Rethinking the Jones

Alex Kent’s spirited advocacy of a new and enlarged Jones Library in the Gazette (November 27) is both welcome and saddening. It is welcome because he has articulated a vision for the Jones that neither Trustees nor fundraisers have been able to match, a vision in which size itself is emblematic of the town’s willingness to think big, do great things, and create a grand civic space. 

It is saddening because the vision is straight out of the nineteenth century, when the great industrialists (robber barons in other tellings) amassed great wealth and used some of it to create civic spaces for their cities.

Or perhaps it is out of the thirteenth century in Western Europe, when the Church and the new bourgeoisie joined to construct massive cathedrals to testify to their faith, their civic pride, and their wealth. Mr. Kent believes that this is what Amherst needs in the twenty-first century. I am not so sure, but I appreciate the clarity of his position.

The Trustees are asking the Town Council to commit to their vision of a larger library on Amity Street in the next four or five months. (This would also be committing taxpayers to this vision.) The Trustees are also committing to drawing down the Jones Library’s endowment to contribute to this building fund, a dangerous and short-sighted move in my view. I want to suggest a larger context for thinking about the decision the Town Council will have to make by April 2021.

Even though Amherst is now legally a city — and is beginning to look like one — its new Charter stresses that it should still be called “the Town of Amherst.” So an essential question is, “Do we want to look like a town? And if so, how, exactly, does a town look?” I think Mr. Kent has performed an important service in helping us address these questions. So I am grateful to him, even though I come to different conclusions. My objection to the Library’s expansion proposal is that I don’t think the idea of a wider and taller building on Amity Street is consistent with my idea of how a town should look and feel. I am sure that the Jones needs more usable space but not if it is as intrusive as the architect’s design makes it appear.

The emphasis on size itself is a disfiguring feature of the proposal. The Library’s needs were determined by the Director and Trustees, and then the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) decided how much space was required to accommodate those needs. Could the Trustees rethink their proposal if they gave up on the state assistance? Yes. Should they? Yes. Will they? That depends on the Town Council, which has the obligation to look at the Trustees’ proposal in the light of the Town’s immediate and long-range needs.

The Trustees could withdraw from the state program without costing the taxpayers a single penny, by reducing the expansion of the Library to reasonable proportions and by separating renovation from expansion. This would allow them to propose a renovation/redesign of the Amity Street building that almost everyone could support. It would eliminate the need to use the endowment’s funds for a capital project. It would give an override vote a fighting chance, if that was the direction the Town Council decided to go.

In their recent column in the Gazette/Bulletin, Trustee President Austin Sarat and Library Director Sharon Sharry give two examples of needs for more space. One is the adult ESL program, which the Library developed and has hosted successfully for many years. This important program fits well in the Library, but need it be physically located in the Library? I don’t know the answer to that. Or rather, I do know an answer that does not require a bigger building on Amity Street. See below. Another need mentioned by Sarat and Sharry is for a separate teen room. I have felt for a long time that the Town has neglected to provide adequate after-school space and programming for middle and high school students to hang out and study. But that is quite another matter than the Library beginning to segregate its users by age. Students who wish to use the Library for research and study are part of the general population of Library users and should be expected to follow the implicit expectations of Library decorum. They don’t need more space.

Daniel Lombardo supports Library expansion to give more and better space to the Library’s invaluable special collections and other holdings. I support this strongly, as I support continued liaison between the Jones and its neighbor, the Strong House, which houses the Amherst History Museum. Whether this requires more space or better space (and better maintenance) is a question no one has answered. 

The Jones needs more usable space. I want a proposal to support. I think these two assertions are perfectly congruent if the Trustees would reconsider their commitment to size.

I wish the Town Council would conduct an inventory of civic spaces in town. We have lots of them, although they are controlled by different agencies that have varying priorities and policies. We need coordination and management of these spaces, whether they belong to the Library, Town, School Committee, higher education or other institutions. Such an inventory would help the Council, taxpayers, and Library patrons assess the Library’s proposal. Amherst’s Leisure Services Department has a new name but presumably not a new mission. Jones programming and the Recreation Department programming should be coordinated, just as Jones programming and the History Museum programming should be coordinated.

There is a tendency in town — and I’m sure in many towns and cities — for departments with separate management to become competitive when competing for scarce budget funding. We must learn to move past this kind of cultural imperialism. The Joint Capital Planning Committee was established to address this and encourage departments to work together to prioritize capital spending. Why not a Joint Adult Programming Committee to encourage departments that offer educational, informational, and developmental adult programming to work together? Does it matter where the adult ESL program is housed?

Finally, I have on several occasions put forth an idea that has had no public response. At some point in the near future, the School Committee will return to the Town the two large elementary school buildings: Wildwood and Fort River. Either of these buildings would provide more than enough space for the Town Library and the Senior Center together. They would provide more parking (though not walking) convenience for patrons. The Jones Library System now accommodates three buildings, complicated by different ownership. The North Amherst Library will soon be as usable as it is beautiful. Why not consider a fourth satellite branch at Wildwood for general circulation, or for special collections and programming? I love the idea of the Senior Center and the Library sharing a common space. I am waiting for someone to tell me why this is not a good idea.