I
t is fantastic to see so many people here today. I know that you’re here because you love this library. I hear it all the time and it always makes my day when people say to me, “I love this library. This is such a great library.” Part of my job is saying, “Thank you” to these compliments and part of it is thinking about the question these compliments demand: “What makes a library great?” The people who created modern librarianship had a phrase that helped them answer this question: the spirit of inquiry. It’s what they directed us to inspire within you and it’s what they taught library workers to steward within ourselves. The spirit of inquiry means approaching people and ideas with generosity and discernment. It means, and I’m quoting the poet John O’Donohue here, doing two things: reading books that “stretch your boundaries” and engaging in truly great conversations – conversations that are more than what O’Donohue referred to as “intersecting monologues” – conversations in which you really learn about someone else and, ideally, learn about yourself. The spirit of inquiry also involves asking difficult and sometimes uncomfortable questions. So I’ll ask an uncomfortable question. Why did we do this? I’ll phrase that a bit more clearly: Why did we ask you to reimagine the second floor? We were already the busiest municipal library in New Jersey. We could already demonstrate sky-high circulation for the library’s collection of books and movies and music. The number and quality of programs we offer, and the attendance at those programs, is off the charts. We already have more cardholders than residents. This was already a beautiful building, a cherished resource, our community’s living room. Then why ask you to spend months without access to the second floor? Why ask donors to commit millions to this project?