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Secrets of the Library Guild

A couple of times a year public library directors from all over the state of Arkansas meet at the Arkansas State Library in Little Rock to discuss matters of mutual importance. The State Library’s location in Little Rock, at the geographic center of the state, makes it an excellent location. We usually piggyback these meetings onto the State Library’s quarterly Board of Trustees meetings.

These normally take place on a Friday at 10:00 a.m. The late-morning start gives trustees and visitors from all over the state time to get there without having to make an extremely early start. On the morning of the most recent meeting I rose as usual around six, made ready, and headed to Little Rock without needing to hurry. I listened to anime soundtrack CDs along the way. There was even time to take “the scenic route” by approaching Little Rock off of the busy and bland expressway. The only unpleasant part of the drive was a very near-miss encounter with a suicidally inattentive dog in the road.

We had a good turnout at the Board meeting. State Library Board meetings are well worth attending for informational purposes. We can learn about what’s going on with the State Library and its services, catch up with library news from around the state, and keep up with any developments in the Legislature or the Governor’s Office that might affect libraries.

The current State Librarian has cultivated relaxed and familiar relations with her trustees and staff. Sitting in on a Board meeting is a bit like visiting a large family gathering where everybody gets along. On this particular Friday one of the audience was a librarian who had only a month or so early been a State Library employee. This was his first Board meeting in his new capacity as a public librarian. He came in for a certain amount of ribbing to the effect that he was no doubt confused about what he was doing there. The State Librarian joined the fun by claiming that she had caught him parking in his old staff parking space.

The meeting ended by noon. Most of us walked across the street to a local barbecue place and had a working lunch of smoked chicken and brisket. For many of us it was a rare opportunity to talk shop with colleagues. I made the acquaintance of a librarian who recently came in from out of state to take over a large county system about two hours from where I work. She seemed pleased by the warm welcome she had gotten from other librarians and the members of her community.

The new librarian had inherited a project to build a badly-needed new headquarters library. The city hoped to use the library project as part of an effort to revive a notoriously blighted downtown. The new director will face plenty of challenges. She seemed quite excited about it. The project is still in the architectural planning stage, and she has a background in design and crafts that puts it right up her alley.

By 1:00 p.m. we were back at the State Library. Representatives of about sixteen Arkansas libraries had gathered for the day’s main event. The subject of discussion: e-books.

Public libraries in the U.S. that want to offer circulating popular fiction e-books have to get them through the OverDrive e-book platform. OverDrive offers a great service. But it’s very expensive. Our library, which is small enough to be in the lowest pricing tier, has to pay thousands of dollars a year just to have access to the OverDrive platform. We then have to pay several times what ordinary purchasers would pay for e-books by bestselling authors—either that or lease the e-books for twelve months or twenty-four checkouts, and then re-purchase the title.

It all gets hard on a library’s collection development budget. A colleague sitting beside me at the meeting said that his patrons requested about three times as much in e-materials as he had budget to spend. Our own library could probably easily spend three times what we have budgeted as well.

To share and control costs, Arkansas libraries have for a couple of years been discussing the formation of an e-book consortium. Recently a staffer at the State Library has taken the lead in opening negotiations with OverDrive for us. Today she had scheduled a conference call with two OverDrive representatives.

We started out discussing various issues. Some of it was obvious stuff, like the question of who would do selection of materials for the consortium, and would individual libraries be able to make discretionary purchases. Then there were more technical concerns involving cataloging and MARC records. As the director of one of the smallest libraries in the room, I didn’t have a lot of value to add to the conversation. I mostly tried to listen and learn.

The conference call began at the appointed time, with the State Library staffer who arranged it serving as moderator. The two OverDrive reps we spoke with naturally gave us a lot of marketing-speak and jargon. At the same time, they answered everybody’s questions to the best of their ability. They had some helpful suggestions regarding best practices that they had observed at other consortia that OverDrive has worked with.

They could not yet answer the most basic question of all—what sort of costs would individual consortium members be looking at? They promised that if we could furnish data on patron populations at all the different libraries considering joining the consortium, then they could fairly quickly come up with quotes for different pricing tiers. The State Library agreed to provide the data.

After the call ended we talked a bit more among ourselves. The consensus seemed to be that we had had a profitable and informative meeting. Now we had to go home, make our reports to staff and superiors, bring colleagues who hadn’t been able to make the meeting up to speed, and await the promised pricing quotes.

The meeting broke up around 3:00 p.m. We couldn’t have met for much longer if we’d tried. The State Librarian had already warned us that they were closing early due to some remodeling or maintenance work that was scheduled to start at 3:30 and would involve noxious fumes. It’s enough to make one wonder whether other deliberating bodies might benefit from similar deadline threats….

By this time I had, with the early start and working lunch, already had a full day. I would be able to make it home by time for supper. But I wasn’t really ready to go home yet.

A residence of nearly a decade and a half in the big city of Nashville (Tennessee, of course; Nashville, Arkansas isn’t very big) had been more than enough to convince me that I wanted to get back to my small-town roots. Still, I’d learned that cities do have their attractions. Visiting a city and getting a change of scenery now is welcome. So when I go to a Friday meeting at the State Library I usually plan to stay overnight (At my own expense) and check the town out.

Little Rock is a great city to visit. Its location on steep terrain along a river makes it resemble a kind of half-scale version of Nashville. People from Little Rock (Known colloquially as “People From Little Rock”—“Little Rockers” has never caught on) are friendly and seem to understand us small-town folks better than most urbanites. The city is big enough to boast such amenities as bookstores, museums, and a variety of dining options, yet small enough that traffic and crowds are usually manageable. It has loads of parks and walkable neighborhoods.

After leaving the State Library I ran a couple of errands. Among these was a visit to an Asian market on University Avenue. There the owner, another customer, and I had a laugh together when it turned out we had both just coincidentally bought the same brand of plum sauce. Plus I had bought some cookies that the other customer remembered having when she was growing up.

By around 4:00 I was at Central Arkansas Library System’s headquarters facility downtown. Across the parking lot from CALS itself is a lovely historic building that CALS operates as a used bookstore called River Market Books. This establishment boasts three floors of books on all sorts of subjects, plus a fourth floor that contains a small art gallery. I pretty much can’t visit Little Rock without going there.

When River Market Books closed at 5:00 I stowed my purchases in my car and then went to CALS proper. It’s an excellent library facility to visit—and a good place to hide out from the evening rush hour traffic. On this evening I browsed the eclectic graphic novel collection, the new book shelves, and the adult nonfiction stacks on the fifth floor, making notes for future reference on items that I might be interested in purchasing for myself, purchasing for our own library’s collection, or borrowing by Interlibrary Loan.

Sometimes while visiting CALS I’ll look up one of the librarians on duty—Friday evenings at CALS aren’t usually too busy—and talk shop a bit. More often I just spend an hour savoring the rare of experience of getting to be a library patron instead of a librarian. There’s something about the experience of browsing a good-sized library collection, surrounded by a world of ideas beyond what any one person could ever fully absorb, that you just can’t get any other way.

I also pause for a few minutes to look out the windows and take in the views of downtown Little Rock. Urban downtowns, usually uninspiring places by day, are beautiful at night and by sunset. This kind of sight is one thing I occasionally miss about living in Nashville. On this particular evening the grey skies and drizzle failed to improve the scene. Here and there across the street I saw a still-lighted office, and wondered who might be working there a bit late.

I could have stayed at CALS for hours, but it closes at 6:00 on Fridays and I had other places to go. By closing time the evening rush had thinned out (In Nashville the traffic is pretty much always a bear) so that I had no trouble crossing the Arkansas River into North Little Rock. North of Interstate 40, at the intersection of JFK Boulevard and McCain, there’s a shopping center with a nice Asian buffet place. It had sushi, warming cups of soup for a drizzly February evening, a couple of different chicken dishes, some fairly good apple pie (Though I noticed with some disappointment that they’d gotten it a bit overdone on the bottom this evening), and more kinds of shrimp than Forrest Gump’s buddy Bubba. I overheard kids at one table talking about having “a Chinese movie night.” Evidently supper has put them in the mood to watch Disney’s “Mulan.”

After supper I headed down McCain to a gaming store that also has lots of used DVDs. I found the usually fair anime selection disappointingly thin that evening. Finding a marked-down DVD set of the first season of “Land of the Lost” made up for that.

Then I drove further down McCain, past McCain Mall (Which I normally visit only for Christmas shopping), to Barnes & Noble. There I browsed happily until almost 9:00. Then I drove back down McCain and JFK to the I-40 intersection and checked into my usual motel. It’s a bit of a dump—you get what you pay for when you spend under $60 on a room for the night—but it fits my budget, it’s not buggy, and it doesn’t attract a sketchy crowd.

It also has a perfect location. Not only is it a fairly quick drive from Barnes & Noble, but it sits right across the street from a little city park, which leads in turn to a modest historical neighborhood. In the morning I can take a stroll there before heading on my way. It reminds me of the older neighborhoods I used to enjoy strolling through in Nashville. On Saturday morning it was cold and rainy, but I brought out my umbrella and didn’t let it stop me. From one street, aptly named Ridge Road, I caught views of the wooded hills on the edge of town. In the morning mist they reminded me of something out of a Chinese or Japanese ink painting.

Back at the motel I packed up, checked out, and made a cell call to the library where I work. Normally on a Saturday morning I would be there first thing. I figured I needed to at least check in. The staff member I spoke with informed me that the internet connection had turned squirrely. She anticipated hearing about it from the patrons all day long, since it was tax season. I knew that I would have that situation to deal with when I returned to work on Monday.

But with nothing I could do at the moment, there was no point in worrying about it. I drove back across the river into Little Rock proper and parked at Alsopp Park off Cantrell Road. Though it’s not a very large park, Alsopp has steep, wooded hills and a rocky stream, and I pretty much had it to myself that morning. Standing in the heart of the park by the babbling stream, you can just about forget that you’re surrounded by roads and city neighborhoods.

The other end of Alsopp comes out on Kavanaugh Boulevard in the historic Pulaski Heights neighborhood. With its blocks of older houses, and older retail districts along Kavanaugh, Pulaski Heights is the sort of place that people pay huge prices to move into in many cities today. Since Little Rock is neither a boomtown nor an urban disaster area, the neighborhood is still just about affordable. If I had to live in or near an urban neighborhood, I’d want it to be this one.

Walking along the shops on Kavanaugh was fun. Though I’m almost borderline agoraphobic and not much of a shopper, there’s something nice about getting to take in the variety for a bit. I strolled—still in a cold drizzle; that groundhog evidently knew his business when he predicted no early spring—past varied eateries and boutiques, past a boarding kennel (One of the guests barked as I passed), past a small art gallery that I elected not to step into, and past a coffee shop with a long table by the windows through which I could observe customers sipping their drinks, tapping away on a laptop, or quietly reading a book.

Then I stepped off Kavanaugh to explore a residential section. As I can only visit the area two or three times a year, for an hour or so at a time, I’m still learning my way around the large neighborhood. On this Saturday I scouted some new territory, seeking a walkable way to connect the two retail districts on Kavanaugh that are separated by a stretch of road that’s not very walkable. I made it all the way to University, doubled back, and saw churches, schools, and blocks of well-kept houses that I hadn’t seen before. The expedition was a success! On my back through Alsopp I paused one last time to listen to the murmuring of the creek. Some talkative crows somewhat spoiled the effect.

From Alsopp I drove to a shopping center across Cantrell and purchased some specialized office supplies for work that we have trouble finding locally. Small-town librarians find themselves doing things like that whenever they visit a larger place. I know one colleague who used to use River Market Books as a source of collection development!

Farther west on Cantrell I stopped at the Cantrell Gallery for the first time in probably a year. They handle works by well-known local artists. In the window they had several paintings by John Deering. He’s a regular Renaissance man who is best known for his day job as a newspaper cartoonist. Inside the gallery I viewed the works of several other artists, taking time out now and then for the gallery owner’s dog, who really wanted to be petted or play tug-of-war. I didn’t mind a bit.

One artist whose name I had not seen before had some nocturne-like scenes that I loved. Something about them looked vaguely familiar. She also had a painting of the inside of a library. I wouldn’t have minded getting that for my office—but librarians don’t find it easy to afford original works by pro artists. I learned from the gallery owner that the artist was the daughter of a better-known local artist whose works I had seen before. That explained why the nocturnal scenes seemed vaguely familiar. She must be a chip off the old artistic block.

The gallery owner, incidentally, turned out to have local connections in the obscure little town where I live. You pretty much can’t go anywhere in Arkansas without finding such connections. My brother, a retired career Army NCO, tells me that Arkansans who meet in the Service usually recognize each other as Arkansans even if they’ve never met before.

From the Cantrell Gallery I went south to Rodney Parham Road and visited a comic book shop. I leafed through the new materials, just to see what they looked like. Not finding them inspiring, I looked through the fifty-cent bins for something I might actually want to read. I also bought an inexpensive 1970s back issue. The store owner commented on how Marvel’s movie successes never seemed to translate into anything that would much help comic sales.

Then I went to University and had lunch at a good sandwich place there. From there it was on to the other Barnes & Noble, on the west end of town. Among other things I got a remaindered 2018 scenic calendar for my kitchen and a manga volume that turned out less enjoyable than I’d hoped. The book on pirates is turning out to be much better.

Around 3:30 I crossed the cold, drizzly parking lot and started back home. I occupied the trip sightseeing the soggy scenery and listening to Enya and bluegrass. Back home I got inside, made a little something warm for supper, and settled in for a winter’s night.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a vacation. I’d worked a five-day week before knocking off late on Friday afternoon. But any weekend when I can be out of town, and not have to be at the library at 8:00 on a Saturday morning, feels like a mini-vacation. Getting to do that now and then seems to do me a world of good. After all, even librarians need to get away once in a while.

(This is compellingly written and gives me an insight into a world I didn't know existed. Thank you!)

Are you talking about the world of libraries, or the state of Arkansas? Anyway, thanks!