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Friday, May 24, 2013
McClatchy Library opens bigger, brighter teen space
by Melissa Corker, published on May 28, 2012 at 11:34 PM
Storyline: Community
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When teenage cousins Jen and Yumi Chen walked into the McClatchy Library Friday, Branch Manager Sally McGrath took the girls by the crook of the elbow – one girl on each arm – and led them from the small, crowded foyer and through a wide doorway into the adjacent room: a big, bright new space dedicated to some of McGrath’s favorite library visitors.
“Can you believe it? This is for you now,” McGrath told the teens.
The girls smiled and thanked McGrath as they looked around. They noticed the posters of Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Elvis Presley and others – one for each decade the library has been open – that McGrath bought with her own money to make the space "even more teen friendly.” Their eyes were drawn to the table and chairs – which meant they would no longer be any need to sit in the hallway if they wanted to stay and read a bit.
"This is really cool!" said 19 year old Jen Chen.
The McClatchy Library, at 2112 22nd St., recently sent 3,000 books and DVDs to other libraries to make room for a new space for teens and young adults. The space was designed to allow youth to easily find the books they enjoy, do homework or just hang out for a while.
Before the changes, teens using the McClatchy branch had little more than an 6-foot-by-8-foot wall along a narrow hallway to call their own. There was no seating, other than on the floor, and no room to do homework or use their laptops.
Now, the library boasts a large, open room with four wall sections of eight-foot-tall bookshelves filled with young adult books and a long standalone shelving unit, along with a table and chairs.
Yumi Chen, 18, said she had used the previous teen space many times – without even realizing it.
“I didn’t know it was an area for teens because it was just a wall in the hall,” Chen said. “You’d go pick books and then go somewhere else to read. Now we have the entire room. It’s cool.”
McGrath said that she wanted a larger dedicated space for teenagers to enjoy since she first came to the McClatchy branch nearly two years ago. When she discovered that the Library Facilities Master Plan specifically called for a teen space in every branch, McGrath jumped on the opportunity to make it a reality at McClatchy.
“I’d been talking about it for so long,” McGrath said Friday. “And it wasn’t just me. There were lots of departments involved. Now – hooray! – we have a much better teen area.”
The changes took almost five weeks, McGrath said, and involved the help of many volunteers and some creative rearranging, but no public funds. The most notable change was the removal of those 3,000 books and DVDs – which took some library patrons by surprise.
“I was disheartened to see so many books gone,” said Alice Levine, president of the Friends of McClatchy Library. “I like to browse – physically more than on a computer.”
Library users still have access to the items that were moved, McGrath said, because the library system allows books to float between branches instead of keeping them in individual branch collections.
The McClatchy Library branch is in a large two-story house donated to the public library system by the McClatchy family in 1940. The branch lost use of the second floor in 1969 when it was closed by the fire marshal for safety issues.
Megan Fidell, 40, said she uses the McClatchy library often and the changes she sees in the branch look “really well done.”
“It doesn’t seem that too much was sacrificed for it,” Fidell said Thursday. “I noticed a lot more room for young adults, and that looks great. I’m thrilled it will get a lot of use.”
The second floor is being renovated and is scheduled to reopen this fall, according to the Summer 2012 Friends of McClatchy Library newsletter. When it is completed, it will include a new exterior staircase, a new heating and air conditioning system, meeting rooms and a children’s area.
The McClatchy Library is at 2112 22nd St. and is open 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon- 8 p.m. Wednesdays, 1 - 5 p.m. Fridays and 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturdays The branch is closed Sundays and Mondays.
Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.
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Your article got it wrong. I take the blame for not being more clear when you interviewed me by telephone. As President of Friends of McClatchy Library, I have received countless e-mails, phone calls, and face-to-face complaints about the recent changes at McClatchy LIbrary. The main problem is that the library did not consult its users in making these changes.
The Friends of McClatchy Library are responsible for there being a McClatchy LIbrary at all. The library was slated for closure in 1995, and only through political organization by the patrons were we able to keep it open. Over the last 17 years, truly dedicated people have donated time and money (well over $130,000 at last count) to make sure the library is available to all and to make sure it retains its historic character. Not only have we been working for 17 years towards re-opening the library's upstairs to the public; we have also paid to restore antique furniture left by the McClatchy Family, we built a brick patio that serves as an extra room for the small library, we opened and operated the Sunroom Bookshop to raise more money for the library, we paid for programs relevant to our community such as Arts in the Neighborhood and Going Green in the Neighborhood, we landscaped the grounds and planted the plants! We even made a movie about the historic library, funded in part by a grant from the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commision. In one quick move, library staff has overlooked, over-ruled and over-reached to make the library's interior look like a 1970's public school room.
Anyone who spends time with teens knows that what they need at the library is computer access to do homework and to type and print papers. These are not available in the "Teen Room" at McClatchy Library They are available at other, larger, more modern libraries such as Belle Cooledge and Colonial Heights. Instead, there are posters on the wall and a lot of open space that used to have book shelves, the non-fiction section of McClatchy Library that has been decimated. Library staff cites the Library Master Plan calling for Teen Centers at all full-service libraries.
If staff had done their homework, they would know that we are not a "full-service" library, that we used to be known as the "Mystery Library" because of the great classic mysteries housed in the former McClatchy Family's wood-paneled library. Now the mysteries are on one small wall in what used to be the room devoted to fiction. And of course there is a lot less fiction too.
The narrow hallway you described where Young Adult books were kept was where they had been moved recently to make room for more children's books and more non-fiction. Moving those books could have happened without decimating the already-small collection. Did you see what's in the hallway now? Magazines! These used to be in the fiction room along with tables and chairs, a place where you could peruse the magazines, select one, sit down and read it. They were kept on top of bookshelves that had been specially designed for McClatchy Library, on wheels so they could be move aside when there was a program held in the Fiction Room/Living Room.
The main problem as recounted to me by many patrons is that the library made drastic changes without consulting its supporters. The Teen Center is just one symptom of the larger problem. We have worked so long and so hard to make our library inviting to all, a place where people can actually find the information they are looking for, that it's a slap in the face that our ideas and knowledge have been ignored. I'm not alone among the volunteers who no longer feel proud of our neighborhood library. By collaborating, we can all move forward, making changes that are positive for our library. Instead, we are bogged down in having to try to un-do the changes that ignore the special character of McClatchy Library.
That a reader can order a book from another branch is useful only if i know what I want to read. It doesn't allow me to examine books by new authors--or even old authors I don't know. I did reserve a 2006 book, The Deveil in the White City, and was 19th on the waiting list. I would have gone to see what the library had on this nonfiction subject (the world's fair celebrating the 400th year of Columbus' landing) but almost the books were gone.
It is sad to think that there was an unwillingness to have open discussion with the Friends, prior to "jumping on it". If this is indicative of library staffs method of operating, and the Friends are to be disregarded, I would have to recommend that all future support of opening the upstairs be put on hold.
We may have a much better "teen area", but I don't believe we have a much better library, ready to use for the patrons that have been actively supporting this branch.
Also, thanks for updating the branch by getting rid of some of the older, more ragged books. Last time I was in McClatchy I couldn't believe how cluttered it was! Now it is light and open, with room for people to actually spend time, not just a book warehouse.
If McClatchy area teens are using the Cooledge library, as one person commented above, maybe that's because McClatchy didn't HAVE anywhere for teens to feel welcome until now. That's not exactly rocket science.
Well done, McClatchy Library!
I just can't believe that anyone who truly loves books and this library would be so against encouraging teens to read. In a time where video games, music, movies and malls dominate the time of most teens, I welcome any attempt to make them feel welcome in a library. This librarian is a visionary to really make this library something different.
Perhaps the real solution here is return this library to being exclusively a young person's library, as it was initially intended.