Believe it or not, there is another election underway — under the radar — the Library Board, and one of the two trustee positions is even contested!
As I predicted when the decision was made to move the election from January to a Monday at the end of October, the library election becomes swallowed up in the Sturm und Drang of the general election.
We are still feeling the effects of a turbulent period on the library board, though it has just about abated, with the most major issues (rebuilding Main, hiring director) settled.
The library is looking to a bright future, yet there are still major challenges — philosophical and practical — that confront all society’s institutions, the public library being no exception.
As coincidence would have it, the election takes place the day after the official opening of the Main Library building after two years of construction (it was supposed to take one).
Varda Solomon, who has served on the board for eight years worked extremely hard on the myriad details — big and small — that surrounded the planning, financing, construction and ultimately reopening of the Main Library, the relocation of Station, the refurbishments of Parkville and Lakeville, and hiring of key personnel including a new director, even more so than a typical library trustee should have had to do.
And while Varda Solomon deserves to relish these considerable achievements, the hard work is not over.
Indeed, as she noted in her remarks, the Library is at a crossroads.
“This is a critical time in shaping how this building is going to be used — a library is a community space, it should appeal to all parts of the community.
We need to fill with activities and programs important to different segments of the community.”
While she clearly has an understanding, an appreciation and a sensitivity to where our library system should go, her opponent, Douglas (Gee-Kang) Hwee of New Hyde Park, seems to have woken up one day and decided that what would be nice is to be a library trustee.
His preparation so far has consisted of reading minutes of meetings — he has not actually attended any, not even the budget workshops — and seems clueless how hard our library trustees work for the community’s benefit.
He doesn’t show any understanding or sensitivity to the wider community.
As he said, his experience derives from having been a volunteer firefighter and having three children who utilize the library.
His big plan for the library is to increase technology — so that people don’t even have to come in to attend programs, but can watch from home.
He also raised as his No. 1 priority security and said would introduce security cameras, raising the troubling specter of a pedophile sitting at a computer at Parkville — but missed the meeting the night before where the Board approved a contract for security cameras.
“I’ve only been able to review minutes because of my busy schedule,” he said. “Time managing with family, kids, work…Going forward, if elected, I will find the time.”
Hwee’s candidacy would be more compelling if there were a need to replace a trustee who was not up to the task, but that is not the case here.
Varda Solomon deserves to keep her seat on the board because she has been one of the best trustees the library has ever had.
She has proved conscientious, hardworking, knowledgeable, and, importantly, a conciliator.
She has proved reasonable, open to suggestions, and has the best feel for where the community’s sensibilities and needs lay.
But we will have new blood on the Library board and gosh are we fortunate:
Rebecca T. Miller, who is uncontested to take the seat being vacated by long-time trustee Josie Pizer (who deserves the community’s appreciation for all her work), comes with extraordinary credentials: she not only holds a MS in library and information science, but her career has been spent as editorial director of the Library-Journal and School Library Journal, and though she has been a Great Neck resident for only a year, she is a past trustee of the Floyd Memorial Library (Greenport) and is a co-creator and committee member of the New York Library Association’s Sustainability Initiative.
There is probably no one who has the best understanding of the trends and challenges facing public libraries nationally and even internationally.
“Philosophically, I feel that libraries are the ultimate shared resource – our communities built these resources,” Miller said at the Library’s Candidates Night. “Every person in the community should get something from it, and the library should be an accelerator for everyone in the community. It should gear services appropriately to a community’s needs. Local influence is what shapes library. No one library is exactly like the other — local is important.”
Also on the ballot: Patrick McDonnell, an attorney who resides in New Hyde Park, who is uncontested to join the Library’s nominating committee.
