{"id":985,"date":"2014-12-10T08:23:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T14:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/?p=985"},"modified":"2014-12-11T09:41:06","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T15:41:06","slug":"ferguson-library-provides-calm-refuge-for-a-torn-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/ferguson-library-provides-calm-refuge-for-a-torn-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferguson Library Provides Calm Refuge for a Torn Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

In addition to sharing news and information about Ames Library and the IWU community, we also like to share library-related news from across the country. The following article originally appeared in\u00a0Library Journal<\/em> online, on November 25, 2014<\/a> and was authored by Lisa Peet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“On November 24 a grand jury in Ferguson, MO, delivered its verdict on the August 9 shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a Ferguson police officer. The St. Louis County grand jury chose not to bring criminal charges against the officer, Darren Wilson; the decision, which was announced just after 8 p.m. CST, set off a night of protests and civil unrest, the most violent including arson, shattered windows, injuries, and, as of press time, a possible murder.<\/p>\n

During the nearly four months of unrest since Brown was killed, the Ferguson Municipal<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo by @IndyJazzBelle<\/p><\/div>\n

Public Library<\/a> (FMPL) has consistently stepped up<\/a> to help the town\u2019s citizens, especially its youngest members. Last summer the Ferguson-Florissant School District postponed its schools\u2019 opening day, originally scheduled for August 14, out of fear of violence. Until schools eventually opened on August 25, FPL opened its branches to the district\u2019s teachers<\/a>, allowing them to set up activities and instruction for students in the library.<\/p>\n

As Ferguson awaited the grand jury\u2019s verdict, Governor Jay Nixon had pre-emptively declared a 30-day state of emergency November 17 in anticipation of unrest in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, and the surrounding area. As predicted, demonstrations flared through the night into Tuesday morning, mainly centered around the Ferguson Police Department and the site of Brown\u2019s shooting. As of Tuesday morning 61 arrests had been made in Ferguson and another 21 in St. Louis, and Governor Nixon had ordered additional National Guard reinforcements. Demonstrations occurred across the country as well, in cities such as Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, and Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

THE LIBRARY STEPS UP<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was announced the Monday night of the verdict that schools would be closed the following day, and on November 25 once again FMPL opened its doors to the district\u2019s children and their teachers. Scott Bonner, library director of Ferguson Municipal Public Library District, said that while numbers weren\u2019t as high as in August, the library hosted \u201cscores\u201d of children, as well as serving as a safe place for the neighborhood\u2019s adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m seeing a mix of moods,\u201d he told LJ<\/i>. \u201cOur volunteers are excited and optimistic, and here to help, and then I have patrons who come in and literally hold my hands and cry\u2014they just needed someone to hold onto and talk to. And everything in between, including people who are doing the regular walk-in, walk-out stuff.\u201d But, he said, the mood was \u201ca lot more emotional and taut than usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonner is FMPL\u2019s lone full-time librarian, working with another 10\u201311 part-time staff members. When the school closings were announced FMPL put out a call on social media for help, and on Tuesday Teach for America and other organizations responded with more than 50 volunteers. Operation Food Search, a local food bank, served lunch for children who would ordinarily eat at school.<\/p>\n

The smallest children, Bonner noted, were happy to come in and do their activities. Recent events were harder on teenagers, however. Middle- and high-schoolers tended to act out, giving voice to their anxiety and anger. But while Bonner had expelled a few teens earlier in the week, he said, \u201cToday we haven\u2019t had to kick anyone out.\u201d<\/p>\n

A book swap planned for Tuesday night was canceled, as the library decided to close at 4 p.m. for safety reasons. \u201cWe don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to be another night like last night,\u201d Bonner told LJ<\/i>. \u201cThere were people trying to kick in the door of the library last night after we closed.\u201d The book swap, which had been the first event planned by FMPL\u2019s new Teen Council, has been postponed until December.<\/p>\n

Appropriately enough, FMPL was one of the galleries hosting art exhibit entitled \u201cHands Up, Don\u2019t Shoot!\u201d<\/a> The show was organized by the Alliance of Black Art Galleries to give local artists an opportunity to respond to Brown\u2019s killing. opened October 17 and 18 and will run through December 20. Artwork was exhibited in more than a dozen galleries throughout the area.<\/p>\n

AN OUTPOURING OF SUPPORT<\/strong><\/p>\n

While library staff and volunteers did their best to make neighborhood children feel at home, FMPL\u2019s Twitter feed (@fergusonlibrary<\/a>) Tuesday showed an outpouring of love and support from all over. In addition, calls for action on Twitter, some utilizing the hashtag #whatlibrariesdo<\/a>, resulted in a huge spike in PayPal donations to the library. (Update: donations have topped $300,000; for reference, the library\u2019s operating budget is $400,000.) \u201cIt\u2019s been kind of phenomenal,\u201d Bonner said.<\/p>\n

Book donations remain steady as well: when FMPL first opened its doors to students in August Angie Manfredi, head of youth services for Los Alamos County Library System, NM, started a Twitter campaign soliciting books for the library. She created a wishlist for FMPL on Powell\u2019s<\/a>, which has since been filled and added to. The effort continues to be a great success, and once all the books received have been cataloged, says Bonner, \u201cThanks to her efforts, we\u2019re going to have one of the strongest collections in the state for civic engagement, civil rights history, and recovering from trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

Librarians across the country are working to help support students and educators as well. A St. Louis school librarian has created a LibGuide<\/a> for resources about the Brown shooting, and the Twitter hashtag#FergusonSyllabus<\/a> provides a wide range of links.<\/p>\n

Schools had been planned to <\/b>close Wednesday through Friday for Thanksgiving, so FPL will not be holding classes during that time. But if schools are closed next week, said Bonner, \u201cwe\u2019ll do it again.\u201d Bonner reinforced his steadfast approach to the library\u2019s role<\/a>. \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is just what libraries do,\u201d he emphasized to LJ<\/i>. \u201cWe\u2019re in a particularly dramatic situation, but we\u2019re doing the same thing everyone does. And that\u2019s because our libraries are awesome. We\u2019re all about the community, and our doors are wide open to every human being in Ferguson.\u201d “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In addition to sharing news and information about Ames Library and the IWU community, we also like to share library-related news from across the country. The following article originally appeared in\u00a0Library Journal online, on November 25, 2014 and was authored … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":500,"featured_media":986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ames-highlights"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/files\/2014\/12\/Stay_Strong_Ferguson-300x300.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/500"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions\/987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}