And 2014 Annual Report
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THE CHARLESTONREADER Volume XVII, No. 2 Summer 2015 AND 2014 ANNUAL REPORT CHARLESTON LIBRARY SOCIETY DELVE INTO THE FOUNDATION COLLECTION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’SNOTES I had planned to get our summer newsletter and Annual Report out by July, so I began writing my director’s report in mid-June. I was excited to discuss our emerging five-year Strategic Plan, and I managed to get about 250 words onto paper. However, perceptions of the Library and of our wonderful city were forever changed on Wednesday, June 17, 2015. Charleston experienced a tragedy that stunned all of us. A vile young man filled with racist hatred murdered nine good people in their house of worship. He sought to incite further violence, but he failed miserably. Instead, our community united in a remarkable outpouring of support and love. Church bells rang in unison, and thousandsEXEC of UTIVE DIRECTOR’SNOTES people held hands across the Ravenel Bridge to show their commitment to peace and understanding. Young Readers Initiative Finding a thread from this horrific event to a report on the Library Society seemed difficult for me in any way other than to commend the shared reaction by our members. The day-to-day routine here halted.As IThe announced young staff at membersthe 2014 who Annual had workedMeeting, so hardin addition to celebrate to celebrating the 100th anniversary of the main building, this our third Monte Carlo Night as a “friend-raiser” on June 19 immediatelyyear’s dedicated focus is also any directedproceeds atto reachingthe Mother out Emanuel to and Fund.expanding Emails from our out-of-town members poured in with expressions of concernour andgroup admiration of young for members. the solidarity In ofApril the city’swe hosted reaction. our Within first days, two of our librarians joined other archivists to assist Mother EmanuelGrandparents’ in dealing Day, with inthe Maythousands we began of cards, offering letter, and story notes time that streamed in from around the world. Still, I struggled with what I couldand possibly crafts writeevery for Friday this publication morning, that and could we be have relevant. added a new “teen” area outside the Rabbit Hole in an attempt to And then, randomly, as she did for the five years she lived in Charlestonmake and the the Library four years more she servedappealing on our to Board young of families.Trustees, CarolineOur von Nathusius gave me the help I needed. My “thread” between outreacha tragedy andeffort an brings update to on mind the Library a letter Society Harper is Leethat thewrote same to spirit that motivated 19 young men to create this society 268Oprah years Winfrey ago is in at 2006work on today the –subject even in of Germany. reading Theand desireher love of books. I know Ms. Lee would champion our appeal to enhance our quality of life, to be better informed, and to reach out to others has been beautifully expressed in the new monument to parents and grandparents to bring their children to the being erected in Germany. Library Society and give them the magic of a library card. I am honored to share part of the Press Release that Caroline sent me the day before Rev. Clementa Pinckney’s funeral. The Library Society and Charleston’s strength of purpose will be recognized in the new monument across the Atlantic. PRESS RELEASE - Haldensleben and Hundisburg (as part of Project Haldensleben, Germany, CHARME, May 7, 2006 supporting the 20-year renovation of Schloss We were privileged. There were children, mostly from rural areas, who had never looked into a book until they went to school. They had to be June 24, 2015 HundisburgDear Oprah, and the surrounding parkland) will be named taught to read in the first grade, and we were impatient with them for theDo Charleston you remember Place when .you Many learned people to read, with or like family me, can and you worknot even having to catch up. We ignored them. tiesremember to Charleston a time when live you in didn’t Hundisburg, know how? HaldenslebenI must have learned and from And it wasn’t until we were grown, some of us, that we discovered what thehaving surrounding been read totowns by my andfamily. cities. My sisters IFA andRotorion, brother, much which older, had befallen the children of our African-American servants. In some of In the wake of the tragic shooting of nine members of hasread a large aloud plantto keep inme Charleston, from pestering isthem; just my one mother example. read me a story their schools, pupils learned to read three-to-one — three children to one the congregation of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, every day, usually a children’s classic, and my father read from the four book, which was more than likely a cast-off primer from a white grammar newspapers he got through every evening. Then, of course, it was Uncle South Carolina, on 17 June 2015, the community of Like Schloss Hundisburg, Charleston is an architectural school. We seldom saw them until, older, they came to work for us. Wiggily at bedtime. Haldensleben in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, makes a gem which was almost entirely destroyed - in Charleston’s Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell gesture of solidarity with its sister-city in the United case,So Iin arrived the inAmerican the first grade, Civil literate, War andwith a thencurious again cultural through assimilation phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. of American history, romance, the Rover Boys, Rapunzel, and The States. earthquake and fire and through Hurricane Hugo in 1989 Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because Mobile Press. Early signs of genius? Far from it. Reading was an when I work to learn something, I remember it. - butaccomplishment which rose I againshared towith become several local a site contemporaries. of great beauty. Why this A new monument which has been worked on over the endemic precocity? Because in my hometown, a remote village in the early And, Oprah, can you imagine curling up in bed to read a computer? past two years by students of the American College Those1930s, of usyoungsters who know had little Charleston to do but read. well, A movie? recognize Not often that — thismovies Weeping for Anna Karenina and being terrified by Hannibal Lecter, of the Building Arts (ACBA) in the parkland between is aweren’t city which for small works children. constantly A park for to games? heal Notthe a wounds hope. We’re of talkingthe entering the heart of darkness with Mistah Kurtz, having Holden unpaved streets here, and the Depression. Caulfield ring you up — some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal. Books were scarce. There was nothing you could call a public library, we were a hundred miles away from a department store’s books section, so The village of my childhood is gone, with it most of the book collectors, www.charlestonlibrarysociety.org we children began to circulate reading material among ourselves until each including the dodgy one who swapped his complete set of Seckatary child had read another’s entire stock. There were long dry spells broken by Hawkinses for a shotgun and kept it until it was retrieved by an irate the new Christmas books, which started the rounds again. parent. As we grew older, we began to realize what our books were worth: Anne Now we are three in number and live hundreds of miles away from each of Green Gables was worth two Bobbsey Twins; two Rover Boys were other. We still keep in touch by telephone conversations of recurrent theme: an even swap for two Tom Swifts. Aesthetic frissons ran a poor second “What is your name again?” followed by “What are you reading?” We to the thrills of acquisition. The goal, a full set of a series, was attained don’t always remember. only once by an individual of exceptional greed — he swapped his sister’s doll buggy. Much love, Harper www.charlestonlibrarysociety.org past, including slavery and racial segregation, and secure • offer the community of Haldensleben a a bright future. Horrific events like the killings at Emanuel spot in which they can contemplate their AME do not divide the city, they are an opportunity for relationship with the outside world, just the community to unite more resolutely than ever. as Johann Gottlob Nathusius did when he tried to show the entire planet’s flora in his We in Germany recognize that no society is perfect. Every gardens, community has scars from the past to deal with. Here in Haldensleben, we continue to wrestle with the ghosts of • acknowledge, through the ruined Nazism and Communism and the struggle to adapt to appearance of the folly, that every the reunification of Germany in 1990. Like Charleston, society undergoes processes of change, our region has risen from ruins many times over. renewal and rebirth and that perfection is unattainable, and By naming the folly Charleston Place, we: • signify our love and support for the people • thank the people of Charleston, South of Charleston, South Carolina in this Carolina for their contribution to the moment of tragedy. beautification of our landscape, ATTENTION MEMBERS! Some changes are coming to the Library Society! Beginning after Labor Day we will be altering some of our Circulation Policies here at the Library Society. We would like to make sure that all members are conscious of these upcoming changes in order to achieve a seamless transition. The specifics haven’t been settled yet, but keep a look out for an email from us containing the official changes.