Dear Volunteers

April was National Volunteer Month, but I just woke up from hibernation, so this post is a few weeks late!

The DeWitt Community Library has a history of working with volunteers that goes back long before our official grand opening in 1962. Men and women who felt passionate about the need for a library in DeWitt spent two decades researching, organizing, and finally unveiling the DeWitt Community Library Association and library space. Our Board of Trustees is, of course, a volunteer organization, as is our Friends group; volunteers from the community and the Boy and Girl Scouts helped put books on the shelves in 1962, and later helped move the library a couple times; and to this day, we employ a strong and dedicated corps of volunteers that help us with shelving and various other library tasks.

In one of the first Board meeting reports in 1962, the Volunteers' Committee noted that:

"Well over 1,000 hours have been given by women of the community, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and high school groups during the period of October, 1961 - May 31, 1962.

"From October through March, volunteers collected books on a Book Drive and assisted in sorting, stamping, typing, pasting, and generally preparing books for shelves.

"Since opening day, April 9, 1962, volunteers have assisted the librarian by opening the library week-day afternoons and Saturday mornings; handling charge-outs, book returns, issuance of borrowers' cards, and, whenever possible, continuing preparation of new books for shelves.

"At present time, 38 women, working in teams of two, are active volunteers. The Board of Trustees is deeply grateful for the deep loyalty, personal responsibility, and untiring efforts of each one of them."

For several years, Jean Hutton was the Volunteer Committee chairperson, and oversaw "Our excellent group of volunteers, or Library Guild, as it is called." Jean herself continued to volunteer her time to the DeWitt Library well into the 1990s. As she points out in her 1963 Committee Report, "[Volunteers] have made the DeWitt Library possible!" By 1967, Director Kay Kinney was praising the efforts of 3 groups of volunteers: Boy Scouts, who shelved and moved books; Girl Scouts, who helped with story hours and taking books to New York State Manor; and adult volunteers, who worked at the desk and also helped promote the library through outreach projects.

The Librarian's Report for 1972 is particularly full of praise for the volunteers: "At least 120 people were involved as volunteers in the project [to move the library]." As you may have noticed, the only thing the DCL is fonder of than good volunteers is packing up and moving!

In recent years, we have had the help of many teenagers from the Jamesville-DeWitt school district who need to complete community service as a graduation requirement. In addition, in the last year we have begun to rebuild our volunteer corps with almost 20 adults who applied with us and have given many hours of their time to shelving, shelf reading, and organizing your DeWitt Community Library.

Please click on the images below to see excerpts of Volunteer Committee Reports.

Be a part of history!

Do you enjoy our Archives Blog? Wish you could contribute to our collection and knowledge of DCL or DeWitt history? Now's your chance! Share your history with us this spring. The DeWitt Community Library, in partnership with the DeWitt Preservation & Historical Society and the Cultural Resources Council, is hosting an Oral History Project!

In addition, the library is seeking photographs and memorabilia related to our town's history. Participants of this project are encouraged to "jog" their memories by looking at these artifacts, and have their memories recorded for inclusion in our archives.

If you've got memorabilia to donate or photograph, or pictures you will allow us to copy for our files, please bring them in to the DeWitt Community Library any time between now and May 9. We will return all originals, unless you would like to donate them. If you have questions, please contact the library at 315-446-3578. You can also view the details and sign up to participate in the oral history by clicking here.

The Association Must Be Free

You may know that the DeWitt Community Library is a Free Association Library, but perhaps you don't know just what that means or how it was established. The DCL opened officially in April 1962, but discussions about the need for a library in DeWitt began almost two decades before that date. There was a DeWitt Community Association well established, which was a non-profit organization serving the town in various volunteer capacities; this Community Association had a separate library committee, and in the early sixties Jack Robertson -- Chair of the Library Committee -- and this group spent time gathering information from the community and gauging the level of enthusiasm for a public library.

Once they were decided on having a library, the committee then had to determine what type of library would best suit the DeWitt area. There were three possible types of we could become: 1. Town Supported, which meant the library would have to bring their budget proposals to the Town Board each July for funding; 2. School District Library, meaning the library association must gather support from the school district voters to be established; or 3. Free Association Library, which is a library that is not tied to a government group or school district, and is free to approach the members in its chartered area any time of the year for fund raising.

The library committee decided to become a Free Association, which it remains to this day. This decision has its difficulties, as the burden remains on the Association to continue fund raising if it wants to remain in business. In the minutes of the Executive Committee of the DeWitt Community Association a few years before the library opened, they explain their reasoning for this decision as follows: ". . . if we decide on a school district basis, we must 'sell' a library to enough voters that it can be passed as a separate item in the school budget at the annual meeting in July. If we decide on a free association we can gather community support at any time. . . . Since everyone is loathe to add to an already heavy school tax burden this form of support was presently rejected. Jamesville and Southwood have never displayed much interest in a library located in the center of Dewitt for geographic reasons. Since the Town Board appropriates $200 annually for support of the East Syracuse library we might be able to expect a like amount for Dewitt, but possibly not more. Therefore it was generally agreed among those present that a free association was the best and perhaps only way to start a library for Dewitt."

Once they'd decided to be a free association, the problem was how to set up a regular source of funding. They did manage to raise enough money initially to keep the library open for 3 years, which exceeded their goal, but it was necessary to establish solid methods of support money for the future of the library. The original Board of Trustees was elected from amongst the library's first contributors to the fund drive. During the twenty years prior to 1962, one of the big reasons the library was stalled was because the association couldn't find land or a building suitable to house a library. This problem was solved in 1960 when Eagan Real Estate offered the library rent-free space in their Shoppingtown property. In the official library plan, it states that "The Shoppingtown Merchants Association has offered to provide space for the library. This is equivalent to a contribution of over $4,000 per year."

And this is the story of how we became a Free Association Library. Click on the pictures below to view full-size versions of early documents, as well as a picture of Jack Robertson.

Annual Meeting

It's that time of the year again! No, not Groundhog Day. It's DeWitt Community Library's Board of Trustees Annual Meeting! This will take place on Thursday, February 5th, so we thought it was a good time to look back at previous Annual Meetings. These meetings are important for two major reasons: 1.) The Board holds Trustee elections, and Trustees can also be voted on and/or nominated from the floor, and 2.) The Director of the library makes an Annual Report on a year's worth of library progress.

A host of different directors in our 46-year history have interpreted the Annual Report process in their own unique ways. Some have been businesslike and succinct, some pithy and amusing, and some visually creative, but all of them have been enthusiastic about the DCL. Traditionally, the Annual Meeting of DeWitt Community Library Associatioin is in February, with the exception of the first year, because the library opened in April of 1962 and the Annual Report was done in June of that same year, even though the "yearly" report would only encompass 29 days. "It has been a hectic year," wrote Director Lindsay Smith, "but highlighted by the cooperation which only a community project can inspire." Generally, early Director's Reports consisted of other Board officer and Committee summaries, although the Director's own words contained the bulk of the message. That first month, however, Mr. Smith's portion of the report was the smallest part, dwarfed by Administration and Treasurer's Committee reports on building costs and cash assets and liabilities.

By 1963, Lindsay Smith had already resigned his position as Director, and Katherine "Kay" Kinney took over the running of the library. She had been a volunteer on the regular library staff under Mr. Smith's leadership. Ms. Kinney did very detailed reports, underlining the tremendous growth and structuralization of DeWitt Library. Sometimes these early reports would contain odd items of interest, as in the papers from 1964: "We are most grateful to Mrs. Donald Moore who continues to give us pleasure with interesting and varied bulletin board displays. With her assistance, a display was arranged in the Lincoln Bank foyer during Children's Book Week." The DCL was truly a community effort, and especially supported by the Lincoln Bank, which even allowed the Board to meet in its building for planning before they got the library up and running. Mr. Smith and successive Directors up into the 1980s were also very complimentary about volunteers -- Boy and Girl Scouts, as well as a large group of other young people and adults, who helped out from the library's conceptualization to reality.

Other important topics Ms. Kinney would include in her Annual Reports dealt with programming. The DCL has always been a place that emphasizes quality programs for all ages, and it started right from that first full year and Kay Kinney's leadership and ideas. In addition to story hours, she introduced weekly film showings for children, a "Great Books Discussion Group" every other Tuesday night, and a children's poster contest. While Lindsay Smith did an incredible amount of leg work in the formation of the DeWitt Library, Kay Kinney was an innovator who was able to take Smith's foundation and build a trademark library that still functions with many of her ideas almost 50 years later. These characteristics are certainly reflected in both these start-up Directors' styles of Annual Report. Lindsay Smith is concise, succinct, and businesslike; and Kay Kinney is very detailed and enthusiastic, placing importance on many of the small interactions that make up a library's day-to-day business.

There has never been any specific structure for writing the Director's Annual Report, and this allows each Director to focus on what she/he thinks has made the year special, as well as let their styles and personalities show. Just from the years 1969-71, for example, there were two changes of Director, and while 1970's Director Louise Hemmingsen did a very short and straightforward report, Elizabeth Gilbert took over in 1971 and wrote a lighthearted and upbeat report that has the tone of an informal letter to a friend. "It is a measure of the stability of the DeWitt Community Library," she begins, "that in 1971, while under the leadership of three successive librarians, it opened every day on schedule and even increased its collections and circulation!" Ms. Gilbert concludes her report with a rousing "The outlook for 1972 is 'All Systems -- Go.' "

Elizabeth "Betsy" Gilbert's chatty and enthusiastic Annual Reports continued through 1975, when Janet Lomicka took over as Director. At this point, the stability of the DCL was well established, and we no longer see such ins and outs with regard to the Directorship. Ms. Lomicka stayed on until 1986, when Carol Johnson took over. Carol's reports tended to be bulleted lists of the progress made in each area of the library, and she continued her work with the DCL until 1996, when Susan Reckhow took the reins. Susan's Annual Reports tended to be showcase booklets with a lot of graphics. Unfortunately, she left the library in 2008 after 18 years with us, and 12 years as Director! So Interim Director Bill Hastings will be giving the Annual Report, and next year who knows? We will have a whole new person at the helm, and a whole new style of Annual Meeting!

Click on the pictures below to see full-size pictures of some of our past Directors: Lindsay Smith, Kay Kinney, and Susan Reckhow.

The Very First Director

Although we didn't officially open the library doors until April 2, 1962, the DeWitt Community Library Association Inc. had been formed and planning the official opening of the library for quite a few years prior to that date. The organization and purpose of the library, as well as the process of joining the OCPL network, involved many months of drafting and discussion before the place you know today as DeWitt Community Library could be achieved.

Right now, we are involved in a big change, as our longtime Director Susan Reckhow recently left the DCL to pursue a new career opportunity. So we thought this would be a good time to take a look back -- way, way back -- at the very first library Director, a man by the name of Lindsay Smith. Back at the library's conception, the formal position of Director didn't exist just yet; Mr. Smith's title was simply Librarian, as he was the only librarian on staff when the doors opened in the spring of '62. Today, we find ourselves in a very similar position to the one back then, as we are in the process both of a Director search and a search for land to construct a free standing library. In the Board of Trustees meeting minutes dated September 7, 1961, secretary Bettie Roth notes that "George Heine . . . . announced that space under the Candlelight Shop will be available on October 1, 1961," however, he "also presented some blueprints prepared by Jack Robertson on August 23, 1961. The prints were four sets of plans for a split level library for erection on land donated by Eagan in Shoppingtown. These plans are all very tentative and looking forth many years into the future."

Although the library building project was put on hold, they did find a Director. In the notes for that same meeting, "Betty Smingler gave her report concerning the hiring of a librarian. She has spoken with Mr. Lindsay Smith who is a staff member in the English Department at Jamesville DeWitt High School. A graduate of Syracuse University, he has a M.A. in library science specializing in public library administration. He was a member of the library Board of Trustees of the local library in Ilion, New York." The Board also discussed the prospective librarian's salary "as set forth in the temporary budget. . . . Bettie Roth moved that Mr. Lindsay Smith be invited to be a librarian of the DeWitt Community Library Association Inc. at the rate of $3.00 an hour for 18 hours a week." This would amount to a yearly salary of about $2,800; fast forward to 1996, when Susan Reckhow was offered the same position at a salary of $30,000 a year.

So, Lindsay Smith was offered the position and invited to attend the next month's board meeting. Back then, there was still no formal library in which to meet. The Board and staff wouldn't actually be given keys to their space in Shoppingtown until a month before opening, so meetings of the Library Assocation were held in the Community Room of the Lincoln Bank Building. Accordingly, Lindsay Smith showed up at Lincoln Bank on Tuesday, September 26, 1961 and formally "accepted the proposition we voted to offer him. He has discussed his intention with Mr. McGee and is ready to go to work. This solves our most immediate and pressing problem and we can consider ourselves very fortunate in view of the shortage of librarians." He "was introduced to the board members and verbally accepted position of librarian . . . for the period of October 1, 1961 to September 30, 1962. Lindsay discussed kinds of books to be ordered and the total aim and type of library we hope to develop for the Town of Dewitt."

Smith's career as Director lasted until the library had been open for one year. Sadly, "because of Mrs. Smith's death" he resigned his position on April 4, 1963, and another librarian, Kay Kinney, took over the position. But during his time with the DCL, Lindsay Smith was very productive in all aspects of the Association. Back in 1961, when the library's balance sheets were written in longhand on legal paper, there are several checks noted for various amounts of money he donated to the library; he organized a massive book drive and coordinated the notation and cataloguing of hundreds of donated books to start up the collection, including hand choosing which of the donations would go into the loaning collection and which would be sold for additional start-up funds; and he did much of the leg-work of setting up the physical space, planning layout and furniture.

Click on the thumbnails below for full-size views of Lindsay Smith and other key members of the first library Board, and the Dedication Litany that was read the day the DeWitt Community Library opened.

The Evolution of a Library

Here we are at the end of week 2, getting ready to officially open the new library, and we thought it would be nice to look at the way the new space has evolved. Click on the pictures for full-size versions.

New Moves, Old Moves

We are halfway through our big move to new quarters for the DeWitt Community Library, so for today's post we thought it would be fun to look at the 1975 archives and the original move in comparison to this one. And let me tell you, kiddies, we have more in common with '75 than a penchant for bell bottom jeans and jive talk. A lot of the circumstances of the two moves are similar: the need for a lot more space; the timetable for the move (then, like now, we had until April to remain in our old space until plans for demolishing it were put into effect, and the earliest date the new space would be ready was January first); Greater Syracuse Moving and Storage Company was employed for both moves (although the cost definitely increased, as in 1975 the company was "to move the books, shelving, furniture and equipment for $500-$600); and, although Greater Syracuse Moving and Storage is doing the bulk of the work, during this move the staff has helped a great deal by packing out and unpacking the entire non-fiction and most of the computers ourselves, just as in 1975 the library had Boy Scout Troop 162 helping to pack up and move a lot of books and materials.

In the previous move, we had planned to and succeeded in securing that location for a great number of years, and as library services and materials increased we made as much room as we could; but this time, our move is temporary. Although we had over 7,000 square feet in the main area of our old library (not counting some office space we rented down the hall a few years ago), and we are moving to a space with about 12,000 square feet, ultimately the DCL needs 24,000 square feet to be comfortable and have room to grow. Therefore, the terms of our lease state we must occupy this new space for at least 3 years, and our lease with the mall isn't up until 2015, but the library Board of Trustees is going to use this time to find property on which we can build our own stand-alone space somewhere in DeWitt. So, it may not be long before we're packing up and moving again, but for now we have a beautiful new space in ShoppingTown, with much greater visibility within the mall, better lighting, and better use of space than we had in the old basement.