Allan Appel Photo
Farfallina (the butterfly) flew in directly from the carnevale in Venice. The Mad Hatter emerged out of Alice in Wonderland. They were among roving bands of politely unruly revelers Tuesday night marking 125 years of the New Haven Free Public Library.
For the second year in a row, the library’s Mardi Gras crew transformed the first floor of main branch of the library with banners and beads, flashy geegaws, jazz, and oysters Rockefeller based on a recipe (spinach, fennel, onion, anise, pernod) created at Antoine’s Restaurant in New Orleans many Mardi Gras ago.
Zinc’s Appel served up shrimp etouffe to Clark in the religion stacks of the main branch.
At least 12 volunteer purveyors of Fat Tuesday food including the oysters from Dave McCoart’s Sage American Grill in City Point showed up to the event. Former Alderwoman and downtown arts bon vivant Bitsie Clark came back and asked politely if she could have a second helping of vegetarian shrimp etouffe prepared by Zinc‘s chef Denise Appel.
The aim of Tuesday night’s annual Mardi Gras fundraiser this year was to match an anonymous $100,000 gift already in hand. Combined, the $200,000 will pay for a new, up to date ReadMobile, according to City Librarian Christopher Korenowsky.
The library’s current ReadMobile is at the end of its ten-year lifetime. It breaks down regularly, is a gas guzzler. It needs to be replaced with a vehicle that is truly what Korenowsky called “a library without walls.”
“It goes deep into the neighborhood that can’t access [one of our physical] buildings, like [for]someone who’s homebound, or seniors,” he said.
As the Mad Hatter, aka Leland Torrance of Woodbridge, and a Mystery Lady, aka Libby Makela Johnson of Fair Haven, looked on from the book check-out desk that had been transformed to wine bar in the building’s grand vestibule, Library Board of Directors Chair Elsie Chapman stood on the balcony above.
She recounted that on Feb. 21, 1887, the New Haven Free Public Library opened “with 26 magazines and 80 periodicals.”
Mardi Gras a year ago was not fat but thin for the library, as city budget cuts had triggered the elimination of staff positions. The result was cutting of weekday branch hours and the elimination of Saturday hours. In October last year those hours were restored to four days a week including Saturdays at all the branches.
“The next hope is that every branch will have a fifth day, Korenowsky said.
Chapman said the library is marking not only 125 years of history since its founding but also the centennial of the 1912 main building.
In the course of the 125th year, city capital projects director Bill MacMullen said, the plan is to finish the renovation of the second half of the ground floor of the main building. He has lined up $1.5 million in state and other grants to do the work.
The New Brand
Branding consultant Collins and City Librarian Korenowsky.
But the main focus of the 125th year mark is to look to the future. To that end, the library is beginning to “re-brand” itself with a new system-wide graphic look.
At a signal from Korenowsky, and a flourish from the Funky Butt Jazz Band, a banner with elements of the new look was unfurled above the main check out desk.
In addition to the “nhfpl125,” the subsidiary tag lines include: “unleashing potential” and “creating community.”
Korenowsky said the library has completed an extensive needs assessment and is at the beginning stages of implementing a long-range strategic plan. The single key need to be fulfilled: more hours.
Yet the question is how that can be accomplished when the library, like most city departments, faces flat to reduced budgets.
So the new era for the library has begun with a new easy-to-read and accessible look that has been created for the library by branding consultant Brad Collins and his Group C firm.
Hello “Customers
Korenowsky he’s proud of, in addition to restoring hours, a new emphasis on viewing library users not as as patrons but as customers. “Priority is to craft an exemplary customer experience.”
Why think of users as “customers?”
Korenowsky said, “We compete for people’s time and attention. Free time is at a premium. We can’t be different from any other industry.”
The first element of this approach is the New haven Free Public Library’s speaking in one “graphic” voice, Korenowsky said.
More Signs Coming
Back on Feb. 7, the Board of Zoning Appeals approved a proposal to place six new informational ground signs, with similar graphics, outside in the forecourt of the main branch.
At that meeting BZA Commissioner Victor Fasano termed the new signage not in harmony with the look of the historic churches on the Green. At the time Korenowsky replied: “The interest is not to overwhelm the library with exterior signs.”
When Fasano continued to object that information be conveyed inside the building, Korenowsky said 600,000 people use the library system every year. Many pass the main branch when it is closed. The aim of the new signs, also part of the unveiling of the library’s new look, is “to become a robust and dynamic [way] of speaking to a new generation of library users,” he said.
The proposal passed four to one.
On Mardi Gras Tuesday some of those new users were hanging around the Mad Hatter; or having gumbo provided by The Soup Girl (aka Jessica Hazan) in the Chinese literature section; or just dancing away in their ballerina costumes by the New Fiction racks.
The festive party is sponsored by the New Haven Free Public Library Foundation. The main organizers and coordinators were Roz Gilhuly and Clare Meade.
What a wonderful job the New Haven Free Public Library did with the Mardi Gras celebration and fundraiser! My kudos to the library staff and volunteers for making a, I imagine, complicated event with so much behind the scenes work and work the day of the event itself seem well-orchestrated and seamless. Everyone was gracious and warm, and the event was lovely. I hope it was a big success!