Reported by Yvette Jarreau and Marleen Nienhuis

*BPL mugs with images of either the McKim or the Johnson Building now for sale in the Central Library’s gift shop next to the Newsfeed Cafe*

At the November 19 Boston Public Library Trustees meeting, BPL president David Leonard and his team continued to paint a cheerful picture of a public library solidly on the upswing. A new focus on staff development, community engagement and a review of its decade-old mission is going hand-in-hand with a good financial picture and major capital improvement projects across the entire system. Last but not least, after many years of comments by many suggesting a gift shop for the Central Library to capitalize on reproductions of its rich collection for a new BPL funding stream, one has opened next to the Newsfeed Cafe. “We now have the ability to prioritize and can step back from the crisis work to focus on the library of the future,” Leonard said.

Capital investment and operational budget support for the BPL under Mayor Marty Walsh continues to be strong. Staff morale, a perennial problem at the BPL, likely got a great lift when, for the first time in many years, the BPL closed its doors to the public for a day this fall to have a three-hour all-staff meeting with some 492 library employees. “It was a great event,” Leonard said. They focused on better customer service, community engagement, staff development and diversity. A staff appreciation dinner followed, with awards for years of service for some, topped by a visit from Mayor Walsh himself, who showed the flag of support for the BPL and answered the audience’s questions.

*A BPL all-staff meeting in November included a visit by Mayor Marty Walsh*

Leonard also proposed a “draft road map” to refresh the current BPL mission, based on the so-called Compass principles hammered out a decade ago by his predecessor, Amy Ryan, after a successful fight against the Menino Administration’s plan to close up to a third of the branches. Leonard’s proposal aims to both place the BPL more squarely in the life of the community, while still preserving today’s information and records as “the history of tomorrow.” “We don’t want to be an archive because there already is an archive in the city,” Leonard said, “but we do want to be engaged with the larger community.”

The current BPL mission was based on recommendations from public comments at a number of local branch libraries in 2010, including the South End branch. The goal was to:

Be user centered
Be a community gathering place
Focus on special collections
Focus on children and teens
Be a center of knowledge
Focus on access and innovation
Be sustainable
Be fun.

These principles are still relevant today, Leonard said told the Trustees. But his proposed “road map” places’ sustainable funding growth’ right at the top of his list, together the with system-wide improvements to buildings, spaces and infrastructure that have been underway. Improvement and enhancement of staff and organizational culture, long a sore point among library users, also is in the spot light. Being ‘ready for the unexpected’ may seem an odd point until one recalls that the 2015 Marathon bombings happened on the Central Library’s doorstep on Boylston Street:

Facilitate sustainable funding growth
Systemwide improvements to buildings, spaces and infrastructure
Enhance collection management, acquisitions, and access supporting the community’s needs
Enhance services systemwide with special emphasis on youth services
Develop and implement a digital, technological and innovation plan
Improve and enhance the staff and organizational culture with a focus on support, engagement, productivity and customer service
Be ready for the unexpected.

Leonard said the plan is for his roadmap to be reviewed by division, department, and staff meetings, and, refreshingly, to establish a process of public engagement, yet to be defined.

*An architect’s image of the Rare Books and Manuscript Department’s renovation at the Central Library which will reopen to the public in the fall of 2021*

*The Adams Street library, 13,000 square foot in size, will include a reading garden and re-open in 2021.*

*The new 27,000 square foot Dudley Library will reopen sometime in 2020*

An update by the BPL’s Major Projects Manager, Alison Ford, provided a glimpse of the “system wide improvements” mentioned in Leonard’s report. The BPL’s capital projects under the Walsh Administration have amounted to well over a hundred million dollars spent so far for improvements at the Central Library, tens of millions more at some of the branches, and a similar amount to be spent over the next five years at others. There’s the $17.2 million, 27,000 square foot Dudley Square library, due to be completed in 2020; the $15.7 million overhaul of the Central Library’s Rare Books and Manuscript Department; and the $19.2 million, 13,000 square foot Adams Street library, to re-open in 2021. Other construction projects and upgrades are in the hopper as well, to wit, the South End library’s current interior improvements, to be completed in February 2020. Ford presented a list of other library renovation plans which have yet to be prioritized, among them the program study in the current budget for a new and expanded South End library, as well as for those of Roslindale, Faneuil, Fields Corner, Uphams Corner, Chinatown, Lower Mills and South Boston branch libraries.

Browsing at the Central Library’s new Gift Shop, next to the Newsfeed Cafe

Ellen Donaghey, BPL’s Chief Financial Officer, gave information about the new BPL Gift Shop, a venture enthusiastically supported by the Trustees and staff. It offers a variety of items for sale, including ornaments, note cards, BPL mugs, mittens, hats and teddy bears. Separately, Trustee Evelyn Arana-Ortiz, chair of the Finance and Audit Committee, reported that the overall performance YTD 2019 of BPL investments was “strong” but the plan is to make some investment changes as a hedge after ten years of a bull market.

During the Public Comment section, a library patron complained that the BPL only offers single-user access to the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald as a result of their “pay wall.” This is because neither publication has agreed to offer the BPL a “library product,” as for example does the New York Times., the BPL staff said. The best remedy would be for library patrons to contact these newspapers and ask them to make the Globe and the Herald accessible to library users, they said.

The Trustees of the BPL, appointed by the Mayor of Boston for five-year terms, have their Annual Meeting in May and schedule regular meetings every other month, either at the Central Library or at branch libraries. All meetings are open to the public and provide interesting information about BPL developments to the community. Public comment is welcomed at the end of every meeting.

The next BPL trustees meetings are as follows:

Thursday, Jan 30, 2020, 3 pm, Central Library

Thursday, Mar 26, 4pm, West Roxbury Branch

Tuesday, May 12, 8:30am, Annual Meeting at Central Library.

For further info about BPL Trustees, click here.