JAMICĂ C. ASHLEY
Staff Writer
TARBORO —
"Computer server is down."
The handwritten sign on the library door turned traffic around as soon as the sign was close enough to read.
Even with this reality, the Edgecombe County Memorial Library has secured its role in the community as more than just a place to access the Internet.
Roman Leary is the director of ECML, including the Pinetops branch, and said that the library has grown to encompass the needs of patrons but will definitely be a mainstay.
"I can look back to the library with no computers, " Leary said. "I can remember the technology-free library. I lived through the big shift.
"It has definitely changed the library," he added.
Leary said that a common misconception is that people only go to the library to use the Internet.
"What you don't see is people coming in, sitting and reading so much," he clarified. "Reading as a past time has not died. Are people still reading? Definitely."
The numbers from the end of the 2009-10 fiscal year prove that reading is not dead nor dying in Edgecombe.
At the end of June, 77,713 books had been loaned to area citizens, not including the 5,755 in outreach.
Internet logins are not far behind, with a total of 47,994.
The recent cut in the library's book budget has slowed the growth of library's bound literary selection but has not turned readers away.
Normally $60,000 and up, this year the library was allotted $35,000.
A recent collection of grants totaling more than $40,000 will make a difference.
Beyond books and computers, the library offers other services not often associated with the institution.
"We have a whole set of activities that you can partake in that you couldn't 20 years ago," said Leary. "Like book a flight."
The varying services are drawing in people who ordinarily wouldn't come into a library.
Audiobooks, ebooks, DVDs and online databases such as NC Live provide patrons with many free resources including the driver's license exam and a practice exam for nursing students.
Cassettes and CDs account for 2,515 loans so far to date while video/DVD and tapes account for 640.
With all of the emerging technologies including eReaders and being able to download books to cell phones and computers, where does the traditional book fit in?
"Technology is going to continue to play a role (in the future of libraries)," Leary said. "People have been saying for years that they (books) would die but there's a place for that stuff but it won't supplant it (the book)."
As an affordable, durable and easy way of conveying information and ideas, Leary said, the book can't be beat.
"They have their place."
To sum up the reading taste of the majority of the ECML readers, "This is a fiction readers library," said Leary.
"Everybody loves to read," Leary said. "It's just that they've been made to read material that just doesn't speak to them."
The library affords the chance to read from various genres, exposing people to all types of topics.
Parents are encouraged to "expose their child to a wide variety of books so they can choose," what they read.
"The most valuable thing a parent can do is cultivate a love of reading early on," he said. "Human beings naturally enjoy reading if it is cultivated by being encouraged to read and being allowed to read at an early age."
The library has even seen its youngest readers help fight illiteracy across Edgecombe by reading to older relatives and to siblings.
Fantasy literature like the Harry Potter series plays off of an interest children tend to already have.
"Fantasy literature is just something that speaks to kids naturally," said Leary.
The Twilight series has sparked a rise in the young adult genre, a genre that until recently was very limited but served as a bridge from children's literature to adult.
Leary hopes to develop a young adult section in the library.
"I went from Dr. Seuss to Stephen King," he said. "I think it's great (growth of young adult fiction)."
Not so common now but still present for young readers is the comic book.
"Comic books are a great way of getting kids to read," said Leary.
Comic books have lost their unique place in literature with the rise of the graphic novel and technologies that make what was once only possible in the imagination come to life on a screen.
"I would love to see the children/young adult material grow in popularity," he said. "It creates lifelong readers. They'll be the ones who are 30, 40, or 50 years old who will keep coming back.
"There is so much enjoyment that people are missing out on by not reading," said Leary. "Reading brings a lot of happiness and fulfillment."
