Two Meetings and a Tour at Suburban Library Cooperative

Suburban Library Cooperative (SLC) Director Tammy Turgeon invited me to join their members council meeting on the morning of November 9th at Roseville Public Library. I enjoyed hearing about the cooperative's activities and issues, and I was happy to have a chance to engage in some discussion with the SLC library directors and to hear about the programming and successes at each of their individual libraries.

Roseville Public Library's assistant director, Jackie Harvey, gave me a brief tour of the library before Tammy and I headed out for the day. The library was bustling with people at the public access computers and activity in the children's area where Jackie and I are pictured.


My first stop on Tammy's tour of several SLC libraries was St. Clair Shores Public Library. Director Rosemary Orlando gave me the grand tour of this extremely busy operation. They had 917 participants in summer reading this past summer, which will give you an idea of how much business they get. Rosemary and I are shown here in the Arthur M. Woodford Local History Center in the lower level of the library with the city mascot, Morrie the Muskrat -- he's in the glass case just above my right shoulder.


After our tour, which included a look at the computer lab space and the adjoining tutoring/study rooms, the new state-of-the art elevator, and more, the three of us were joined by Assistant Director Sue Mihalic for a delicious lunch at the library's Galley Cafe. Not only was the food good, but the decor is splendid, as it includes the stunning stained glass windows commissioned and created by the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.




Our next stop was the fabulous new building that will house the Warren Civic Center Library. Wow! The library is not quite ready to open, but things are really coming along nicely, and Director Amy Henderstein and Librarian Oksana Urban showed us around the wonderful new space, with its many windows, copper circulation desks, tiled bathrooms and fireplaces, nicely appointed furniture and carpeting, the neat teen room and cozy children's room, etc. Here you see Oksana, me, and Amy at the children's circulation desk and Tammy, me, and Amy in front of the pretty fireplace in the large special collections area. The patrons of Warren will be thrilled to have this facility and all that it has to offer them. I believe they are planning on opening up in the next couple of weeks.


Keeping right on schedule, we moved on to Troy Public Library, where we were warmly greeted by Assistant Library Directors Meaghan Battle and Hedy Brodak, who were standing in for Director Brian Stoutenburg whom I had the opportunity to meet during the morning meeting at Roseville P.L. This visit and tour was particularly fun because Troy P.L. is where Tammy actually started her library career, and everyone there remains understandably fond of her! The management and staff at Troy are very forward thinking. They have their doors open prior to having the desks staffed, just so community members can enter the library to use the computers to access the Internet and/or check their email, or so they can find some quiet time and space for morning reading in the public seating areas. Their display case, shown here with Hedy, Meaghan and me, holds their new "Special Needs Collection" which is provided by their Friends and which includes toys and educational materials addressing all disability categories. The other new idea I garnered from my tour there was the brainchild of Teen Librarian Kathy Rice who goes to the two area high schools during the lunch hour to facilitate teen book discussions, since the youth frequently are so busy they cannot get to the library itself. What a great idea!


Our last stop of the day, prior to the evening dinner meeting with the SLC trustees, was a visit to the town of New Baltimore to see the MacDonald Public Library. Director Margaret Thomas and her staff told us about the fact that the library's name stems from the building donor's name, and they showed us photographs of the old city motor garage that housed their previous library.

Margaret wanted me to be sure to see their "Happy Library Tree", the centerpiece of their children's area. The tree was named by a contest that had the community's children submitting their ideas for names. The artwork that abounds on the walls all through the library all includes a water focus, being as they are right on the shores of Lake St. Clair's Anchor Bay.

The teen area wall is graced with a stunning mural that was designed and painted by local area teens. I was so impressed with it. It looks great even in this small photo, but you should see it in person. The artists made sure to incorporate an alarm box on the wall into the design, adding wings around it to make it look like a space vehicle or creature (it's in the top right hand corner of the mural). After our tour and on our way out the door, the staff made sure to gift us with a bag of the town bakery's famous and delicious cookies known as "belly buttons." Yummmm.