy seems learn information – they impossible to imagine for could access humankind’s any American child. But knowledge from their own this was the norm for many home. As libraries became decades, with most books less necessary for acquiring in Latin and only available information, they evolved to wealthy scholars. Luckily, into places for the community Benjamin Franklin and The to socialize, relax, or learn Library Company created the information through handsfirst American public library on experience. Today, it in the early 18th century. is far more common for This first library had most someone to visit the library of its books in English, with to participate in a program, topics ranging from science meet a friend, or read a novel to geography to poetry. instead of focusing on a The founders worked on research project. And while expanding the book collection each library has different every year and let anyone ways of addressing the borrow books—in exchange needs of their community, for collateral in case the book they all work hard to be as was not returned (“Franklin’s accommodating as possible Philadelphia”). to their patrons.

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Librarians such as Gordon Jack at the Los Altos High School library work hard to make sure the library is accessible to everyone. He explains that the library is changing in that “it’s becoming less of a quiet place where people are reading their books and doing traditional library work, and it’s becoming more of a place where people come together and collaborate and work on projects”, resulting in it being more of a a student center than a traditional library. So his next task is to try make it accessible to everyone—while he has the socialization aspect of the library handled, he tries to make it also a quiet place for people who want to study.

While a university library can handle this difference of needs by having multiple floors, the staff instead created little study areas where students can focus. In addition, he strives to make the library more technology focused than ever before— not only does the library offer most of their non-fiction information through online databases, they also offer cameras for check-out, and

the computers there have Lamarche also tries to make board games, projects, Adobe Creative Suite, a group the Mountain View High and gift-making activities. of editing tools for digital School Library a community She says the staff tries “to media, available. keep the projects He explained these reasonable, [so] they “It’s becoming less decisions by saying can accomplish it “we have to expand of a place where within a couple of [our technology] periods [and keep it] people are reading and to help people fun and light, just a to communicate their books and doing break” (Lamarche). with cameras, so library work, and it’s While it can be we check out video difficult to keep cameras as well becoming more of a kids off the screens as books now. We place where people at times, they are also have editing mostly respectful of come together to equipment, and we screen-free zones and she establishes. have a sound studio, collaborate so we’re kind of work on projects.” Another difference trying to develop in how each high this whole media school library serves literacy portion of the library center, but she focuses less their communities is that to help students kind of on technological literacy Mrs. Lamarche maintains develop those skills as well” and more on non-digital a database to help emerging (Jack). His choice to keep the interaction. She often sets English readers and writers, technology up-to-date and up “screen-free” activities since Mountain View High available to the students helps to give children a break School is home to the district’s keep the library relevant and from technology.

The English Language Development useful for the community. library provides puzzles, (ELD) program.

S u s a n A coloring activity made for Mountain View High School’s spirit week at the Mountain View High School Library.

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Moving away from high school libraries is the Mountain View Public Library where Sharon McClintock is one of the children’s librarians. As such, she is constantly attempting to keep the library interesting and helpful to the community.

One way she does this is by “staying connected to people in the community who are doing interesting, relevant work or have something 4

The Los Altos High School library before school starts.

to share that other people are interested in” (McClintock). One of the programs she created is the Rubik’s Cube Club, which is a club where children can learn how to solve cubes from volunteers. McClintock was inspired by her friend Tom Rokicki, a Rubik’s Cube aficionado. She then “asked Tom if he would maybe like to do a program for the community, and he said yes,

so we worked it out and got people in the community involved” (McClintock).

Some of the other programs the Mountain View Public Library offers are the English as a Second Language (ESL) Conversation Club, storytimes for toddlers and children, tax preparation events, cooking classes, and even coloring nights for adults. McClintock also

headed up the Warm Wishes Project, an event that lasted from December 2016 to January, where people were invited to write wishes for the community onto paper pennants, which were then hung around the library.

To conclude the event, the World Harmony Chorus, a community chorus, came at the end of January and sang folk songs from all over the world and the mayor of

Mountain View spoke about had had on people. “It the recent decision to declare was very polarizing,” said Mountain View a Human McClintock, “and there was Rights City.

McClintock “We try to keep the w a s i n s p i r e d projects reasonable, to create [so] they can the project accomplish it within after seeing the effect a couple of periods the 2016 [and keep it] fun and presidential light, just a break.” election 5

a sense of uncertainty in the community, a lot of discord, a lot of fear, even some despair.” She wanted to create something to show that the community still supported each other in Mountain View even if the world still acted harshly. Over two thousand Warm Wishes were written and hung all around the library before being taken down at the end of March.

Despite their libraries learning to coexist with technology, McClintock and Lamarche are concerned about the effects of technology on society.

McClintock brought up her concerns of children lacking strength upon entering kindergarten, and her fears

are not unfounded. Reports have revealed kids struggle with doing simple tasks like using scissors or holding a pencil upon entering kindergarten (Epstein). Some hypothesize this deficiency is due to a lack of time spent playing with physical toys in favor of using tablets or computers (Marselas).

The two are also are both worried about socialization.

Not only does research show that children who spend more time on screens have less understanding of nonverbal emotional cues, many feel lonely when all of their interactions are digital (Luscombe).

McClintock confided that “I have a good friend whose job entails zero human contact. All of “It was very the communication she does is through p o l a r i z i n g , the computer. And and there was she said by the end of the day she just feels a sense of drained and depressed, she hasn’t had uncertainty in because any human contact.” the community, She hopes that the library can help fill a lot of discord, a this deficiency, as it’s lot of fear, even a place where people can come together and some despair.” socialize with other

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people.

Libraries will likely continue to change and adapt as technology marches on. If libraries had not changed their focus, they likely would have lost attendance a long time ago. And as more books and information become available through technological devices in the homes of people, it’s possible libraries will have to continue to change. One day, libraries could contain nothing but computers with digital books to transfer over to an eReader. But their decisions to emphasize community along with learning helps keep them relevant to today’s audience.

Regardless of whether or not that happens, libraries will remain a cornerstone of communities as a place to relax, socialize, or get shelter. And one day, the concept of a library not being a social hangout could seem as antiquated as the idea of not having a library in the first place.

Gordon Jack was an English teacher at Los Altos High School before he went and cofounded Freestyle Academy, a largely technology-based school working to help students explore their passions. He then later left Freestyle and went back to Los Altos as their head librarian.

Jack, Lamarche, and McClintock.

Susan Lamarche worked as an English teacher at Mountain View High School for many years before becoming the head librarian at the Mountain View High School Library four years ago.

Sharon McClintock worked at Macmillan Publishers and a power plant before she got laid off from Macmillan. She worked at the power plant’s corporate offices for seven years before deciding to switch over to working as a full-time children’s librarian at the Mountain View Public Library eighteen years ago.

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About the Author

Emily Cook is a junior at Mountain View High School and Freestyle Academy taking the Digital Media course. She decided to do her documentary on libraries since she likes to volunteer at the Mountain View Public Library. She is also heavily involved in her school’s Queer-Straight Alliance and drama clubs. She maintains an online presence under the pseudonym “Ylimegirl” and lives at home in Mountain View with her family and cats.

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Works Cited Epstein, Varda. “Gripping Issue: First Graders Lack Fine Motor Skills.” Kars4Kids: An Educational Blog for Parents, Kars4Kids, 8 Nov. 2016, www.kars4kids.org/blog/ gripping-issue-first-graders-lack-fine-motor-skills/. Accessed 10 Apr. 2017.

“Franklin’s Philadelphia.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory. org/franklin/philadelphia/library.htm. Accessed 16 Apr. 2017.

Jack, Gordon. Personal Interview. 21 March 2017.

Lamarche, Susan. Personal Interview. 23 March 2017.

Luscombe, Belinda. “Kids Read Emotions Better When Deprived of Screens.” Time, Time, 21 Aug. 2014, time.com/3153910/why-access-to-screens-is-lowering-kids-social-skills/.

Accessed 10 Apr. 2017.

Marselas, Kimberly. “Losing Our Grip: More Students Entering School without Fine Motor Skills.” LancasterOnline, LNP Media Group, Inc., 26 Oct. 2015, lancasteronline.com/ features/trending/losing-our-grip-more-students-entering-school-without-fine-motor/ article_c0f235d0-7ba2-11e5-bf0d-5745f74f9717.html. Accessed 10 Apr. 2017.

McClintock, Sharon. Personal Interview. 9 March 2017.

---. Personal Interview. 11 April 2017.

Warm Wishes at the Mountain View Public Library.

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