Tag: san antonio public library foundation

Mining a few riches from the Library’s vault

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Tucked away in a corner of the sixth floor of the Central Library is my favorite haunt there, the Texana and Genealogy Department. The stunning blond entry room named in honor of donors Joan and Herb Kelleher welcomes you into a world where often forgotten tales emerge from yellowed pages of precious books.

Research needs have left me hunched over microfiche readers for hours, distracted by fascinating newspaper headlines unrelated to my original quests. So many people from our colorful history, all with their own stories waiting to resurface. Shelves lined with rare books, rare enough to be unavailable for checkout, beg you to linger longer as the librarian announces it is already 15 minutes until closing time. Digging for clues will have to resume another day.

And yet, behind another door, is a more amazing world to explore – the vault. While materials from the vault can be requested for viewing within Texana, the general public does not simply get to wander through what lies locked within.

But this week, the San Antonio Public Library Foundation and the Texana Department shared a few samples of the amazingly varied treasures, most irreplaceable.

“Lucinda, The Orphan,”1812
“Well-Known Features of Many Creatures,” Emily Harding and E.W. Andrews, donated by Frances Rosengren
“Costumi de Roma e suoi Contorni,” Salvatore Marroni, 1820
leaf from a French Bible, 1240
San Antonio’s original Carnegie Library opened June 15, 1903
Casino Club program from 1868
Mrs. Eli Hertzberg’s copy of “Megillat Esther” in Hebrew
“Les Fleurs Animees,” J.J. Grandville, 1847
leaf from an Armenian Bible, 1121
“Lucinda, The Orphan,” 1812
“La Cocinera Poblana,” Herrero Hermanos Sugesores
“Mexican Silhouettes,” Josephina Niggli, 1931
“Indian Tribes of North America,” Thomas L. McKenney, Hertzberg Collection
photograph of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, circa 1892
Gebhardt’s Beans
“Officers Training Camp: Camp Funston 1917”
1861 letter from Joseph Wood
“The Alameda,” one of five Hermann Lungwitz paintings of San Antonio from the 1850s, donated by Louis Ulrich
“The Life and Letters of Captain John Brown,” edited by Richard D. Webb, 1861, donated by J.R. Keach
pop-up illustration from “Peepshow Pictures: A Novel Picture Book for Children,” 1895, Rosengren Collection
“Wake Up, America!,” part of Harry Hertzberg’s collection of posters from World War I

These riches all require special care and extremely knowledgeable librarians to assist with access, a budget-stretcher for the Library. The Library Foundation wants your help in preserving the collections in Texana for generations to come.

Hoping for another show-and-tell session in the future, and sure wish the ongoing celebration of the 150th anniversary of the San Antonio Express-News included digitalizing the first century of newspapers for the Library before some of us become microfiche hunchbacks.

The danger of playing hardball with our Library: Bookworms tend to vote

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$200-cardI value my purple card. In fact, my card number is written on the top card of the flipper on top of my desk because of the frequency I log into databases online, have books sent to the “S” section of holds at the Central Library and refresh the reading materials downloaded to my Kindle.

City budget season always worries me. As the San Antonio Public Library system is pressured to open more branches to better serve residents of the entire county, if its pool of funds is not increased, services have to be cut somewhere.

Texana, tucked away on the fifth floor of the Central Library, is easy prey because, unlike the circulation numbers for romance novels, the number of people who reference the historical records of Texana is relatively small. Count me among them. Perusing the online budget, I thought Texana was safe this year, but Paula Allen broke the news to me yesterday in her column in the Express-News: “Texana Room Back on the Chopping Block.” Beginning October 1, except by special appointment, Texana only will be open a total of 20 hours a week.

But this post is not really about Texana because I know that does not affect huge numbers of people. This is about another source of funds for the Library. A source endangered by hardball politics.

Currently, if you are a resident of Bexar County, the purple card you can acquire at any branch library at no charge provides you access to a collection of books and multimedia materials numbering more than 2 million and access to almost 50,000 eBooks. Pity the poor person who lives just outside the county line, though. If she wants to access this wealth, she has to pay $200 a year for the privilege.

But those of you who live outside the city limits yet still inside Bexar County really are not paying your fair share to keep our Library operating full-time. You have been hitchhiking on taxpayers who live within the city limits. According to Library Director Ramiro Salazar, as covered by The Rivard Report, Bexar County only pays $9 for each of its users, while the city contributes $21 in its annual allocation.

A year ago, the City of San Antonio requested Bexar County up its share to a more equitable number. But, again according to The Rivard Report, County Judge Nelson Wolff says “to bark at us is pretty ungrateful.” Ungrateful? What about San Antonio taxpayers disproportionately burdened to provide services to those who live outside the city limits? We are your constituents as well. And this one is growling.

So, what did Bexar County Commissioners do a year ago? They decided to start their own library system, BiblioTech, a 4,800-square-foot library with no books. Everything is digital. Certainly, this is the wave of the future. Judge Wolff explained what they wanted to accomplish during an interview on National Public Radio:

Well, a couple of things gave rise to this. One was trying to bring library services to the citizen at a competitive price. Second idea was to break down the barriers to reading, with the eBooks that we have and without having to physically come to the library. And then it was to bring technology to an area of the city that is economic disadvantaged, highly minority, and do not have access to the Internet and the various modes that we have to access it. So we provide eBook readers that they can check out.

Those reasons are sound, and Bexar County has established an innovative, inexpensive prototype that fulfills a portion of community needs. But numerous offerings duplicate digital resources already available to those holding the purple card. So this already ungrateful San Antonio/Bexar County taxpayer is paying for duplicate services. And now Bexar County wants to cut back its annual contributions to the full-service Library system in San Antonio because it has its own system? What about the other unmet needs?

If politicians can’t cooperate enough to keep services consolidated, then Bexar County can plunge ahead without agreeing to an equitable cost-sharing arrangement.

But then, Bexar County Commissioners, you will have to face your constituents who live outside the city limits. You break the news to them. Hey, if County Commissioners continue heading in this direction, those of you who live in neighboring townships – including Alamo Heights, Balcones Heights, Castle Hills, China Grove, Converse, Elmendorf, Hill Country Village, Hollywood Park, Leon Valley, Olmos Park, Somerset, Windcrest and Terrell Hills – might have to turn in your purple cards or pay the fee – $200 a year.

Of course, County Commissioners do not have to warn their outside-the-city-limits constituents about the possible loss of their San Antonio Public Library privileges before the November election because the Library Board was nice enough to play softball instead of throwing a curveball. The motion made at last week’s meeting only requests Bexar County participate in establishing a joint task force (not the first one) to examine the city/county service model by October 31. Agreement would not have to be reached until March 31, when the Library Board will determine whether the services to Bexar County residents living outside of the city limits should be terminated because of inadequate funding from Bexar County.

If that purple card is of value to you who live outside the city limits of San Antonio, you might need to come down from your heights and hills to let County Commissioners know. Or, you can stay silent and risk having to pay $200 for it. Or you can all try to squeeze into one or two little 4,800-square-foot Bexar County Bibliotechs in search of the degree of service you are accustomed to receiving from the professionals in your neighborhood branches.

The Judge appears to think he hit a home run on this issue. But he really is stuck on third base waiting for the City of San Antonio to bring him home because this is not-an-us-against-them thing.

As one of the Bexar County constituents who checked out a few of the 7.4 million items circulated by the San Antonio Public Library this past year, I feel County Commissioners are out in left field in the wrong ballpark. Their point has been made, but it’s time to come back and play on the same team. Taxpayers just don’t have the will or wherewithal to support two teams.

You make the call.

Please note: This blogger periodically, through the years, has been engaged to provide contract services for the San Antonio Public Library Foundation. As a professional courtesy, this blogger met with a representative of my former client to issue a warning of impending blogging. In no way should this post be considered as representational of any opinion other than my own.

Also, this bookworm would never make a voting decision based solely on one issue…. but I do value my purple card and the services it brings highly.

Postcard from Lisboa, Portugal: Feira Livro

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This is the 84th edition of the Lisboa Book Fair, so it has had ample time to grow and mature. We watched as the rows of containers were lined up along both sides of sloping King Edward VII Park. They looked sterile, but what a change when we went back and the containers had been customized. Every single one looked different, depending on the bookstore or publisher occupying it.

Not sure how jam-packed the Book Fair is on weekends, but we strolled through on a Monday. There are 250 book vendors represented at the event running more than two weeks. Tented areas along the way provide space for small readings and autograph sessions.

Thirty food and beverage booths are interspersed among the book vendors, again all different. In between rows of booths are seating areas, each distinctively designed – some tables and chairs for adults; some pint-size reading or play “rooms” for children; and some laid out like comfortable lounges with living room furniture resembling a Copenhagen showroom.

How pleasant it looked to pause to peruse purchases over an espresso or glass of wine. Of course, we didn’t buy anything; naturally, most books are in Portuguese.

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San Antonio, headed to its third edition of its Book Festival, has plenty of time and room to grow. The San Antonio Public Library Foundation already squeezes an incredible amount into one day, and, frankly, it’s so accessible because of the manageable size and close proximity of the venues.

One day, we’ll look back at these early San Antonio Book Festivals nostalgically, the same way old-timers reflect on the neighborhood intimacy of the first years of the King William Fair. Even now, the agenda is so crowded, decisions about which author sessions to attend are wrenching.

But, best of all, most of the featured books and readings at the San Antonio Book Festival are in a language I understand. Looking forward to the 2015 edition.