Role of library changes

Everything’s all academia, all the time, at North Lake Community Library these days, and the staff seems to like it that way.

This summer, the City of Irving and NLC went their separate ways, as far as the library goes. The two entities had opened a joint library in August 2002 with much hoopla, but the marriage didn’t work.

Now empty shelves and a bare room that once was the site of children‘s story time are the results of an orderly divorce. Librarians matter-of-factly noted the removal of a large tree that was the centerpiece of a reading room, clocks and books that were Irving property.

“They took every book that was stamped, ‘Irving Public Library,‘” said Enrique Chamberlain, head faculty librarian. In the beginning, the city stocked the library with $1 million worth of materials, including $250,000 worth of academic titles, he said. Scores of DVDs, VHS tapes, books on tape and popular fiction and nonfiction books went back to Irving public libraries.

The rows of empty shelves may look strange, “but we’re going to fill them up,” said Chamberlain. Dr. Herlinda Glasscock, NLC president, has set aside $100,000 for books in this and the next two years. “Never in the history of North Lake College have we gotten a $100,000 book budget, so the president is very committed to our library,” said Chamberlain.

Normally when Dallas County Community College District opens a campus, the district allocates $50,000 a year for five years for the library, Chamberlain said. He has purchased books for the opening day collections of the Cedar Valley, Brookhaven and North Lake college libraries. Taking requests from the faculty has kept librarians like Jane Bell, who is a liaison to the Liberal Arts department, busy. “We’re trying to bring it [the number of books] up to a high number since 60 percent of the collection was owned by Irving,” said Bell.

In the Irving-NLC “divorce,” Irving took the kids. The one-time children’s area is now bare, and as in any space in a college, “people start trying to put stuff in it,” said Dr. Lee Crowley, dean of instruction and student support, who supervises the library. Crowley would like to see the Faculty Resource Center relocated to the library, to help “faculty and librarians become partners.”

“We don’t expect to use the whole space for that,” said Crowley. Christan Amundsen and John Hitt will lead a learning community, a combination of Psychology 2301 and Government 2301 titled “The Psychology of Politics,” in the former children’s library space. Also in the space will be a symposium March 2 and 3 for all psychology, religion, philosophy and sociology classes on “The Nature and Origin of Consciousness,” Amundsen said.

While it’s true that the library has an academic focus, librarians haven’t forgotten those who like to read off the best-seller lists. They are considering subscribing to a service that will allow them to rent and, optionally, buy best-selling titles.

— Journalism Instructor Betsy Simnacher contributed to this story