A Conversation with American Librarian Elizabeth Chase

Could you tell me a little bit about the Frisco Public Library (FPL) and how it is funded?  FPL is a public library, open 7 days a week. We are funded by the City of Frisco, primarily by property taxes paid by the residents of the city. We do not receive county, state, or federal […]

Could you tell me a little bit about the Frisco Public Library (FPL) and how it is funded? 
FPL is a public library, open 7 days a week. We are funded by the City of Frisco, primarily by property taxes paid by the residents of the city. We do not receive county, state, or federal funds.
In the U.S., funding systems for public libraries vary from county [like Local Government Area] to county and state to state.  Some public libraries are funded at the county or state level. The government level at which public libraries are funded generally impacts who is served by the library. For example, because FPL is funded by Frisco residents by way of their property taxes, Frisco residents are eligible for no-cost memberships.  Non-residents pay a membership fee to ensure that all members are contributing equally to the support of the library. Generally, in areas where the county funds library service, all county residents are eligible for no-charge public library service. In areas where the state funds library service, all state residents are eligible for no-charge public library service.
How many people work in your library? Do you have volunteers?
FPL has 56 employees, many part-time, for a full-time equivalent of 43.
There are many volunteer opportunities at public libraries.  At FPL, like many public libraries, we have a non-profit organization called “Friends of the Library” that raises money to supplement the library’s budget.  We use these funds to send staff to conferences, fund special projects, bring in speakers for staff development days, and purchase equipment. The Friends are also working towards a goal of raising $100,000 [around 16 million naira] for an opening-day collection for our first branch.
We also have a number of adults who volunteer at the library doing a variety of tasks: organizing books for shelving, handing out tickets for children’s programs, pulling materials for special projects, unprocessing materials removed from the collection, and other tasks. We also have a “VolunTEEN” program through which teenagers volunteer at the library to meet the service requirements of many schools.
What kind of outreach activities is the library involved in?
Public libraries take their role as literacy education centers seriously. At FPL, the entire emphasis of our programming for young children is on teaching early literacy skills – to both children and their caregivers. FPL has different story time events for babies, young toddlers, older toddlers, and preschoolers multiple times each week.  The age ranges for each group are set specifically to allow staff to target developmental stages and tailor programming to them.
FPL also has ‘English as a Second Language’ Conversation Clubs for adults trying to improve their English. Additionally, FPL serves as a digital literacy center for the community, providing a wide range of classes and one-on-one sessions teaching people how to use consumer devices (tablets and eReaders), research online (databases), and protect their privacy when using social media.
Are there special facilities for children?
The Frisco Library is a four-story building.  The entire 2nd floor is devoted to children from birth through about age 12. In addition to a collection of about 83,000 items, the floor houses interactive literacy stations (flannel board, puppet stage with puppets, and toy kitchen) to encourage play and a programming room that holds 125 people.
How many books do you have in your library? What are the most popular sorts of books?
The library collection is about 180,000 items in a variety of formats.
The first floor houses popular materials – new fiction and nonfiction books, audio books, movies, and music. The teen room (specifically for 13-18 year-olds) is also on that floor.  The second floor, which I mentioned above is for kids, has board-books, picture-books, beginning readers, biographies, nonfiction, reference materials, and fiction in a range of genres.  There are also audio-book, music, and movie collections for kids. The fourth floor has the remainder of the collection for adults. This includes biographies, nonfiction, reference, genealogy, and all fiction genres.
Could you tell me about the lifespan of a book in the library? 
The library orders new materials continually. As a populist library, FPL chooses materials to meet the specific interests of our members.  We purchase based on customer request and data analysis of which authors and subjects circulate well. Materials are withdrawn from the collection when they are worn out, outdated, or no longer being used.
Items withdrawn from the collection are donated to the Friends of the Library, which sorts through them. Many are sold in their “Book Nook” on the first floor, others are sold to a store that sells used books, and those that are too badly damaged to be sold are taken by the City’s Environmental Services department to be recycled.
What does your library do to promote knowledge about cultures of the world?
FPL, like all libraries, makes information, literature, and knowledge accessible.  Even books that we don’t own, we can borrow from other libraries through a system called Interlibrary Loan.  This expands what we can offer beyond our own holdings to include almost any item available in North America.
We also make extensive use of displays, having about a dozen displays on various topics of timely interest up around the library at any given time.
Since you’ve started working as a librarian, social media has been on the rise. Do you think the Internet is helping or hurting libraries/reading culture? Does your library loan e-books?
I’ll start with the easy one.  Yes, FPL loans eBooks.
I don’t have statistics in front of me; however, I have yet to read any study that indicates public library use is declining in the “Internet age.”  I can say that membership and circulation at FPL have risen steadily in the past nine years.
Are the Internet and social media helping or hurting libraries and reading culture? [Our old professor]  Samuel Smith would say to beware of false dichotomies!  I do wonder if there’s some validity to the concerns about peoples’ attention spans getting shorter, not wanting to read past the sound bite, as a result of the increasing use of short-format communication online. On the other hand, I think libraries are becoming more social media savvy – using the platforms to extend their services to populations that might not otherwise think to use them.  FPL uses social media extensively for publicity and community building.
As a parent, what do you do to interest your child in books?
Probably the most important thing is that my husband and I both love to read – and do read – a lot.  We read for our own pleasure and instruction and we read to our son. Reading is a warm, loving, cuddly time that our son enjoys, and we enjoy with him. Making the reading experience fun is crucial in raising a reader.
What are some of your favourite books? Children’s books?
You should know better than to ask a librarian for a few favorite books! There are too many to list, but I’ll name two series that I love and don’t receive their due in critical or popular acclaim: The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner and The Moosepath League series by Van Reid.
A few of the picture-books that my husband Tim and I enjoy reading to our 3 1/2 year old son as much as he likes having them read to him include: Stanley’s Wild Ride by Linda Bailey, The Web Files by Margie Palatini, Moose Tracks by Karma Wilson, Henry and the Cow Problem by Iona Wishaw
Thank you, Elizabeth!