Kinderhook Memorial Library is a gem

To the editor:

Re: ‘Kinderhook Memorial Library Addition is a Subtraction,” March 26, 2019.

The writer does not sound like someone giving a professional critique of the new addition to the Kinderhook Memorial Library (“evisceration,” “abomination,” “monstrosity”).

I don’t agree with his assessment of the building, its expansion and the library’s relevance to the community. As a former director of the Kinderhook Library, I remember the cramped staff office through which patrons had to cross in order to access the rest room (patrons with disabilities could not access it at all), adult patrons seeking a quiet space to read forced to share that space with a dozen children excitedly creating art work, teens have neither a collection nor space of their own.

Before the addition was built, the community was asked what it wanted from its library. And the board and staff responded beautifully. The intent is to provide more service to the community because that is what the community desired most; that the library be a community center. In the new community room, the library has hosted over a dozen well attended programs for both children and adults. The reading room is a gem, stocked with newspapers and periodicals and comfortable seating. And, yes, patrons do “pick up movies, games and sometimes books, then get back in their cars and drive away.” That’s what some patrons do. Others like to linger over titles in the collection and pick something new. Anyone can stay for as long as s/he wants.

If there is any doubt about how proud the community is of the new addition and the library in general one only had to be in attendance at the Library Dedication and Candlelight Night on Dec. 14. People poured through the doors and reacted in admiration and pleasure. To quote the letter writer: “I do not apologize for my perspective on this matter at this time. I cannot see things for anything but what they are.”

Ellen Sullivan

Kinderhook