Nazareth is one of many tiny boroughs that give the Lehigh Valley its real cultural identity. Founded by the Moravians in 1740, when Councilman Larry Stoudt was still a young man, the place just breathes history ... and Moravian sugarcake. That food, sinful as it may sound, must have an effect on the population. You see, Nazareth probably has the highest per capita percentage of hot blonds in the state. I was taking pictures of a few of them for this blog until the police came and confiscated my camera. They probably don't know I'm a citizen journalist. Fortunately, I have another one. Nazareth is covered by several blogs. One of them, NewsOverCoffee, is a hyper local place blog published by Ross Nunamaker, son of the famous wrestling coach. It's designed to inform readers, in a relatively neutral way, about everything that's going on in this small but vibrant community with links to news accounts as well as original material.
And then there's me. We have slightly different styles. I think he's too damn opinionated.
Well, Ross has been all over the big Nazareth Library story. The story was first broken by The Express Times (read it here) and involves a 7-year old Tatamy boy with an Easton mailing address who was issued a Palmer Township library card that inadvertently authorized its use in Nazareth, where this boy goes to school. Unfortunately, the kid was photographed leading some kazoo parade for young readers in Nazareth, and some librarian somewhere (not Nazareth) took it upon herself to call the boy's mother and leave a message telling her the jig was up.
The young man was crushed and, after the Express Times ran its story, a Nazareth librarian called the boy to say he could use the library until the end of the year. That's very nice of them.
I'm a regular customer at the Nazareth Library, stopping there at least once every week. On one of my visits, I asked a librarian what was going on.
"You read about it in the paper, didn't you?"
"Yes'm."
"Well, then I guess you know the story."
I think they were feeling a little guilty.
Now, I think they're mad. The Colbert Report did a searing spoof about this "library crime" crackdown. "I'd say throw the book at that kid, but he'd just read it."
Instead of laughing along, Nazareth library is furious. Ross has linked to a letter from library board president John Reinhart, who initially refused to discuss this matter when approached by The Express Times. Now, he posts a letter on the library's web page. Reinhart blames The Express Times, the Colbert Report and claims nobody knows what they're talking about. Then he goes on to demand that we all read Animal Farm or 1984.
"Some libraries are more equal than others."
24 comments:
Seven year-olds who read may eventually become pain-in-the-ass bloggers. Best to nip the reading thing in the bud.
"Methinks Reinhart doth protest too much."
That's quite a rambling emotional letter. It reminds me of a letter you would write to your girlfriend in college late at night in your dorm after a few beers because she dumped you after catching you with another girl.
I don't understand the Animal Farm comparison....who are the pigs and who are the humans?
Toga! Toga! Toga!
Oh, wait... that's Animal House.
Bernie, I got lost in the conundrum, since when is John Reinhart, president of the Nazareth Library, he is superintendent at Bangor, Nazareth would chase him out with a stick or did I miss something?
Give the kid an 'inner-library card' and avoid the whole thing. Keep him busy reading books before he figures out how to access the library computers to go online and read blogs. Hey, it's still cheaper to give him a card then build him a playground!
:-)
Carol, My guess is that Reinhart lives around Nazareth and not in the bangor School District. Library Bd Prez is a volunteer position.
Different John Reinhart.
Library funding is complicated, and I can't blame people for missing the issue, which is that Tatamy has been asked and asked to join the Nazareth Library and just won't. Instead of chipping in what the other municipalities pay, they want a sweetheart deal in which they would only pay based on the number of residents who actual get a library card. That may sound reasonable on the surface, but it's really a model for a fee-based library," not a public library for which the entire community shares the cost (like public schools, which are funded by all residents whether they have kids or not). It's not a tenable model. Libraries would close down under that formula.
I agree that the board president's letter was emotional and not helpful, PR-wise. I would have let the matter die a natural death. But it must be so frustrating to be attacked they way they have. Their policy is completely fair. If they were to grant library cards to Tatamy residents under Tatamy's terms, I bet residents of the other municipalities would be mighty ticked off.
The Colbert Report is incredibly funny and is not supposed to be objective and certainly not factual! But the Express-Times is only unintentionally funny, and they are supposed to be objective, but they've really been reporting this as if a mean library is gunning for an adorable kid, and that's not true.
Adorable Dominick can use the Easton Area Public Library, which as a district center gets extra funding and therefore has a bigger collection than Nazareth, and has crackerjack children's services.
I'm a librarian and an advocate for open borrowing and customer-oriented policies, but I also understand that libraries cost money, and they have to be funded fairly. Tatamy needs to show that they truly valuable libraries, by coughing up their share of the dough.
Why doesn't Norco have a county-wide library system? Here in Delaware County, you can walk into any library in the county and check out a book and then return it at your local library or you can request an inter library loan. They have a van that makes rounds between each of the libraries every day.
That's a good question, and I'll try to get an answer.
Here's the $64,000 question - who is the maroon from Palmer Township who ratted out a little kid for being in a library???
The Banker
Another good question.
The library used to allow you to pay for membership if you lived in a non-participating municipality. The stopped it in an effort to strongarm those municipalities into funding.
Maybe time to revisit that policy?
Nonresidents who are willing to pay should be permitted to participate. in the case of young Dominic, he attends dchool in Nazareth. I am sure the kids going to school at Holy Name get assignements that require library visits, and think that the inability to use Nazareth's library - located between his house and the school - will put him at a disadvantage.
It was so much easier in the old days when people lived in cities. You could walk to the library, the store, the movie theatre, the post office, anywhere without cars and there was never any doubt what your community was. Now everyone's abandonded the cities for the country and built all the farmland up with 7-11s and Holiday INn Expresses and identical colonial suburban attached garage houses one after another. The people I grew up with the ABE cities now live in Schnerkecksville or Gunkensville or Wescosnergersville or other villages in the Lehigh Valley no one ever heard of and I can never find their houses or them without a GPS and they're not even sure where they stand as far as school districts or libraries, or voting districts, etc... part of the humor of the Colbert Report was the fact that Dominick lives in Tatamy but goes to Nazareth School but has an Easton address but a Palmer something or other, etc... etc... Colbert was making fun of the insanity of suburban sprawl. Today I had to go to the Fogelsville Holiday Inn for the first time. I got lost twice looking for it. It was hidden behind a Burger King and car dealership off a highway in what I remember to be cornfields. I remember the good old days when you went to the HIlton at 8th and Hamilton. 8th and Hamilton. You couldn't get lost finding that address and there was no confusion as to which library was yours. That was also on Hamilton. Maybe a county wide system is the answer since the Lehigh Valley is becoming a kind of suburban sprawl blob meshing one community into another.
There is one big reason there is no Countywide system of libraries. The County would end up paying for it.
The idea was actually floated in the 90's to the credit of the then County Council they shot down that turkey before it got any real air.
Holy ####! I just noticed you changed to words on Colbert's blue board. That is hysterical! I bet you a lot of people missed that.
The problem with Ross is that he is selective about what he posts.
If it is news about a guy on South Street hitting his wife he will link to it.
If it is about a former wrestler getting tossed from PSU for drugs he ignores it.
Ditto for a FH coach and her husband getting into a row.
He is very selectove about what Nazareth news he reports.
If you're suggesting he is a puff blogger, check out some of the Good news Allentown blogs, which attempt to make that troubled city look like Camelot.
I personally think Ross makes more of an effort at objectivity than most of us. I don't even try. I do try to get my facts right, but you will know how I feel. What you could do is start your own blog to report those stories not covered by others.
One last point. Blogging for three years with no editor and no staff can be very demanding. He is trying to perform a public service.
Colbert did a second spoof on Dominick this week.
Was going to comment about what I post and how I do it, and realized it was probably worth a post on my own site (it was getting a bit long for a comment).
Just want to say as Bernie notes, you do try to get to all the stories, but sometimes life gets in the way, other times you just miss them, and yes I am selective in what I post, but when you are posting you have to be okay with what goes up on your own site and I err on the side of caution.
I agree the PDF was not the PR approach I'd have taken, but a reader sent me the link and alerted me to it, so I went ahead and posted.
Keep up the great work Bernie!
And thanks to those that read NOC!
Members of the Nazareth Police Union attempted to purchase a library card for the young lad but were abruptly turned away. They were told the library has rules and will not bend. OK, but in a time when we can't get a young person into a library, does it make sense to turn them away?
Thanks for this tip, which I will track down and confirm so I can publish a post. No one knows better than police officer how important reading is to the useful development of a young mind.
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