Summary:
Mary McCosker, a Lafayette native, was interviewed by Georgi McLain on June 24, 2009. She had been involved with the project to build the new Lafayette Library and Learning Center–which was on track to open 5 months later–for many years at that point. She recalls in this interview that Lafayette’s out-dated current library had opened in 1962, right at the time when she received her first driver’s license. She was already an avid reader. Mary looks back on a dozen years of committee meetings and planning sessions, involving many highly-talented and hard-working individuals, as they collectively guided the project all the way through from the earliest surveys of need to site selection, planning the building itself, and fundraising. She was excited about all the ways in which the library was designed to function as a hub for a wide variety of community activities as well as a resource for learning and recreational reading. She was also pleased that two organizations which she had been closely involved with, the Lafayette Historical Society and Book Sales Room, were going to have their own space in the new library.
Oral History:
Georgi McClain: Okay, is it recording?
Mary McCosker: It sounds like it is.
GM: Okay, we are at this interview with Mary McCosker, and it is the 29th today.
MM: 24th.
GM: It is the 24th today.
MM: Don’t make my summer go any faster.
GM: Okay, okay. I’m going to start. If you have anything you want to, you know about this, so if you have anything you want to add or expand, please feel free to. Okay, first, best childhood memories of libraries.
MM: Well, I know we went to the library, and I, because, I mean, I remember vaguely. It’s funny, the library is not something that’s vivid in my memory. I remember when they built the library, the current library, that opened in 1962, because I was in high school, and I think I had just gotten my license but I can’t actually remember being in the library. I just remember wanting to go to the library and use the car. But I know, I mean, I was an avid reader. My bedroom had a walk-in closet with a light in it, and I can remember getting in trouble because I would sit in the closet at night and read after I was supposed to be in bed. So I must have, my dad was a teacher, and so I know he didn’t have lots of disposable income. So I’m sure we went to the library, and in fact, in the Historical Society archives, there are two binders with typed lists of people who had library cards with their addresses, and that was their kind of reference book, I guess. And I know I found our name in there. But I can’t, I don’t have any particular memory, I just know we use the library.
GM: It was part of your life.
MM: Yep.
GM: Yeah.
MM: How interesting, I can remember hiding under the covers.
GM: With a flashlight.
MM: With a flashlight.
GM: Right. So that describes how important reading was to you growing up. Do you remember any of your favorite books?
MM: Well, I know I read the Nancy Drews. I read a lot of sports things. I was a tomboy, and so I think I read a lot of Chip Hilton sports stories and historical things as I got older. I still am a really voracious reader. I love to read. Every day I read for some period of time.
GM: Good.
MM: Every night.
GM: Good.
MM: Until I can’t keep awake any longer. But I just enjoy reading more than watching television, because, you know, it’s just, it’s just, I like holding that book in my hand and reading.
GM: Yes.
MM: Yes.
GM: Where did you grow up?
MM: Lafayette.
GM: Yes.
MM: California.
GM: Were you born here?
MM: Well, I was born in Berkeley, but I was here a couple days later.
GM: Yeah.
MM: Yeah, yeah.
GM: So, wow, you’ve seen so many.
MM: Yeah, but you know, I can’t remember everything. I didn’t appreciate it. I wish I had looked at it through different eyes growing up. I could have met Jennie Bickerstaff. She was alive when I was a teenager, but I never realized.
GM: Why would you, yeah.
MM: So, sort of regret.
GM: Okay, so that takes care of, but awareness of community. Although you, your family was involved in the community, wasn’t it?
MM: Sort of.
GM: As a teacher.
MM: I mean, my dad taught at Acalanes until 1959, and then he went into Berkeley to Cal. But I just found out, I found out, I found out, the Friends have, in the back room at the library, there is a closet with a file in it. And somehow, in going through those files, my mom had been president of the Friends of the Library in 1973. Now, I didn’t know that. I was teaching in Moraga, and I don’t think I was aware of that. But, for so, and she was on the Friends board, so that was really surprising to me. And now she has Alzheimer’s, so I can’t ask her any questions, which is too bad.
GM: No, no.
MM: I would have loved to talk to her about it.
GM: Yes. Isn’t it, yeah, you get so involved in your own life.
MM: Well, I think I was just getting married the next year, and I think, you know, I didn’t pay much attention. And plus, I had a job, and I was busy, sort of enmeshed in that community.
GM: Oh, yeah. And you had to be totally, totally enmeshed.
MM: I had two school board, in my first year of teaching, two school board members’ children in my class, both of whom have become very close friends over the years.
GM: Oh, that’s good.
MM: So, it was nice, but, you know, there was a little pressure. Yep.
GM: No, no, no. Okay, so, we talked a little bit about work experiences, education.
MM: I went through schools in Lafayette, Acalanes, and I went to Cal and got my credential there, and that’s about, that’s it.
GM: Yeah, good. Okay. As an adult, what were your early community experiences? Well, if you were teaching.
MM: Right, I was in Moraga, and then when I was, when we got married, we moved to Lafayette in 1974, a lot of house, and then I had kids, and so I took a leave of absence from Moraga for a year, and never went back, but then when my kids were in nursery school, at the Lafayette nursery school, then I was very involved with the nursery school for about seven years, and then, but I also worked at Happy Valley. I was the SIP coordinator at Happy Valley. In fact, I still sort of am.
GM: Yeah.
MM: I mean, I’ve done that for 30 years, just kind of on the periphery of Happy Valley.
GM: Wow.
MM: You know, I’m on the School Site Council, and I take minutes for the meetings now, but I don’t run the meetings anymore. I used to for years.
GM: Yeah.
MM: And then I got involved on the School Board, and I did that for a few years, and sort of just got, you know, little things would come along, and I would get involved in them.
GM: Mm-hmm.
MM: So, the Historical Society and things like that.
GM: Interesting. Interesting. This question.
MM: Mm-hmm.
GM: Defining the goals of the community as a place of mutual support, shared values, and acceptance of difference. Difference says it. How do you see Lafayette meeting these goals?
MM: Well, I think, I think people who live here have high expectations. I mean, that’s why they pay so much for houses. I think education is kind of the core of it. We have some diversity. Probably not as much as would be nice, but, you know, it’s an economic factor sometimes. I’d like to think that Lafayette has something for anybody who lives here. I think that’s what’s going to be nice about the new library, is it’s for everyone. You don’t have to belong. You don’t have to pay membership fees. You don’t have to, you know, drive a fancy car. You don’t have to have gone to any particular educational institution.
GM: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
MM: It’s just going to be there for everyone to use. And I think that’s really important. It’s free.
GM: That’s great. Can you think about it?
MM: I mean, Lafayette, Lafayette, in some ways, can be a little snobby. People have, I think, parents have sometimes unreasonable expectations about education and what the community should provide for their children. Sometimes they kind of defer to schools for things that parents should be doing, I think. But the library’s kind of a nice, positive, neutral place for anybody and everybody.
GM: I think neutral’s interesting. That’s interesting. Because I think it is descriptive.
MM: Huh?
GM: Yes.
MM: Yeah.
GM: Um, we talked about your earliest memories of the Lafayette Library, because you remembered when the…
MM: The current one.
GM: Yeah, that one was open. How often do you personally use the Lafayette Library?
MM: A lot. I mean, it was funny, I was interviewing Mary Ann Hoisington, and she, she’s on the Library Board with me.And she and her husband don’t use the library very much because she buys books.
GM: Mm.
MM: But I, I check them out. I go online, I reserve them, they send them over from wherever. I use the library a lot. I find an author I like and I read her out. I’m a bit of a fan of romance novels.
GM: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
MM: No, I love it. I mean, not the really trashy ones, but just the sort of historical ones. There are certain authors that I like.
GM: I don’t know the trashy ones.
MM: I don’t know, but I’ve been reading a lot of Barbara Taylor Bradford lately.
GM: Yeah, yeah.
MM: And I just, I just sort of love the familial, the families and things.
GM: Yes, yes.
MM: It’s just, it’s just escape reading. But it’s interesting, and it gives you some information about time periods and things. We must have gone to the old library because I was born in 46, so there had to be that, in that little cottage.
GM: Right.
MM: But I don’t remember that, I remember the little cottage in Moraga before they built their current library, but I don’t remember it. It’s so weird because you’d think I would have a memory of that, but I do not.
GM: I don’t know. You go into a room, when you’re young, you just get there, you don’t pay attention to that outside of the building.
MM: Right, right. But I can’t remember the inside. I can’t remember if I had a library card. It’s really funny because I usually remember a lot, but…
GM: I don’t know if they had library cards for kids then.
MM: Or maybe my mother had a library card. I don’t know. I don’t know.
GM: Yeah.
MM: Selective memory.
GM: Okay. And we talked a little bit about how you feel a library serves a community.
MM: Uh-huh.
GM: Have you been involved in the library? We also talked about how you’ve been involved in the community.
MM: Well, when I was on the School Board, towards the end, there is a position on our board that is the liaison between the schools and the library. And so, I think we took turns, you know, the board members took turns being on different committees. And so sometimes you’d be the LASF rep, and sometimes you’d be the library person.
GM: Uh-huh.
MM: And so I went, I sat on the Friends Board as a representative of the School Board. Um, and so that’s how I first got on that board. And then I was on that board for, well, let’s see, I’ve probably been on that board for ten years or so now.
GM: Wow.
MM: Yeah. Um, but once you get on that board, you sort of, I’ve been the liaison, I’ve been the Vice President, I’ve been the President. Now I’m sort of the volunteer, sort of nebulous volunteer person as we redefine what we’re doing.
GM: I think you need someone that has a history within that organization.
MM: Well, it’s fun, and I, you know, there are lots of groups I belong to, a lot of different boards, but I wouldn’t be on any of them if they weren’t interesting to me.
GM: Mm-hmm.
MM: I mean, I have, I have enough to do.
GM: Yeah.
MM: So, but I really enjoy the friends, I enjoy the people. It’s a really interesting group of dedicated people who have very, I mean, right in your
area here, you know, Gayla Manning and Sally Bellenger.
GM: Mm-hmm.
MM: I mean, we’re getting ready to move the Book Room in the Fall. So we’re starting to make our game plan for that.
GM: Yeah, I’ve got to, I said I would volunteer to help, because that’s going to be huge.
MM: Well, we’re getting a moving company, I think, hiring a moving company who specifically moves a certain way. They put books on a moveable shelf, wheel them in the truck, wheel them out, and then they’ll put some, put them back on the shelf. So it’s not like boxing books and then saying, oh my God, where do these go?
GM: Yeah.
MM: So, but it’s, it’s, it’s interesting. I’m sorry, I keep digressing.
GM: No, no, it’s perfectly fine. Okay. What other community, we have talked about other community events and projects and organizations, and we’ve talked about, and we’ve talked about, the history of, of, of, the sixty-two library. Do you remember in the sixty-two library, um, anything about the community response? Your mom was, was involved, and how was money raised, or?
MM: I, kind of, mmm, I know about the first library. I only know the, the history of the libraries because the Historical Society has, you know, I’ve done some research, but, no I don’t.
GM: Yeah.
MM: I know how the first library was, no, maybe that was Town Hall. No, maybe it was the library. But I don’t really know how this one that we currently have, the old, the sixty-two one, I don’t know much about the funding. I know that, I have some pictures, I have that, of the, of the dedication, with Jennie Bickerstaff there and her husband.
GM: Yes.
MM: But I don’t really know much about that. No. Not from a personal point of view. I don’t know that mom got involved, um, right away.
GM: I just don’t want to interrupt us. Um, it’s just going to be ringing. Okay. Okay, let’s see. Why did, now I have no idea about this. Why did they change the name from Library Association to Friends of the Library?
MM: I have no idea. My guess would be that, that is more of a generic term that seems to be used everywhere. So maybe it’s, I know there’s a group called Falusa, Friends of the Library of the USA.
GM: Hmm.
MM: And I know that that’s a big group that we belong to, the Friends belongs to–It’s a sort of national group. I don’t know why that name was changed. It’s a good question.
GM: That makes sense.
MM: Yeah.
GM: What you’re talking about makes sense if you’re going to belong to a national organization. Um, okay.
MM: You know what, it had to have been, because I think when my mom was on it, it was still the Library Association.
GM: Mm-hmm.
MM: So I bet if we read through the minutes we could find it, but when they changed it.
GM: Okay.
MM: I can find it out.
GM: Um, who were involved in the 1996 study, and what were the results of this study? What did the, what did responders want? Uh, now this is talking about the 2008 Library, and it started…
MM: Is this Vision 2000, or is this before Vision 2000?
GM: Um, it says, okay, how did vision evolve into a real plan? Who was on the Vision Task Force?
MM: Well, I know Anne Grodin was very involved at the very, very beginning. And I know she wasn’t the only one, I just happened to know that she was involved. There were people who, I think, started to talk about a new library. Bob Fisher might have been involved in that, and then it evolved. In about 2000, I was on some study group that met at the Community Center several, many times, to talk about the new library, and they did a lot of, they had people from different venues in the community, talking about, did we need a library? What would it be like? I remember there was one gentleman named Walt Lautenberg, who has gone to his great reward, who felt that libraries were obsolete, that they were going to have books on tape, and all this stuff, or not books on tape, but you know, the internet would make libraries obsolete, you know, and he was just adamant that we were silly to spend this much money on a library. It’s probably good that he’s gone now, because he’d die if he could have seen the scope of this one.
GM: Oh my gosh, that’s amazing.
MM: But it was something that had its germ, you know, the germination of it. The seeds were planted really early, and it took a really long time before, you know, then Roger Falcone thought we should do this Consortium thing. I mean, there was a lot of people in the community who added detail.
GM: Good ideas.
MM: Yeah. Really good ideas. Yeah.
GM: Because it wouldn’t be if it was just going to be a place to house books.
MM: No, and we wouldn’t have received that state bond money, so we would be, I mean, maybe the scope wouldn’t have been as much, but the fundraising would be daunting to have had to raise another $11, $12 million.
GM: God, that’s amazing. That’s amazing. Um, okay, apparently the study started in 96.
MM: Uh-huh.
GM: So this has been going on for like 14 years, 15 years.
MM: Yeah, it went on a long time. I think it was initially, I mean, it became apparent, I think, that at some point in the future a new library was going to be necessary, because the one we have doesn’t serve the community, it’s too small. So I think there was some talk about, let’s build a new library, um, what do we want it to have, or first of all, should we build a new library, I would guess, and then when we sort of came to the consensus that we were going to build a new library, then what should it be like, and how, where would it be? I remember going and visiting sites in Lafayette.There was the site at the corner of Moraga Road and St. Mary’s there. Um, that was a big, that big lot.
GM: That’s it, I remember that. I remember them talking about that.
MM: There was the current site, but then they also talked about the, across the street from where the new library is in those, where all those old apartments that are now businesses are, they had talked about building it there.
GM: Yeah.
MM: Um, there were, there were several different possible venues, um, so that kind of all had to be, and then of course, Russ Bruzzone owned that corner lot, and you know, I don’t think he was going to sell, so.
GM: But wasn’t that the Veterans, the old Veterans?
MM: Well, we’re in the site of the old Veterans now.
GM: Yeah, yeah.
MM: But across the street, now, if you go down on Golden Gate, down at the bottom of the hill there, where First Street and Golden Gate intersect, it looks like an old apartment complex.
GM: Oh yeah, that’s where I get my hair cut. Hair cut, yeah, yeah, yeah.
MM: Well, they talked about taking that over, but then they would have had to displace so many businesses.
GM: Oh yeah.
MM: It would have been very expensive to do that, so. The vets, and then they had the whole deal with the vets, where if they used that site, then the vets were going to have to be moved somewhere, um, and so, but then they couldn’t just be booted out.
GM: No.
MM: So they had to sort of build that other building first.
GM: Which they like, I think.
MM: Which, oh yeah, it’s great. Yeah. Making a lot of money for them.
GM: Good.
MM: Charged exorbitant rates, but. Good. Yeah.
GM: So, but it’s used a lot.
MM: Yeah.
GM: Isn’t that interesting?
MM: Uh-huh.
GM: Um, and then we’ve answered or talked about the idea of the Learning Center Consortium. What do you think created the change from the limited number of people named as contributors to the larger group that came forward? It says, okay, how did the vision evolve into a real-up plan? And what do you think created the change from a limited number of people named as contributors to the larger group that came forward? Because I think almost everybody has donated some money.
MM: Well, only about 20% of the people in Lafayette have given money.
GM: Really?
MM: For the library. We have some real significant, you know, major donors. People who have given a million dollars.
GM: Oh, my gosh.
MM: Not me, but.
GM: Oh, my gosh.
MM: But I just think there are people who realize how important the library is. And the people who have been doing the fundraising are extremely good at what they do. They’ve done a lot of fundraising for other groups before. And they know who to talk to. They know how to make their sales pitch.
GM: Yeah.
MM: I mean, we are so fortunate in this community to have the level of people.
GM: Uh-huh.
MM: We have, um, I take minutes for the Board of Trustees for the Library.
GM: Uh-huh.
MM: I’m not on the board. But part of the requirement for being on the board is that, you know, you also fundraise. But it’s incredible the backgrounds of these people, the caliber of these people.
GM: Wow.
MM: We’re so lucky in this community to have such a talent pool.
GM: Yeah.
MM: I mean, not just.
GM: Yeah.
MM: I mean, you see at the schools, too.
GM: Yeah.
MM: You have people who you hire as aides who have, you know, teaching credentials.
GM: Yeah.
MM: Or a college diploma. You know, other places there’s people that, you know, barely got out of high school.
GM: Yeah.
MM: I mean, we just have a very highly educated, talented community. And there’s a real spirit of volunteerism. And I think the nice thing about a library is that it isn’t like a health club or, um, it’s something that everyone benefits from.
GM: Yes.
MM: And so everyone is interested in it.
GM: And as you said, it’s free.
MM: It’s free.
GM: So you’re not limited.
MM: No. And now we’re going to have, you know, it’s going to be more than a library. That’s what’s going to be exciting.
GM: It’s going to be amazing.
MM: Yep.
GM: It’s going to be incredible.
MM: I mean, I’ve already been in it one time, quite a long time ago. But just to look up in that main library thing and see those beams that come down.
GM: Oh, yeah.
MM: And it’s just spectacular. But I’m planning to spend, you know, a lot of time. Plus the Historical Society is going to have an office.
GM: Which they should.
MM: Now, we’ve never had one before.
GM: Yeah.
MM: So we’re excited. We’re also having to move all that stuff.
GM: Yeah.
MM: Put it somewhere. Get it organized. But, and the Friends Book Room is going to move there. So it’ll be, though.
GM: That will be super.
MM: The hub of the community. It really will.
GM: Oh, I think that’s great. You know, I’m excited.
MM: And we’re getting close now, too.
GM: Yeah.
MM: Yeah.
GM: So November? Five months.
MM: Yeah, five months.
GM: Okay. Let’s see. Okay. Why is the new library important to you? Why did you want to participate in its development? We sort of have talked about this because you have been very involved.
MM: Well, a lot of groups I’m involved in are involved in the library, so it makes sense.
GM: And how did you first get involved? We talked about that. What have you enjoyed the most in participating?
MM: I think just working with a whole different bunch of people.
GM: Mm-hmm. Yeah, meeting as you were talking about.
MM: The Historical Society is people, a lot of them on our board. Nancy Flood is on our board. She and I are sort of the younger ones. But there’s people who are like my parents’ age. Do you know Marechal Duncan?
GM: Oh, I interviewed him.
MM: Marechal is so wonderfully charming. And Doris.
GM: Yes, darling people.
MM: It’s just, the thing about the library is it’s brought people together in this community all ages, all backgrounds, for sort of a common goal. But it’s been wonderful. I think just getting to know more people, and everyone’s so passionate about this. That’s what’s really been fun. It’s kind of unified the community, I think, over one positive entity.
GM: I think that you need a unifying force like that.
MM: I mean, so many communities have something that divides the community.
GM: Or they’re just physically so far apart. They don’t look at anything. Okay. Who have you observed making a real impact on any particular personalities that stood out? And we’ve talked about…
MM: Well, Anne Grodin, for sure. And Bob Fisher, who lives in Orinda now, but he was on the City Council initially, one of the early guys. He was a big help at the very beginning. Certainly Don Tatzin. I mean, Don has been so involved in this. Kathy Merchant now has taken…She’s the President of the Foundation. And she’s such a talented woman. Worked so well with people.And so she’s kind of kept that financial ball rolling.
GM: Wow.
MM: And the government’s part of the new library. Linda Peterson, who lives right over here on Reed Drive, she’s moving to Portland. And it will be a huge loss for our community. She, by trade, does advertising for a lot of non-profits. So that beautiful mini-case that came, “Imagine a Place” with a picture of Marechal in it and all those. She did that. We have so much talent.
GM: Yeah.
MM: But just…And then there’s the people who work at the Book Room.
GM: Oh.
MM: And they go down there and they sort books.
GM: Yes.
MM: Joan Merryman was so wonderful for all those years. And now Sally Bellenger, and Sharon Lingain is going to be taking it over from Sally.
GM: Ah.
MM: Sally wants to work there. She doesn’t want to be in charge anymore. And Sharon is excellent. The Friends Board. You know, the Historical Society. You know, LASF will be there.
GM: They will?
MM: They’re going to have their office in the building as well.
GM: How smart.
MM: So everybody’s going to be… It’s going to be sort of one-stop shopping.
GM: That is so smart.
MM: So yeah, I can… And there will be a cafe, hopefully.
GM: Mm-hmm.
MM: So you can get your cup of coffee.
GM: Mm-hmm.
MM: You can check out some books. You can stop by the Book Room and buy some books.
GM: Yeah.
MM: You can go over if the Historical Society is open and do a little research on something. I mean, it’s just going to be a neat place.
GM: Fantastic. Okay. We’ve talked about a lot of these. Best memories of involvement. What values did this contribution touch in you? Okay. Wait. Yes. Okay. We’ve talked about the transformation that you’ve seen in Lafayette regarding the new library.
MM: I think it’s been neat because there are so many young people, so many parents of elementary school kids who, these incredible women that Linda Peterson calls the Tsarinas, who have stepped forward. I mean, I think a lot of people in Lafayette, women especially, have had these careers.
GM: Yes.
MM: I mean, high-powered careers. Like Glenn Lennox. And then they have children and they stay home.
GM: Mm-hmm.
MM: But they still have all this talent. And they want to.
GM: Yeah.
MM: They want to have their brain. So rather than hire a consultant, we’ve just drafted one out of our ranks. And so, but it’s, as they say, it’s been a, it’s been a, you know, they’re going to have a youth campaign now. And there are kids are going to, the kids are collecting books and they’re going to sell them at the Art & Wine. There’s a whole bunch of little children’s fundraising things that are going on.
GM: That’s very good.
MM: So that everybody feels that they’ve made a contribution to this new library, however big or small.
GM: And I think it’s wonderful to get kids involved in contributing.
MM: Right. Because then you have a little ownership of it.
GM: Mm-hmm. Okay. You’ve answered a lot of these ideas, words, activities. Why do you think the citizens of Lafayette responded? Okay. What outcome do you hope for most with the new library? We talked about what you look forward to using, doing, enjoying the most.
MM: Mm-hmm. I look forward to just standing in there and just, I mean, it’s almost sort of like a church.
GM: Mm-hmm.
MM: I mean, there’s so much. Our library staff is so incredible.
GM: Oh, yes.
MM: I mean, we are so fortunate to have Susan Weaver.
GM: Oh my gosh, yes.
MM: And Robi, and Donna, and then the people that work there. I mean, it’s such a helpful group. They deserve a new space.
GM: Won’t that be exciting for them?
MM: We have this running little joke, you know, they have on the wall the plans of the staff area.
GM: Mm-hmm.
MM: So Susan and Donna and I have added some sticky notes. We’re going to have the spa and the wine bar. And then we have the cabana boy quarters and a massage table. Susan’s always horrified that I’m going to say something to Anne Cain, but I think Anne Cain would get the biggest kick out of it.
GM: She would.
MM: But we’re doing an RFP, a request for proposal, to hire the cabana boy. So we want pictures in Speedos, so we have more fun. But they are such a good group, and they’re so, Susan is so incredibly intelligent. I mean, she’s articulate, she’s well organized, she’s done these volunteer, you know, write-ups for volunteers and training and all this stuff. But, you know, it’s just going to be an exciting hub of our community.
GM: Oh, yes. You know, librarians know more than anybody.
MM: She’s somebody that, she’s not the old shhhhhh kind of librarian. She’s gracious, she’s so smart.
GM: She certainly is personable.
MM: And her staff, too. I mean, everybody in that library that works there, the volunteers, I mean, you know, Gladys from the Book Room, who stocks those shelves of paperbacks you can buy.
GM: Yeah, yeah.
MM: And that makes a goodly amount of money every month for the Friends.
GM: I could not believe how much they contributed.
MM: The Friends?
GM: The Friends.
MM: Well, and Joan Merryman and a group, 50 cents a book. So we got it up to a million now.
GM: Think, think, how much money?
MM: I don’t know how many books over the years. I think Joan had a vision, too. Now Joan’s vision wasn’t, she wasn’t real pleased when it became the Consortium and the library got so big. That was not her thing. But she really believed that we needed a new library and that this was, she really worked. I mean, that was an awful lot of sorting and pricing and selling and book sales.
GM: Oh my gosh.
MM: It’s amazing.
GM: Yeah.
MM: And that was mostly Joan to begin with.
GM: Wow.
MM: I know. We’re fortunate that there’s people like that in our community who believe in something and they just do it.
GM: Okay. This question we have talked about earlier, it was said the internet would kill the printed word and libraries would become obsolete. How will our new library avoid such a fate?
MM: Well, there’s some books I’ve read and then there’s been little sequels that the author has. So for $1.99 you can’t buy them, but you can download them on your computer. So I did that. And so it isn’t the same thing sitting in bed with your laptop on your lap, snuggled down, reading something, there’s a different, there’s a tactile pleasure of sitting there and holding a book and then the phone rings and you put a bookmark in and you go to cook dinner. But it’s always there waiting. And it’s almost like sometimes I have this feeling that I’m so excited, I just want to keep reading to the end, but I don’t want to read because I don’t want it to end. It’s weird, but I just, it’s something about the power of a book.
GM: I agree with you. I was talking to somebody whose mother’s vision is going and talking about those Kindles.
MM: Right, right. Kindle.
GM: Kindle. That’s what it is. Wondering if it would help her vision being able to magnify the print and stuff. It would, and apparently people use them on BART, I would not want to have, I want a book.
MM: You can get from, you can, there’s a library from the State of California that can send you books on tape and they have catalogs. And I know one of my neighbors does that. So that you can have a book read to you. It’s not the same, but it’s not like, then you don’t miss out.
GM: Yeah, we’re going to be….. my sister-in-law’s mother.
MM: That would be really a hard thing for me. Because I could see myself not being able to walk very well.
GM: Oh yeah.
MM: But I could still, as long as I can read.
GM: Or even be able to hear well.
MM: Right. You don’t have to be able to hear to read.
GM: Yeah.
MM: I know, I hope that makes you wonder, you know, if your mind’s going to go or if your body’s going to go. I hope it’s my body first because I want to be able to hold that book still.
GM: Yeah, yeah.
MM: No, it’s just something. It’s just something to read. Right.
GM: Okay. I think we’re, do you want to add anything? Is it through?
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