These are several specific instances involving people I know in this neighborhood. They're not being served. If, as you say, there are services that can specifically address their needs, they don't know how to access them. If reconfiguring the library is under discussion, I think this issue should be addressed.

One of the neighbors I've mentioned has $11 in fines because she walked over a mile to the South Branch with 3 kids, and a timely return trip was too difficult. She hasn't been back - in her words, they "can't use the library now." She could probably work something out, but I'm guessing the prospect of that long walk and then keeping 3 kids busy while discussing the issue is pretty daunting.

Rachel,

EPL has a delightful program that does just that with the preschools and home day care. You can sign up with the library, and it will deliver to preschools or your home day care a huge bag of new books every week and pick up the old ones. Every once in a while you can see the packed bags in the librarian's office in the children's room.

Also, did everyone know that you can use your Evanston library card at Skokie and Wilmette (and more) and return the book to EPL?

The most impressive library service I ever saw was at the truly wonderful Children's Museum in Indianapolis. There is a huge reading area on the bottom floor, with big displays of books that are about the specific museum exhibits. If you have an Indiana library card, you can check a book out at the museum, drive home, read the book and return it to your local library to be eventually sent back to Indianapolis. Very cool, leaving a museum exhibit with a library book.

Edited by author 11-11-2006 04:46 PM
Believe it or not we do all the things you just said Rachel. Michele I have the statistics re # of questions answered and # of books located. Before we get convinced that our library isn't doing something, you all should really check it out. Just go to the EPL web site and get blown away. /m60
 

Michele and Rachel because you have so many questions, it would be very helpful for you and others to call city hall and ask for a copy of the performance report just issued by the library for use in our budget deliberations. For example, Michele, if you are worried about access to technology, you will probably be surprised to know that over 57,000 users accessed the library computers - not unduplicated. Anyone in your neighborhood who walks around all day and night with their cell phone glued to their ear can be at the library on the computer. In fact while the cell phone junkies are not homelss, it is also interesting to note that many of the users proprobably are.

Speaking of the web site - 7+ million connections have been made to the site.

I'm glad to hear the library is already doing a lot of outreach. This satisfies my only minor objection to closing the south branch.

/m67 Michele - I don't understand your post? Are you saying people don't use the library because they can't return books on time? If that is what you are saying about your friend, could you help her and drop the book off for her? Are the fines still accumulating? I am confused. Does this person get to the grocery store? That someone cannot get back to the library in time to return a book is not the basis on which I would ever consider a policy adjustment.

Yes, I'm saying that there are people who don't use the library because they can't get or return books on time.

I've taken her to the library before, but I found at some point that I can't be the neighborhood bus service (I've also driven people to the grocery store, to WIC, to legal aid, and to various food pantries, none of which are easy to access from our neighborhood) I'm not sure what the situation is with the fine - but I know that after a certain point, you just pay the cost of the book and it stops accumulating.

I'm not as concerned about other library services like internet access, but I'd like there to be easy access to books, since literacy is such a problem. My main point is that the South Branch does not fill this need.

Loaning books is one of the prime functions of a library. You get a book and then you return it.

I certainly do not support a library in every neighborhood and that would be the only way that people would be able to walk to pick up and return a book.

Michele: I asked about this person grocery shopping only because I was curious about this person's ability to function with normal day to day obligations,

Final thought - if you cannot get to the library to return what you borrow then you should not borrow.

I am bothered by the amount of tax dollars spent in Evanston on social services that don't address the issues of transportation and/or child care. A bookmobile or some similar solution might offer access - otherwise this means that the people who most need to borrow books don't get to.

We do provide free bus transportation to seniors. Public transportation for students is pretty cheap from what I remember.

How would transportation be provided, Michele - can you give me a model?

What social services that do not address childcare or transportation are you talking about?

I must take issue with you on the childcare matter. I believe as a community we offer more subsidized care than any comparable community. If you know someone who requires access to child care - please have them contact me immediately.

Michelle,

Is your friend not familiar with the bus system, or can't take a bus? The 201 bus goes right through our neighborhood every day but Sunday and goes directly to the Library, and right by the library again back to South Evanston. It's much easier to get to the downtown library by bus than the South Branch.

It's not easy to find out bus schedules or bus routes in Evanston. In fact, you would think that the library would be the best place to pick up a bus schedule or bus map, but no. There are no 201 signs up throughout most of the route and no benches or bus shelters on the 201 Route through Evanston either. Now, this may be because of the constant construction in downtown Evanston. It would be nice to know if shelters or benches are on their way in the future.

While it would be hard to haul three or four children at a time to the library and watch them while trying to find adult books, what most mothers do is to team up. Have one adult sitting with the children in the kids department while the other picks out adult materials, and then trade off.

One of my earliest memories is of my mother scrambling to find our overdue library books, always missing one, and always, always having to pay late fees because our family was so disorganized. Every time I have to pay an overdue fine, I think of my mother but I also figure it's my user fee for our terrific library. Assure you friend that she's not the only one who had to pay late fines. It happens to all of us eventually.

http://evanstonnow.com/

go to Evanstonnow.com and vote in the branch library poll

Ann, I've looked over the budget, but can't find the cost (or what I really am looking for is % of budget) for each branch library. Is this figure available somewhere?

I really like South Branch. The book group is excellent and they librarians are great with my grandsons.

I find South Branch to be much too small, the lack of parking nearby makes it difficult for handicapped folks to access it easily and the location is so close in proximity to the main branch that it creates an argument to close it. If South Branch must remain open, would it be possible to move it to another location? Perhaps to the old Frank's Nursery and Craft location at the Dodge/Dempster Shopping Center? Such a move would add parking, increase the available square footage for the library and have the added benefit of servicing more of the City's west side. ETHS students, Levy Senior Center visitors and anyone who uses the public transportation that services Dodge Avenue would greatly benefit from a library in this location.

First of all, I'd like to praise our alderperson for initiating and maintaining this message board. Next I'd like to reveal my personal bias: I'm a writer and the co-author of dozens of children's and young adult non-fiction books. So I have a double vested interest in libraries: they provide research materials for the books we write and then they buy them!

That said, 30+ years ago I was a young mother (no car) with three small children. Dragging them by bus to the downtown library was difficult at best and costly at the worst. On those rare days when my husband carpooled I'd take our sons and daughter to the South Branch library for storytime and to select books for the following week. The place was a lifesaver, providing entertainment and crafts in a homey setting full of books. And back then the bookmobile came to our neighborhood once a week, too!

Now our home is a veritable library, filled with Fradin books and signed volumes by our children's author friends as well as yard sale finds I've picked up for our 6 grandchildren. But I'll always hearken back to the days when I was a young working mother of three, relying upon the South Branch for an endless source of storybooks for my children. So for other young mothers seeking refuge in a bookish setting for their children and themselves, or for seniors who prefer to avoid the hyperactivity of downtown Evanston, or for the preteens who can ride their bikes or skateboard to the South Branch, KEEP IT OPEN for at least a few years and put an end to the annual hoo-hah about closing it and/or the North Branch.

The downtown library is a wonder. No doubt about it. But the branches are for those who want easier access, a more mellow setting, and a walk-to, bike-to venue. The scholars, thinkers, visionaries and, yes, wordsmiths of the future will be nurtured in those branches.