Rockville Centre library staff, users tout services after Forbes opinion piece calls them obsolete

“‘My friend told me about this book, and it’s about this guy,’” said Sarah Siegel, program coordinator at the Rockville Centre Public Library, re-enacting what she said is a common scene at the facility with a patron imitation.

“‘Two-word title,’” Alene Scoblete, the local history librarian and archivist, chimed in, laughing.

“‘And I think the cover was pink,’” Siegel added. “Nine times out of 10, that librarian sitting behind that desk goes, ‘Oh, you want this book!’”

Finding what library visitors want, Scoblete said, is something that Amazon doesn’t do as well as librarians. “We’ve figured this stuff out,” she said. “We’re like sleuths.”

The exchange between Siegel and Scoblete in the library’s upstairs conference center came several days after Panos Mourdoukoutas, an economics professor at Long Island University, wrote an opinion piece for Forbes arguing that Amazon bookstores should replace local libraries to save taxpayers money. The op-ed spurred backlash and was removed from the publication’s website two days after it was posted.

Mourdoukoutas wrote that although local libraries provide a range of services, they no longer have the same value as they once did. Starbucks, he stated, “provide residents with a comfortable place to read, surf the web, meet their friends and associates, and enjoy a great drink.” Amazon, Mourdoukoutas wrote, has essentially combined a library with Starbucks. “At the core,” he said, “Amazon has provided something better than a local library without the tax fees.”

The Rockville Centre Public Library’s 2018 budget is about $3.6 million. Taxpayers fund about $3.52 million of that, which amounts to about $468 per year per household, according to Library Director Catherine Overton.

Mourdoukoutas added that “technology has turned physical books into collector’s items,” noting Netflix and Amazon Prime video rentals, which eliminate the need for library borrowing services.

“He lives in a bubble,” Liz Vorbach, a youth services librarian at the Rockville Centre library, said of Mourdoukoutas. “[He] struck me as somebody who hasn’t walked into a library in a very long time.” Mourdoukoutas had not responded to the Herald’s request for comment at press time.

In addition to making roughly 175,000 books available, the library allows cardholders to borrow Roku Sticks to stream movies as well as pre-loaded Kindles for all age groups to read electronically. At its most recent meeting, the library board of trustees approved the purchase of a Go-Pro camera. “We have our finger on the pulse,” Vorbach said of the library’s shift of emphasis to high-tech offerings in recent years. “We’re really open to find out what people want.”

A 50-year Rockville Centre resident, who identified himself only as Gerard, sat beyond a row of bookshelves on a comfortable-looking chair, his feet resting on an ottoman. Behind glasses, his eyes swept the large-print pages of “The Sleeping Doll” by Jeffery Deaver. “I come and read,” he said. “Nice and quiet.” Gerard, who doesn’t have cable television, said he also borrows police and mystery shows.

Beyond content

Physical and electronic content isn’t what sets the library apart from Amazon, staff members acknowledged. Along with its tangible resources, the space offers yoga, exercise and meditation classes, current events sessions, history lectures, game nights and book discussions with professional facilitators.

Patrons regularly use one of the library’s 18 computers to conduct research or print out anything from a school assignment to a boarding pass.

The library also features a Teen Centre as well as a Children’s Room, where papier-mâché animals adorn the bookshelves. A penguin and pelican guard the picture books; a sign beneath the Panda bear reads, “Are we there yet? Audio books for your family vacation.”

Toys fill a colorful, carpeted play area near the room’s entrance, and pre-packed backpacks filled with themed toys and supplies are available to be taken home.

Vorbach noted that many children come to the library as a safe place after school until their parents can pick them up. Some spend time playing games on a computer, she said, while others borrow school supplies to do projects or meet with a tutor.

Laker Garcia, 6, who will enter first grade at William S. Covert Elementary School next month, filled out a list of 79 books he has read this summer, which he would later place in the “Reading Records” bin at a nearby table. He hopes to complete 100 books before school starts.

“He’s on a roll,” Laker’s father, Daniel, said, adding that his family received free tickets to tour the USS Intrepid in Manhattan through the library’s museum pass offering.

Babysitter Laurie Luft takes the kids she watches to the library because of the range of educational activities. “They can go on the tablets, they can read books, I can sit with them and read,” she said. “They can see their friends here.”

Melanie Wyremski, of Rockville Centre, said she and her children have attended concerts and movie screenings and received museum passes at the library, which was her “lifeline” when she was new to motherhood and the community. “The best part is that these resources are accessible to everyone in Rockville Centre, not just those who can afford to pay for them,” she told the Herald. “The library is the beating heart of the community, and I cannot imagine life without it.”

Mourdourkoutas noted in his opinion piece, “There’s no shortage of places to hold community events.” Siegel said that was the biggest misstatement in his argument. “There’s plenty of community space,” she loudly mocked. “No, there isn’t!”

The library’s three meeting rooms are regularly used for a range of events, Siegel said, including defensive driving classes, violin and piano recitals, tax help sessions, or Girl Scout or Fortnightly Club meetings. Dozens of teenage volunteers come to the children’s events to help out. “We have to maintain human contact with one another,” Siegel said. “. . . This is a place that lives and breathes. It’s alive.”

Jane McCabe said the librarians greet her by name and are eager to suggest books for her and her monthly book club. The library also works with local charities like Bethany House, she noted, for which she is the co-chair of the Resource Development Committee. The center, in Roosevelt, helps homeless families on Long Island.

Siegel and her fellow staff members agreed that the library’s offerings are worth what residents pay in taxes, but when it comes to developing children into lifelong readers, helping elderly residents find books or catering to the needs of new mothers, it’s no longer about money.

“Many of the services that our library provides, you can’t put a dollar figure on,” Siegel said. “It’s the way you touch someone’s life.”