Winter 2020

From the President This is our first electronic newsletter, a step we’re taking to save money and a few trees. Those without email will get a mailed version, and we will send a print version to the branch libraries.

Last year, the Friends celebrated its 50th Anniversary as an organization, which gave us an opportunity to look back at its beginnings. We exist because of a visionary library director and many dedicated and imaginative volunteers. (Read about the Friends’ history at friendsofthepubliclibrary.org).

Since our annual meeting last June, the Friends’ board has focused on what goes on behind the scenes, the policies and procedures that underpin our organization.

Here’s what’s new or changing: • Conflict of Interest Policy A current approach that includes possible conflicts of loyalty as well as classic conflicts of interest. • Credit Card Policy Establishing board policies for use and reporting. Currently, three persons are authorized to use a Friends credit card: the president, the coordinator and one of the Library’s assistant directors. • Revised job description for our coordinator, Melissa Carlisle The new description highlights Melissa’s role within the organization, in addition to laying out her many tasks and duties. • Donation Policy We’re currently clarifying acknowledgements of donations and notifications on restricted donations. • Established an ICHRA (Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement) This is a new Affordable Care Act program for small organizations. Through ICHRA, the Friends reimburse Melissa’s health insurance premiums.

The board is now getting ready for our spring retreat. As part of our preparation, board members Bob McMahon and Alice Haddix are reviewing documents and records, Tina Milesand I will figure out the Summer newsletter, Angela and I are looking at the Website and Facebook, and Susan and Bill are considering our electronic files storage. They will provide a Google One training session at the retreat for the technologically challenged (including yours truly).

We are working hard to get our house in order.

Welcome to the Board of Directors!

Alice Haddix retired to Albuquerque in 2011 after 25 years as an independent consultant to not-for-profit organizations in Tucson and Washington, D.C. Prior to that time she taught English at a small college outside Chicago, served as the Chief of the Application Review Unit for the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission (a grant-making agency), and was the Assistant to the Executive Vice President of the University of Illinois. Her consulting clients included libraries of various kinds, colleges and universities, and arts organizations. She has led a book discussion group at Cherry Hills for 5+ years, belongs to a Great Books group and is a serious fan of big band and classic jazz.

Angela Mihm moved to Albuquerque in March 2019. Most recently, she lived in Seattle, WA, working in a variety of capacities. She received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of Chicago. She worked in advertising in New York City before moving to Seattle.

Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, she was lucky enough to have a public library branch only four blocks from her house. It quickly became her second home. Angela believes in the transformational power of reading to increase empathy, expand possibilities, and provide knowledge. Plus, it is fun. She believes that the sanctuary and education provided by the public library system are essential for a healthy community.

We’re delighted to have Alice and Angela on the board—bringing their varied experiences, fresh ideas, and willingness to work.

As always, thank you, Friends, for all you do to support the Library. We depend on your generous donations of media, money and time.

From the Library DirectorLibrary supporters work from many fronts!

While the Friends’ volunteers raise critical funding for programs through the sale of donations, Foundation members secure funding for capital projects, volunteers in the branches create displays, and Advisory Board members work with elected officials to secure funding for renovations and repairs. Members of the Library Advisory Board and Friends Board joined hundreds of other public library supporters in Santa Fe on January 31st for a successful Library Legislative Day. Requests were made for a healthy two years of bond funding for all types of library materials, as well as, a significant increase in Grants-In-Aid to public libraries across the State. Here in Albuquerque supporters requested capital outlay funds for parking lots, HVAC, and roof repairs in libraries across Bernalillo County. Other supporters have been in touch with their legislators by e-mail and by phone talking about these needs. It truly takes a community of supporters working at varied tasks to keep our Library thriving!

Thank you for doing your part!

Dean Smith, Library Director

Needed: A Treasurer

Regretfully, our newly elected treasurer found that the many calls on her time necessitated her resignation. Most of the treasurer’s regular tasks (check-signing, financial statements, transferring funds and the like) have been apportioned out to our bookkeeper and board members. What we need now, above all, is a person (preferably a CPA) to provide oversight of Friends’ financial matters. If you are such a person—or have a possibility to suggest— please call Tamara Coombs at (505) 242-4354.

Tons of Books We Can’t Sell: Help Us Recycle

Last September, Coordinator Melissa Carlisle had an unexpected visitor—the head of the private recycling outfit that

had been hauling away unsaleable books for five years, at no charge to the Friends. The head man had come to tell Melissa that the next week would be the last pick-up. He could now get only $40 a ton for recycled paper and was going out of business. With difficulty, we were able to arrange low-cost recycling, but it’s a solution that entails more work by the volunteers. We need your help. Friends recycle up to 2800 pounds per week. That’s over five tons a month. Melissa estimates over 70% of those books aren’t saleable because of their poor condition. The rest are out-of-date.

As board member Norma Klein wrote in the Friends’ 2018 newsletter:

Tell the truth. The reason you go to the book sale is to buy encyclopedias from the 1970s, audio books missing discs 7 and 10, water-logged paperbacks without their front covers, out-of-date text books, VHS tapes of unknown movies, the past 18 years of National Geographic and... Wait a minute! You don’t want any of that stuff??? If you wouldn’t buy these items, it’s likely nobody else would either, so please don’t donate them.

It takes many hours to sort out unsaleable books, time that could be better spent by volunteers to increase our financial support for the Library.

Going forward, please sort through potential donations at home, then take the damaged books straight to your blue bin. (For more on what we can and can’t sell, visit friendsofthepubliclibrary.org)

Volunteers Catalyze Change in Friends Bookshop

Ad executive Alex Osborn is credited with inventing “brainstorming” in 1939. He gathered a group together, explained a problem, asked for their ideas—and told them to defer judgement. Practical or wacky—all ideas were welcome. It’s been a popular technique ever since. Sales at the Friends Bookshop have been lagging, so we decided to ask those who spend the most time in the shop to do some brainstorming.

Of the 13 volunteers who staff the bookshop, nine met in two groups. They came up with over 100 observations and suggestions—on which categories of books sell well and which don’t, on layout, signage, lighting, promotion, customer service, and more. First steps of the redo are underway. There’s now new lighting at the entrance and a notebook at the front desk, so that those on different shifts can easily communicate with each other. Some categories of media are moving to the book sales, some from book sales to the bookshop. Paperbacks have been consolidated, as have magazines, and the comfy, if presently duct-taped, chairs have been moved to a cozier spot.

This is just the beginning. After weeding out and rearranging, comes reimagining the back room into an oasis for young readers. That was Melissa’s good idea. Researchers have known for years that reading for pleasure is the best predictor of academic success. Our goal is to provide young readers and their parents with an attractive spot to seek out gently-used books they’ll enjoy, at a price that’s hard to beat. We’ll be done with changes sometime this spring. The bookshop will remain open for business, so stop in and see what’s new on the shelves and in the shop.

Friends Bookshop: Open Monday to Saturday, 10:30 am to 4:00 pm, except on Library holidays (and a couple of long holiday weekends). Phone: (505) 768-5123.

Main Library Now a Local Landmark

As Library Director Dean Smith observed, the local designation of the Main Library is the most important one. That’s the designation with design controls. But on the way to becoming a local landmark, the building was first placed on the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties and then on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register website has this comment about eligibility:

“Generally, properties eligible for listing in the National Register are at least 50 years old. Properties less than 50 years of age must be exceptionally important to be considered eligible for listing.”

So, why is the Main Library, built in 1975, considered “exceptionally important”?

Some people judge a building based on what they think of how it looks from the street. This is a Brutalist design, with unadorned exteriors and bold forms. Not a very popular

style these days, although this Brutalist building is notably different from what was typical (see below). But a building is not a sculpture. It’s a backdrop for life. So, consider how well this building has functioned since 1975, in part because it’s highly flexible, with a lot of floor space. Much thought was given to what would be most important to generations of future users. Getting a new Main Library in the 1970s was a major undertaking. Stakeholders knew this one would have to last.

There is no grand entry and no grand staircase. Years before the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Library offered easy access to all, a fact remarked upon on opening day by a man in a wheelchair. As the way we use the Main Library has changed, the building has adapted. Computers, for the use of researchers and job hunters alike, have replaced some of the book shelves. Since 2001, Friends of the Public Library has held monthly book sales on the Lower Level, rather than an annual sale off-site. This has meant a sizable increase in the money the Friends grant the Library, but it couldn’t have happened if the Library was not a “loose fit” building, one designed for change.

Here’s an excerpt from the nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, prepared by Katie Dix, Heidi Pierce, and Alex Rodriquez, UNM School of Architecture and Planning, Certificate Program in Historic Preservation and Regionalism.

“Give us a building . . . which people will want to come see. Give us a friendly monument without domes or grand stairways . . . Give us as wide a range of reader environments as possible—open lounges, partially secluded carrels, closed study rooms, open courts sheltered from the noise and danger of the street.” …Library Director Don Reichman[sic]…reminisced on the demands he placed on his architect, George Pearl. The architect hewed closely to his client’s wishes and the result is a library, the Main Library in downtown Albuquerque, which is exceptionally significant as a localized interpretation of Brutalist design, which caters to patrons with flexible floor plans illuminated with natural light and setbacks from the street to permit lower-level reading courts and gardens for native plantings. Its Brutalist scale and sculptural form belie an interior planned for the use of the public and library administration, and which sought to accommodate future changes in library technology, even if this could not be known during the planning of the library. Where many Brutalist buildings were perceived as antagonistic to by the public with cold concrete interiors, the Main Library was created as an educational refuge for visitors. Second-floor windows cantilevered above the first floor provide small, intimate reading nooks that flood the interior with natural light. Coffered-ceiling lights create the perceptions of low ceilings, which reduce the reading rooms to human scale, and promote feelings of comfort among patrons.

If you’re interested in learning more, look for the rest of the nomination online at friendsofthepubliclibrary.org.

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