The City of Lincoln has a page called “Your 14¢ Worth” which highlights some of the things Lincoln resident’s property taxes are spent on. The second program featured is Lincoln City Libraries. The story features a photos of one of the new branches, which I agree are lovely.
Notable is the absence of a picture of the Lincoln’s main branch – Bennett Martin. Bennett Martin is not an attractive building- I wouldn’t go so far to say it’s ugly,but it’s definitely not winning any beauty contests. The inside of the library is also so so. It’s dark and seems dirty even though it isn’t.
Lincoln has been buzzing about the “2015 Vision” group lately, which is comprised mostly of local business people who have developed a plan for Lincoln’s future. Specifically, they have developed “10 pillars for Lincoln’s future.” Notably, any mention of Libraries is absent, which has been noticed by at least a few citizens. The proposed Arts and Humanities center was among the lowest rated pillar – “Develop a University Humanities and Art Center Block in the pedestrian-friendly Haymarket area to celebrate Nebraska’s rich heritage.” Could a library renovation be combined with the Arts and Humanities project? After all, Bennett Martin houses the The Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors, which seems like it would be a natural addition to an area designed to celebrate Nebraska’s heritage.
At the very least, Bennett Martin could use a face lift. It seems sometimes like it’s being forgotten. Bennett Martin is the closest library to me, and by far the one I visit most often. It serves UNL students, the downtown population, as well as the huge residential neighborhood surrounding it. I think it could be so much more.
Edit: Do we really want our libraries to be like banks?
(sorry if this is showing up in feed readers multiple times. I promise I’ll stop now!)
I agree, Bennett Martin Public Library tends to get forgotten due to its “unattractiveness” quotient. In fact, as the administration and library board struggle to cope with the city’s budget shortfall, in two of their more recent Board meetings (whose Minutes are publicly available: http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/board/front.htm), they proposed and voted on plans to eliminate all evening hours at the downtown location, rather than suffer similarly reduced hours at the suburban branches.
That is especially distressing news. I would guess that Bennett Martin serves a demographic that is poorer than many of the branches. (A totally uneducated guess which I will have to research) Many people who live near downtown do so because they don’t have a car- so to close the only branch within walking distance in the evening seems especially troubling.
Thanks for noting this issue as well. This is one of my pet peeves. I do think that it would be strange to build a completely new arts and humanities center and leave the downtown branch as the shambles it is. In my mind, a library is fundamentally important to the development of humanities really. Its how most people will interface with humanities on a direct and everyday level.
I think that a combined humanities and library would be a very interesting idea worth pursuing. The problem however is that it doesn’t gel with the 2015 plan if their idea is to place the humanities center in the haymarket. That would remove the main library (if paired with haymarket humanities center) from its main consumer base of downtown office workers and the nearby residential areas. I go to the downtown branch probably every day, because I work in downtown, but I doubt I would do that if it involved a hike all the way up to the haymarket. Not impossible, but still a bit of a jaunt. That is a serious impediment to the entire vision really – the fact that the haymarket is in some ways so removed from the rest of the city.
Anyway, that is a whole other issue. Getting back to the library, if they are going to combine the two, I would think they would have to do it in downtown somewhere. I know Pershing has been mentioned as a suitable location. I would actually like to see it another block or two south, closer to some of the near south residential areas. It would still be accessible to the downtown office crowd, and be easier to access for the near south residents. But that means then that the proposed “humanities and arts corridor” would also be downtown, if that comes along according to the plan. So things get murkier and murkier. I for one, think that such an arts corridor would be great a bit south of downtown. You’ve got an ethnically diverse community, lots of students, etc.. The vision 2015 plan is too darn haymarket-centric.
It seems to me that they have made a conscious choice to make the downtown branch principally an administrative hub for library staff, and not for consumers. The consumers they do want to cater to are obviously the office workers (hence the willingness to close hours in the evening). If that is what the library board’s vision is for the branch, then it makes sense to leave the place as the shambles that it is. After all, office workers like me are in and out in 15 minutes. We don�t hang out there for extended periods, or bring our kids there (have you compared the size of the kids section at Gere with that of the joke at Bennet Martin?). The problem of course is that that vision kind of sucks. I consider a library a community asset first. Make it a true resource for the community in that area.
I think your observation is cynical, but true, and I share it. Outside of the transitory daytime office worker population, the main branch’s consumer base is the (generally) low income population in near south and so on. When you look at the shape of the main library – and the neighborhood it is in – and then look at the outer branches and the neighborhoods they cater to, you kind of come to some sad conclusions about our library system. I.E. crappy branch for the poor brown people and nice branches for the rich white ones. Like I said, it might be an unfair and overly simple conclusion, but that is the perception.
I, too, think the library should stay near where it is. I , too, go during my lunch break.
I hope whatever changes happen, the city and Lincoln City Libraries remember that those of us that work and live near downtown like libraries too.