Warren-Newport library board candidates tackle issues

An assortment of candidates are seeking two- and four-year terms on the Gurnee-based Warren-Newport Public Library board in the April 7 election.

Incumbent Nancy Sheldon and challenger James Neel are on the ballot for the one, two-year post that's open. Seeking the two available four-year seats are incumbents Nancy Jackson and Socrates Rivers, as well as Ron Friedman and Robert Diehl.

All six candidates were afforded an opportunity to provide answers to the issues for voters in Daily Herald questionnaires. Rivers, Diehl and Jackson opted to not participate.

But Neel, Sheldon and Friedman did give on-the-record answers in an effort to help voters decide the best candidate in the Warren-Newport library race.

Friedman, 48, of Gurnee, is a writer-proofreader for Abbott's Creative Network, a certified English teacher for grades 7 through 12 and a freelance copy editor and writer.

Sheldon, 55, of Gurnee, is a freelance editor and indexer. Neel, 61, of the Grayslake area, is a substitute teacher.

Here are some of the questions and the answers from the candidates.

Name the three most important goals or objectives this board should tackle in the coming term. Prioritize them, and briefly discuss why you believe each to be critical, and how the board should go about addressing them.

Neel: 1. Adding more modern books and electronic information streams to the library, especially in the areas of business, poetry and writing. We need to keep up to date with our patron's needs. 2. Adding more parking space. The library's usage now approaches Libertyville's. We will soon be overrun with patrons. 3. Creating more space for library patron usage inside, especially in adult and children's areas. How to do it: Solicitation of grants, donations, exploration of architectural plans, and make more efficient use of the tax money granted us. Fiscal responsibility.

Sheldon: Right now, our largest project is expanding our current facility without losing parking space and without a tax referendum.

Friedman: 1. Staying in touch with the pulse of the library's users and being aware of information-gathering trends is key to remaining proactive in capturing and keeping more patrons. Despite the constant ring-toning around us, or maybe because of it, some might say that the library's "old school" footprint is shrinking. I think the board will need to remain committed to attracting those who might be most likely to hold that view and one way to do that might be to create more networking opportunities between the "real-world" of books and presentations the library offers to the virtual, digitized forums that continue to attract hordes of users because of the "drive-through" mentality many of these forums appeal to. Recognizing that attributes of this "quick and easy" consumerist lifestyle can be adapted to the library will provide a place increasingly accessible by patrons of all stripes. 2. Managing the financial resources earmarked for the library will prove an immense challenge in the years ahead, especially as much needed infrastructure improvements are begun to keep the library apace of its projected needs. The board will undoubtedly garner buy-in from its constituents by distributing and analyzing survey results and eliciting feedback from other library boards operating under the same crunch situations. I believe we have an extremely competent brain trust among the present board members and I look forward to contributing to this group's capacity for solving the most challenging situations down the road. 3. Branding will be a crucial component to keeping the library top-of-mind for its growing and diverse base of supporters and patrons. The board has every reason to seek guerrilla marketing strategies done in accordance with its vision and policies, when these strategies help put the library's honored "message" out in the public square. The new bookmobile is a visual thesaurus of images and creative expression that will help others literally see how viable the library remains to a community. I believe input from many sources could provide an advisory group with ideas to imprint the library's "brand," so that when people think "library," they'll think "instead of Google," not just "after Google ... if there's time."

What is your philosophy on the function of a library and its role in the community during the Internet age?

Neel: It is a public place where all peaceful and decent ideas can be explored, either in print or by electronic means, made entirely separate from educational institutions, regulatory agencies or prejudices. It is an informational source for the community to help minds of all ages expand with knowledge and the Internet is merely one such venue. However, the Internet Age requires us to constantly update all the information that we need as our country and the world progresses with more and more multi-sourcing and multi-tasking, so that new ideas may blossom forth from the minds of our patrons to make the life of man better on this planet. The role of a library is to provide a starting place for such great ideas as man can create.

Sheldon: In addition to providing printed books and periodicals to our patrons, we circulate music CDs, DVDs and audio books and offer public meeting rooms and a variety of programs for patrons of all ages. One of our most important functions is providing Internet access and training, because some of our patrons have no other access to the Internet.

Friedman: My philosophy on the function of a library dovetails with the idealized conception that Philip Petite had when he dreamed of stretching a high wire between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. He recalls that when he first learned these, at that time, tallest skyscrapers were going to be built he just had to walk a wire between them. Six years later, after an intricate and convoluted information-gathering process comprising an intimate conspiracy among friends, he managed to do it, astounding a group of dumbfounded pedestrians that the impossible was possible. A library is that tightrope and its patrons are the tightrope walkers that make possible the impossible, bringing into conscious thought the unlikely worlds of fantastical worlds created by a crowd of otherwise pedestrian onlookers. Whether fiction or nonfiction, audiobook or DVD, the resources a library brings connects minds to potential. No library can contain all the exponentially increasing resources being created but the viral, serendipitous nature of the human mind's capacity to learn means that the library ought persist in raising and connecting the dreamer to the doer.

What are your thoughts on placing age restrictions on certain materials distributed by libraries?

Neel: Some children are mature enough to read literature intended for those more aged and take wisdom from it. Some are not mature enough at any age for that same material. However, age restrictions on any basis cannot be made with any moral certainty. Everyone finds at least one book that influences them all their lives and that one book the child himself or herself must find for themselves. A little guidance or a suggestion from a librarian helps along the way. But if a 9-year-old wants to read "The Brothers Karamazov," for instance, he or she should be unfettered by library regulations to the contrary.

Sheldon: I agree with the position of the American Library Association: Library materials should be available to all patrons without discrimination on basis of age.

Friedman: Based on the growing body of research that some link exists between the viewing of sexually suggestive programming leads to higher rates of sexual behaviors and pregnancy, I think it would be prudent to place some restrictions on materials of a more adult nature, such as R-rated movies, from being checked out by children that are not accompanied by an adult guardian. A library exists for the good of a society and so its decisions should also reflect that ethic. If there might be long-term harm from contributing to a child's "freedom" then what value and strength of character has that freedom gained? Unfettered freedoms lead not to greater liberty but often to unwanted restrictions.