Little Known Facts About the Tompkins County Public Library - June 2003

June 2003
The Ithaca Journal
Little Known Facts about the Tompkins County Public Library
by Janet Steiner, Library Director

Libraries are in the information business, yet we spend very little time telling people about our business. Here are some little known facts and answers to common questions about the Tompkins County Public Library.

Did you know that:

Ezra Cornell founded the Cornell Free Library (the predecessor of the TCPL) BEFORE he founded Cornell. The first meeting of the Cornell University trustees was held in the meeting room of the public library. Ezra's building was located on the corner of Tioga and Seneca Street and was demolished in 1960. However, you can see a picture of the Cornell Free Library on every city-owned vehicle because the library is contained in the City of Ithaca seal.

The relief sculpture framing the perimeter of the Borg Warner Community Room depicts people using the library and its services, including the bookmobile of year's past. The library acquired the sculpture created by Elfriede Abbe, a local artist, in 1968.

Volunteers provide more than 9,000 hours of help annually. Even more volunteers work at the Friends of the Library Book sale site. Our volunteers are solely responsible for the operations of our community libraries in Danby, Caroline and Lansing. The library's part-time volunteer coordinator recruits volunteers from all ages and all walks of life. She ensures that a good match is made between the volunteer's interests and skills, and the library's needs. Volunteers do not replace our highly trained staff, but instead complement our workforce in every department in the library.

The new public library building is owned and maintained by Tompkins County, but a separate Board of Trustees governs the library itself. Tompkins County provides 70% of the operational support for the library. The Tompkins County Legislature, not the library's board of trustees, made the decision to purchase and install the solar voltaic system on our roof. Information about its performance can be found on the library's website www.tcpl.org. Solar energy is expected to provide about 20 - 40 % of the library's energy needs.

Where's the back door? The library chose deliberately to have only one public entrance and exit, primarily because the cost to have more than one was prohibitive since it requires additional staffing, an additional security check point, and more computer equipment. Why is there a railing across the front of the entrance? Couldn't there be steps there? Again, the library deliberately designed the front entrance with a curved railing to prevent children from darting out of the library directly into a busy intersection.

Many users would like us to open an "express" check out station, or don't understand why we can't add clerks during busy hours. The fact is that the library today is staffed with the same number of people that we had in the old library. There is a gap between the number of staff we need in order to provide good customer service and our fiscal reality, and that prevents us from hiring more people. We can only dream about being "fully staffed."

Something many of our patrons are wondering about: "Will the library ever be open on Saturdays in the summer?" The issue of summer hours is currently under negotiation with our union. It is our hope that we can come to an agreement and open the library during the hours that our users want.

Many library resources can be accessed from home whether or not the library is open. You can search the library's catalog, iPac, from the comfort of your own computer with an Internet connection. Point your browser to www.tcpl.org and check out our catalog, place a hold on an item that you are interested in, research homework projects, check out consumer information, investment information, and book reviews from the library's electronic resources page Navigateway. Many resources are full text and can be printed or emailed to your home account.

The Tompkins County Public Library is chock-full of little known facts from local history to the latest scientific breakthroughs. Visit the library online or come in and navigate the sea of resources available at your public library.