Kapolei librarian declines community donated books
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer
To folks like Herman Young, the solution to Kapolei's new $8 million, 30,000 square-foot library — whose shelves are empty — is fairly basic:
"Just get some nice books, put them on the shelves and open it up," said Young, as he dug into a box stashed in his Makakilo garage that contained classic novels by Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry James and Joseph Conrad.
Young and his wife, Marcia, are among a growing number of people in the area who argue that residents should stock the library if the state won't. But when the couple and a small contingent of others carted boxes of books to a May 29 library meeting, state librarian Virginia Lowell said she didn't want them.
Lowell says there is an established process by which library books are selected and it doesn't include accepting just anything that comes through the door.
"That's the cardinal foundation of a library," she said. "A library without that process is not a library — it's a reading room."
The newest public library in Hawai'i's statewide system is at an impasse between those who believe the facility should remain closed until the state coughs up the money for 24 staffers and a 60,000 book collection, and those who say the library could be useful to the community if it housed donated books.
Evelyn Sousa doesn't see much wrong with having a reading room. With seven of her foster children attending Makakilo Elementary School, Sousa says the doors to the Kapolei Library can't open soon enough to suit her.
"I'm in favor of anything that will get books in there," she said. "I believe that some books are better than no books at all."
Others see it differently.
"Let's let the librarians do their job," said Maeda Timson, member of the Makakilo-Kapolei-Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board. "They are the specialists. I mean, I'm not going to go to my next-door neighbor if I have a broken leg and say put a cast on it."
Diane Perushek, who has been been University of Hawai'i librarian since December, said she can understand the appeal of simply opening the Kapolei Library and operating it with a limited staff and donated books.
But that idea is outdated, she said.
"That's a good old-fashioned notion of the library, and a lot of us maybe remember that's what libraries used to be," said Perushek, who was a librarian at Princeton, Cornell and Northwestern Universities before coming to Hawai'i. "But we in the profession kind of pride ourselves on having gone beyond that."
Libraries today are highly service-oriented, Perushek said. And that can only be accomplished with adequate staffing and a properly cataloged collection of books.
Kapolei, the largest population of people in the state without a public library, has two rival library organizations collecting books.
Kristine Newmann, president of the Friends of the Library-Kapolei, said part of her job is organizing book drives.
"It's just that the reality of it is that a rather small percentage of the donated books are appropriate for the library collection," Newmann said.
The rest must be stored, sorted and eventually sold at fund-raisers to raise money to buy new books for the library.
Newmann said her organization has more than a thousand books stored in the garages of area residents, including her own.
Unlike Newmann's group, State Rep. Mark Moses, R-42nd (Kapolei, 'Ewa Village, Village Park) said his Friends of the Kapolei Library, Inc., is not affiliated with the state Friends of the Library system because he wants to ensure collected books stay with the Kapolei Library.
Moses said he told Lowell at the May 29 meeting, "If you don't want us to bring you used books, would you give us the list of books you want to open the library, and allow me to go to our Rotary, Lions, or seniors, people like that, and ... let them buy the book brand new and give it to you."
Moses says Lowell wouldn't give him the list.
"You don't build a library collection in that manner," Lowell said.
She said she won't consider gift and donated books except those that might apply to a core collection that has been selected and cataloged by professional librarians.
"I've been here four years now," she said. "And from that very first legislative session I have said, 'Don't build buildings without providing operating money to sustain them.' And that's what will happen again next session when we go back and say, 'We will not open the Kapolei Library — even in December of 2003 — until you guarantee that operating money will be added into our budget.'"
If Moses really wants to help the Kapolei Library, Lowell said, he should "convince his colleagues in the Legislature to give us $1.7 million dollars next year."
If he can do that, she said, the library could be open by January 2004.
Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.
