Library looks to the future

As Elmont Memorial Library celebrated its third anniversary in its new home last weekend, Director Maggie Gough was keeping her eye on the horizon, promising some remarkable new things to come for the premier library facility in Nassau County.

“This really brought together all of the enthusiasm of the staff, the pride in their building and the library, and for me personally, as the director, this group showed terrific support from all my staff members to put together a celebration of this magnitude,” Gough said. “Every department participated, everyone went out of their way to bring in authors and develop crafts — it was a concerted effort to show pride in their library and pride in their service to their community. That’s what it meant to me, so it’s a wonderful moment.”

The celebration last Saturday took three months of planning, something Gough said every member of the staff participated in. The event, which kicked off at 1 p.m. and drew big crowds to the library on a sunny day, included question-and-answer sessions with authors, a performance by the “last of the clean comedians,” Glen Anthony, and some live jazz in the library’s theater.

Overall, Gough said, the event was a huge success, representing what is great about the library and the community it is in. “This is the most magnificent building, and really a darn good staff,” Gough said. “It has tremendous potential, and Elmont is a wonderful community to serve.”

Nancy Nowack, manager of the library’s Alden Terrace branch, said she was thrilled with the turnout on a day when the temptation, for many people, may have been to skip the library and go to the park. “It started out slow at first, but the way it’s going, it’s going to turn out great,” Nowack said as she left the room where Anthony was cracking up the crowd. “All the comments from people have been along the lines of, ‘Oh, it’s three years already?’ I can’t believe it either.”

Gough said it didn’t surprise her that Elmont residents have responded so well in the three years their library has been around. She said the beautiful building is part of what drew her to the area when she applied for and got the job earlier this year.

One of the biggest draws was a book signing by Nelson DeMille, a Long Island author with a thorough knowledge of the Island and its communities. In addition to DeMille, whom Gough said she hoped to bring back for another event sometime in the future, children’s authors Dan Greenburg and Chris Grabestein helped keep children entertained, showing animal slides and helping with craft presentations throughout the afternoon.

Ultimately, Gough said, the people of Elmont were thrilled with how the event went. “I’m getting a lot of very positive feedback,” she said. “We have people fill out our How-are-we-doing? surveys, and the worst thing we’ve heard so far is that we have a lack of cushions in some of the study rooms. If that’s the worst that we’re doing, I’m very grateful.”

Gough said her only regret about the anniversary party was that it fell on Rosh Hashana, making it impossible for observant Jewish patrons to take part. “It was definitely not our intention to limit this or eliminate the Jewish community from this event,” she said. “I am personally extremely sorry our Jewish patrons are not here to participate.”

Gough said she would do her best to make sure that those patrons would be able to celebrate the library’s anniversary in other ways, through many of the events coming up over the next month, including theater performances and artwork displays.

Library staff member Joan Inzerillo said she was very happy with the way the local community has embraced the events at the library. “People are really having a ball,” she said. “It was slow in the morning, but in the afternoon it got very beautiful and people really came out. I was thrilled.”

With the anniversary event now in the rearview mirror, Gough ruminated on the future, saying the library was very much looking forward to some improvements it could implement thanks to an upcoming state grant from Sen. Craig Johnson. “If I had that money in my pocket right now, we’d be breaking ground on a couple of projects tomorrow,” she said. “We’re putting together a parent-child interactive room over in the children’s area, and we’re looking at some very interesting language acquisition and learning programs for our [Young Adult] section — interesting software to help students navigate through from high school on to college.”

Gough said she recently finished a grant program to bring part of Cooperstown’s Baseball Hall of Fame to Elmont at the end of 2010. The Negro League exhibit will bring a traveling exhibition to the library in December 2010 for three months. It will likely include an audio component as well as artifacts like uniforms, equipment and photographs from the days when baseball was segregated.

One of the most striking exhibits currently on display in the library is a collection of hanging quilts made by Elmont sisters Pauline and Paulette Myers. They dominate the library’s main room, hanging from the ceiling and radiating color throughout the room. Gough said she couldn’t believe the craftsmanship of the quilts, put together by two women who work full time and quilt as a hobby.

“They are really interesting women, and the story seen in the quilting is just beautiful,” she said.

Overall, Gough added, the library has a bright future to look forward to as it celebrates its past.

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