Large, Passionate Crowd Gathers
At today's NDDC Downtown Forum, L to R: Library Board Chair Mark Gleason, Northfield City Admininistrator Al Roder; Carleton College Librarian Sam Demas; Northfield Public Library Director Lynne Young. (Click photos to enlarge.)
About 70 people showed up at the Archer House's Riverview Conference Room to discuss meeting the library's needs, ideally in its present location and at a cost that is deemed reasonable by the citizens.
Library Board Chair Mark Gleason did a nice job discussing the consultant's report and how we got to it. He helped us to realize that the library staff has been getting more leverage out of existing assets than any other in the region. City Administrator Al Roder followed with an update on the decision-making process and put the library project in the context of a number of important, and expensive, projects that Northfield is currently considering. He suggested that while the current facility may be much loved, these feelings must be balanced against the need to provide the best service to the community that we can afford. Carleton College Library Guy and Global Library Tourist Sam Demas showed us slides from libraries around the world. He stressed that a community's library reflects its values of art, culture, education and history.
(More on Sam's presentation in a future blog.)
Needless to say, the group that attended the NDDC's Forum strongly supports keeping the library downtown. Mark said that the Library Board will be gathering citizen input for the next couple of months and then presenting its findings to the City Council in August. Please share you thoughts and ideas with the Library Board...and soon.