30Y.30L Tour (#3): Brown City Public Library

Image by Andy Thompson

Thanks to Director Shirley Wood, on Thursday, November 17, I was able to tour Brown City Public Library which is located in downtown (you guessed it!) Brown City, Michigan. Confession: I walked away at the end of the tour feeling very lucky to have had the opportunity to meet Shirley. In the short time in which I was at the library, I can say that she is truly an amazing woman and has made a difference in the lives of many people. Mine included.

Location
Like my previous two 30Y30L posts, I'll start off by pinning down the location. For those that aren't familiar with the area, Brown City Public Library is located in the southwest corner of Sanilac County. In fact, part of Brown City actually lies in Lapeer County. BCPL is about 70 miles northeast of Kresge-Purdy Library which houses the School of Library and Information Science on Wayne State University's campus. Brown City is located off of M-53, otherwise known as Van Dyke Road, on M-90 East. The library is housed inside of the City Hall building.

About the Director
According to the City's website, the library was built in 1982 and Shirley has been director for 30 years. She describes herself as a lifelong bookworm who loves to read. Like the other directors interviewed, I asked a few personal questions about their favorites which included queries about technology, review sources, parts of the job, and of course, their favorite memory or story. Shirley shared a story with me about the grand opening of the library. A young family was touring and they had a child about 3 to 4 years old. Apparently the child was pretty impressed with the library because she asked Shirley, "Where's your bed?!"

Shirley's favorite part of her job was easy to answer. Without even a glimmer of delay she stated, "the people." Respecting patron privacy, I stepped away when transactions and conversations took place; however, it quickly came apparent to me that she personally knew these people and was apart of their lives. One patron gave Shirley a hug before walking out the door. When our conversation continued, she picked up where we left off...the favorite part of her job. Shirley said, "You are there through their happy and sad times...you laugh and you cry with them." I feel that Shirley captured part of the very essence of what it truly means to be a rural librarian...something in which I won't ever find in any textbook that I'll read during library school.

Advice to those entering the profession: "Love the work you get into...if you love what you do, then it's not like work!" 

Service Area and Size
As you can imagine, Brown City Public Library serves its namesake in Maple Valley Township as well as surrounding areas.

According to the Library of Michigan, BCPL is a Class 2 library which meets the following standards:

• Serves a population of 4,000 to 6,999;
• Be open a minimum of 20 hours per week;
• Employ (at least 20 hours per week) a director with at least a Level 4 certificate.

Currently, Brown City Public Library is open 34 hours a week and has an operating budget of about $45,000.

Collection 
Brown City Public Library has about 17,000 items its collection and circulates around 15,000 materials per year. I found a fabulous reference collection which would have been perfect when I was taking LIS 6120 with Dr. Anghelescu last fall semester. Among my favorites, the library had Bartlett's Quotations and The New York Public Library Desk Reference.

Like Marlette District Library, BCPL had its fiction collection separated by genre; however, they also had a science fiction and romance section with at least two genres displayed on  racks. Brown City also has a local history and genealogy collection.

With the premiere of Breaking Dawn - Part 1, I was pretty geeked to see several Twilight posters adorning the juvenile area.

Unique Observations
The library was quite busy during my visit with patrons not only using the computers, but also browsing the stacks and reading at the various tables available for use. Speaking of which, I was impressed by the amount of reading and work areas available in the library for patrons to use. Of note, BCPL is not automated and still makes use of the card catalog and check-out slips. (I absolutely love card catalogs and need to publish my set of photos I have collected.)

Because the library is housed in City Hall, the location is used as a voting precinct which requires the library to cease operation during that time. On a positive note, voting often gets non-users into the library and exposed to new materials. It isn't unusual for patronage to pick up after an election.

Also of interest, a long-time patron had her engagement photos taken within the library using the bookcases as a backdrop.