THOUGHTS ON OPENING THE NEW ST. TAMMANY PUBLIC LIBRARY IN MADISONVILLE
Argiro L. Morgan, PhD
What do you see
before you? A spacious building,
beautiful to behold, surrounded by a natural environment of quiet beauty and
suburban space. But it is more
than that. As a building, it has a
history … and its history begins with a ferocious storm, of monumental proportions,
ferociously eroding coastlines, engulfing communities, disrupting accustomed
patterns of life, destroying lives and displacing peoples.
This storm –
Katrina – made the small facility the St. Tammany Parish Library used in
Madisonville unusable. The
building, on the historic registry built in 1906, had a varied history. Initially, the building was a barroom that served
sailors and ship builders connected to the then booming maritime trade in
Madisonville. About 1915, it
became a bank, which closed after an infamous robbery and then became the first
hospital in the parish. When the
hospital closed, it housed a variety of concerns - an electrical shop, an
antique store, and an art gallery. A bond issue in the 1980’s permitted the public library
system of St. Tammany to purchase and renovate the historic building and open
in 1987 as the Madisonville Branch.
It was charming but it had only 2,000 square feet, only 2 personal
computers, one laser printer and photocopier, and a small collection of books
and audio and visual DVD’s and cassettes.
But the winds of
Katrina and the waters of Lake Pontchartrain made the old library – not only
obsolete (which is was prior to Katrina} – but also much too expensive to
renovate, especially because it is on the historic registry.
BUT IF ANYONE
THINKS THAT LIBRARIES ARE NO LONGER CHERISHED, they evidently missed the outcry
from the community who just would not be deprived of a library in the heart of
its old town. Petitions,
letters-to-the-editors of local newspapers, appearances and speeches at council
meetings and library board meetings bombarded the library administration and
its Board of Control.
Opening a small
branch outside the city limits did not assuage the community of
Madisonville. The Madisonville
leaders on the parish council and in city government also felt the heat. The Board of Control could not use any
savings from its operating budget without a change in state law, which was made
possible by Tom Schedler, our present Secretary of State, who was then serving
in the state legislature. Tom got
a statute through the legislature and then the work really began.
Without Mayor
Peter Gitz, what you see now would also never have occurred. The Library had savings – as we are
good stewards of the public’s funds, but hardly enough to purchase a site to
build a state-of-the-art community library. Mayor Gitz made it possible. The town of Madisonville had a possible site for a new
library, and after considerable lobbying efforts on his part and on the part of
Madisonville residents, the St. Tammany Public Library secured the site – and
the work of choosing an architectural firm, approving a plan that the community
and the library wanted, constructing the building, and doing the myriad of
things that had to be accomplished before this ribbon cutting could occur took
place.
And here we are!
Ready to open a
state of the art library across from the Maritime Museum, a true cultural
center with unlimited possibilities.
It has been noted
by writers through the ages that libraries are much more than walls and today
they are much more than books.
Libraries are a diary of human history and repositories of culture; they
are universities without tuition, lighthouses in the great sea of time. They
offer sacred spaces for rest and peace, and at times give lifelines to those
who need a place of refuge and of hope free from the distractions that bombard
us daily. Libraries are time
capsules where past, present, and future co-mingle, and also a space ship
beckoning explorers to go to the farthest reaches of the universe. Libraries
today are also community living rooms where ideas can be tossed about, writers
can polish their craft with the feedback of other writers, newer technologies
can be mastered, and inquiries can lead to knowledge and hopefully also to
wisdom.
When you enter
the doors of this, our newest St. Tammany community library, you will be
surprised. A large technology
space to teach the latest tools of communication and research, banks of
computers, children and teen spaces, quiet study rooms and a large reading room,
soon to be named the Walker Percy Reading Room for solitary contemplation,
reading, and thought, and empty walls awaiting art to be hung. Shelves of books, of course, are there
as well as access to eBooks, DVD’s of music and visual art, audio books,
foreign language tapes.
Like the history
of the Madisonville library’s old site, it seems to recreate the past in newer
forms. It also is a bank – a
storehouse of limitless treasures; a lighthouse – beaming paths to new
discoveries; in some ways like a hospital for it is a place where creative
ideas are sparked and given birth as well as a healing place of peace and
tranquility, where our residents can be free from the distractions and
anxieties of everyday modern life.
In a way, it builds on the heritage of an electric shop for without the
tinkering of young men in garages and their circuit boards, W-Fi and computer
technology would not have been at our fingertips. And in someway it is like a
barroom – a place of levity, conversation and conviviality.
I personally
would like to publicly thank the Mayor of Madisonville, a true visionary, who
saw the connection immediately of a site that would feature both a museum and a
library together as a true cultural center. I would like to thank members of the St. Tammany Council who
gave their consent and the staff attorneys Neil Hall and Terry Hand. And also I am very pleased and proud to
thank members of the Library Board of Control – its first Vice President Becky
Taylor, its secretary Mary Renau, and the other members who saw this project
through – Silvia Muller, Barbara Morgan, John Danjean, and our former member
David Stefferou. Thanks are in
order also to our architect John Owens of Sizler, Thompson and Brown and our
contractor, Kent Construction and its Project Manager Danny Boesch,
who did a fantastic job.
Let me close with
a quote from Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss:
… in a country
where illiteracy is on the rise
And the economy
is sinking low
And chastity is
out the window
It is comforting
to know
That though the
frost is on the pumpkin
And civilization
is on the skids
You guys
(Librarians) are ferociously working underground
Smuggling books
into the hands of kids.