Haven for readers evolved over time

The branches have become vibrant communal spaces.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- What's this?
Bouncing babies, guitar lessons and -- Gasp! -- food in the library?
Long thought of as quiet corners where even the squeak of a shoe was frowned upon by librarians, libraries have changed -- and continue to change to keep pace in the information age, said Carlton Sears, director of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County since 1997.
"Libraries are no longer passive," Sears said. "Years ago they used to be places that more or less simply held books and information. They were places of quiet solitude."
Anyone who has not visited a library in recent years may be surprised to find civic club meetings, music lessons and even exercise classes taking place within its walls. Today's libraries still offer patrons a quiet oasis where they can escape from their busy lives, but are also busy hubs of community activity, Sears said.
He said today's library staff members deal as much with issues of managing crowds as they do with organizing their collections. He said some recent events at the Main Library or one of the other 15 libraries in the system include blood drives, graduation parties and a medical society's installation of officers ceremony.
Austintown's 2020 Plan community meetings with planners from Ball State University took place in Austintown Library. Poland officials used the Poland Library when they developed their community plan with the staff from Kent Sate University.
Quotable
"My point in referencing all of this is simply to demonstrate that it's not the type of thing you would have seen 30 years ago," he said. "The library then was not the community gathering place that it is today. This is not a phenomenon unique to Mahoning County. You see it across the country."
In addition to community group activities, the library has an array of other programs, Sears said.
"Libraries have pretty much always had summer reading programs and story times for children, but it's my experience that the scope of programs has grown significantly over years, as the interests and needs of communities have evolved alongside technology that has enabled expanded access to information," he said.
The library's Special Outgoing Services program, for example, provides library materials to individuals who can no longer get to the library. Sears explained that patrons who are visually impaired, homebound, handicapped or in a nursing home can have materials mailed to them free of charge. The loan period for SOS materials is two months.
Recent research on how a baby's brain develops in the first five years has given a new and stronger imperative to the importance of story times and reading programs for the very young, such as the library's Baby Brilliant program, he said.
The need for funding for any number of the worthwhile endeavors in the community and the scope of information that's now available about grant-making organizations has resulted in a strong appetite for programs on how to use that information; hence the library's Grant Center programs, Sears said. Small business programs at the library are the result of a similar appetite for information on starting and managing small businesses, he said.
Beyond books
"Collectively, all this activity results in a physical space that is much different than it was 30 years ago," Sears said. "Now there are lots of different people, some with similar interests, some with different interests, but all coming together in one place. The library is one of few places in which such diverse interests come together every day."
"Libraries used to be just books, books, books," said Dr. David Ritchie, president of the library board of trustees. "We have so much more to offer now, and all still at no cost to the public. All you need is a library card."
As libraries grow and change with the times, the library card has become more and more valuable, Ritchie said.
"We saw a great upturn here when Mr. Sears became library director," Ritchie said. "He is doing a fantastic job. The board has been pleased with his ability to work with employees and in the community."
The library's main Web site, www.LibraryVisit.org, and the newsletter, Happenings at your Library, detail the latest library news and upcoming events.
Despite the newsletter's name, however, programs and events at the library don't just "happen," but are, rather, the result of careful planning, Sears said. The library's five-year strategic plan, for example, includes not only advice from planning experts, but also input from the public.
After voters approved a 1-mill, five-year replacement levy in 2005, Sears told the trustees' finance committee he and the library staff were working to expand hours and improve the library's collection of books, as promised when they promoted the levy.
Expansion of the library's collection is ongoing, and new hours went into effect system-wide in May.
A library resource called "Pieces of the Past: Historical Sketches of The Public Library of Youngstown & amp; Mahoning County" shows library facilities for residents of Youngstown and the surrounding areas have long been a goal of community leaders.
Founding
The publication gives a history of the library, including the commitment by 19th-century city leaders to create a public library here.
Reuben McMillan, Youngstown superintendent of schools, was among the leaders who formed the Youngstown Library Association in 1880 and was the association's first president. A library in the school system was open to the public Saturday evenings.
In 1890 came the first property tax to benefit the library, which had a collection of 792 books at 129 W. Federal St. Then in 1897, city philanthropists bought a house at Market and Front streets, the current site of the Mahoning County Courthouse.
The following year, library proponents named the association the Reuben McMillan Free Library Association. The remodeled house was dedicated in February 1899.
John H. Clarke, who rose to prominence as a local attorney and then became a U.S. Supreme Court justice, was the second president of the library association. Late in his career, he said his involvement with the local library was among the accomplishments for which he was most proud.
"I have lived a long, very busy, and not uneventful life, and as I look back on its activities, other than professional, it seems to me the most useful, certainly the most satisfying part of it, was striving, as I did as a young man to obtain a public library for the city in which I lived, and to carry forward its good work when it was once secured.
"A public library is as essential to the good government of a city as pure water, and streets well paved, lighted and policed."
Plans and accomplishments
Trustees' sentiments today are very much the same. At a recent meeting discussing plans for new branch libraries on the East and South sides, Millicent Counts said she wants the libraries she and other trustees are planning now to be "a nice legacy" to leave to Mahoning Valley residents.
Recently trustees approved purchase of property for expansion of the Main Library on Wick Avenue that would include space for meeting rooms, children's programs and a cafe.
Trustees have directed construction of new library buildings in Austintown and Poland, and renovation of a former convenience store in New Middletown for the new Springfield Library.
Ritchie is proud of the new library in Austintown, where he resides. It was dedicated in 2002.
"Where we are now to where we were [in a building on Mahoning Avenue now for sale], it's night and day," he said. "The main meeting room is now 'THE' meeting room in Austintown, in use all the time."
The Springfield Library is the first library in the system to have lockers for patrons to pick up reserved books and library materials, even when the library is closed. The lockers, on the outside of the building, open when the patron uses a code provided by library staff.
In the planning stages are a new building for East Library at East High Street and Early Road, and renovation of a former Giant Eagle store at Market Street and Midlothian Boulevard for a new South Library.
The library system had 22 libraries in 1990. Now there are 16.
Library officials said decisions are made to close some branch libraries in the system and open others as population shifts and public demand dictates.
Six libraries in the system have closed since 1990: North in 2005, North Lima and Lowellville in 2004, Fosterville in 1996 and Cornersburg and Ellsworth in 1993.
Two of the system's newest libraries, Austintown and Poland, house Chapters Cafes by Thymely Events Inc., which also owns and operates Winslow's in Youngstown's Butler Institute of American Art near Main Library on Wick Avenue.
For more information about the library's programs and services, visit the library's Web site: www.libraryvisit.org.
tullis@vindy.com