← Chapter & Verse: Storytime from the Stacks
Loading summary
Transcript64 lines
- [00:03]
Debbie Makula
Welcome to Chapter in Verse, Storytime from the Stacks. This is an original podcast series from the Michigan Library association and the library Cooperatives of Michigan. We'd like to give a shout out to our episode sponsor, Midwest Tape and Hoopla. I'm Debbie Makula, executive director of the Michigan Library association, and I'm joined today with my co host, Carol Daw from.
- [00:28]
Carol Daw
The Lakeland Library Cooperative in West Michigan. We serve 42 libraries in eight counties and have a service area population of 1.4 million.
- [00:38]
Debbie Makula
And with us today is the director of the White Lake Community Library in Whitehall, Virginia Demumbram. So, Virginia, welcome to Chapter and Verse. This is our third episode, and it's really nice to have you here with us.
- [00:54]
Virginia Demumbram
Thanks for having me.
- [00:56]
Debbie Makula
Yeah. We're excited about just hearing stories of being a librarian, how it's impacted your life and how you're impacting the world around you as well. So maybe we start with just give us a little bit of your background and what inspired you to be a librarian.
- [01:15]
Virginia Demumbram
That makes it sound like it was a lifelong dream, and that's not true for me. It turns out a little bit about myself, so. So I am a mom and a grandma and wife and mother, and I also happen to be a librarian. Live in a small town now. Grew up in a small town, and absolutely love my role as the librarian here. Just absolutely love it. What inspired me to do it? As your original question. When we moved to this small town with my two little boys, the first thing I looked for was the library, because that's what I do. And it was a little, teeny, tiny library, maybe less than 1,000 square feet. It was a city library, and the city had just defunded it. So the very second thing I did after I found the library was I got on the Melledge campaign committee and got involved in forming the district library that we have now.
- [02:01]
Debbie Makula
Good for you.
- [02:02]
Virginia Demumbram
That was not with an eye toward creating my own position, but that's how it turned out. So they hired me after they opened the building to be the children's librarian, and that was a natural fit for me. I just love being with the kids. I love telling stories. I love the creative aspect of all of that. And it gradually grew from there. And now it turns out I'm the director.
- [02:22]
Debbie Makula
That's amazing. It's an amazing story of just loving the library first and growing into it and being able to now take charge and in control of what's happening within your community and within the library. Carol, we're going to go back and Forth with questions. Anything that you'd like to ask, Virginia?
- [02:42]
Carol Daw
I'd like to know how it all began. A lot of times their children really factor into it. Did yours factor into that as well? Going to story time, things like that?
- [02:54]
Virginia Demumbram
Yes. So that's my. Actually my very first memory of the library is going to story time in the small town I grew up in with my mom and the librarian helping us all make our little cardboard boxes into train cars or parade things or whatever we were doing. That's my first memory of the library. And my son, my firstborn was maybe six months old and we were living in Ferndale when I found a story time because I needed a story time much more than my six month old lifesaver for me. Then we moved to Racine and I had another baby. And then my husband was working in a town an hour and a half away. And Racine is. It's New York and preschools. Their story time at the time was extremely competitive to get into, you had to. They limited the number so only a certain number could sign up. If you weren't there the minute they opened signups, you weren't in for that whole 12 week session. And I needed story time again more than my children did. So the morning of storytime signup happened to be a day that my husband was taking the only vehicle to his job an hour and a half away. We all piled in the car, we drove into work, we turned around to come and sign up for story time, and there's a blizzard, like a real blizzard. This was before cell phones and weather apps and all of that stuff. And it was so bad they closed the expressway. And I wasn't sure how me and my babies were getting back home, but we made it and we signed up for story time. So.
- [04:19]
Debbie Makula
I love it. It sounds like your family's been a big part of how you've grown into librarianship. But will you share some, maybe some memorable moments when you, you feel as the library. So the director of this library, you know that you've made a difference because of the differences that people have made in your life, obviously, and with your kids. But what's a memorable moment when you made a difference in someone else's life through your work as the director, Work as a librarian.
- [04:49]
Virginia Demumbram
Yeah. So one of the things I did as a storytime lady, as the storytime lady was I started doing evening story times because I recognized that not everybody was home with their children during the day. And I just recently heard back from a mom who's got a kid in school now, the kid is 6 or 7. And she said that was such a huge difference for us. She said I worked and nobody was doing evening story times. And you started too. And because you did that, I was able to bring my daughter and have this bonding time with my daughter. And not only that, it led to a couple of long term friendships with other parents. So I helped her make connections in the community just by offering an evening story time at a time when they could come another time. We've done that. And quite accidentally, I can't claim this as a policy driven thing, but we had a young woman start showing up at the library and it was very difficult for staff to understand her, but we did our best. She had a very heavy accent and didn't have very much English and we gradually learned that she was from Baghdad and she needed the library in order to connect with her family back home. And the library was the only place she could have Internet. It was the only place she had access to a computer. So she was doing video calls. This was pre pandemic. So this was before everybody knew how to zoom. And we figured out with her how to get that done. And we helped her stay connected with her family all the way up to the point that we became so important in her life that when there was a stressful event at home and she felt very upset, we came into work one morning and she was waiting at our doorstep. She was waiting at the front doors of the library to be let in to the place that she knew as comforting and welcoming. Those are some ways that we've made an impact. Some other things I've done though, that I think impact, not a specific individual, but kind of impact the community is fairly. Recently we started doing one long table events. We've had our second annual one now. We did the first one as a trial balloon. And immediately that very night, people said, when is the next one? How are you doing this next year?
- [06:51]
Carol Daw
Tell us what it is first.
- [06:52]
Debbie Makula
Tell us what a long table.
- [06:54]
Virginia Demumbram
So one long table event is where you set literally one long table. So we close off the street in town. We set up 10 tables in a row, 10 of those six foot tables in a row and set it for 75 people. And we bring in food and there is no charge to attend. People just need to register so we know who's coming because we can't fit the whole town at them. And we put starter questions on the tables. And it is just a way to meet other community members face to face and recognize that we're all People and we all have things in common. And it has turned out beautifully both times. We do it in the fall in conjunction with Good Neighbor Day, and we host this one long table event. And people were blown away. And it's. I know it sounds simple that you set a big long table, but it looks amazing to see this long row of people and to walk up and down that during the event and just listen to happy conversation. There's laughter. And you have people from all walks of life in every part of the political spectrum, and they are all connecting human to human. And that is so important. And I just think it makes a big difference in our community. And we've had people reach out asking how they can help. People are donating to help us fund the next year. So that's something I'm pretty proud of and I think does make a difference.
- [08:08]
Carol Daw
What other projects and programs do you have a wish list? Is there something you've always wanted to do that you haven't been able to do for the library?
- [08:17]
Virginia Demumbram
That's a leading question considering I just put in my accessibility grant application yesterday. Yeah, timing. Exactly. So one of the things we've always wanted to do and haven't quite found the staff time, the right staff person to do is we really want to expand our services to people with various disabilities in the community. For instance, we have several group homes that often bring their residents to spend time at the library. And that's wonderful. And they come and they hang out and they listen to the music or they use the computers a little bit. But I just think it would be a much better service to them if there was a reason for them to be there. We had appropriate programming for them. And it turns out the person that's currently serving as our youth programs person has loads of experience in recreational therapy. So we've put in for a grant to add staff hours for her so that she can lead some programs for them, some art therapy programs, some other recreational therapy sorts of things, and maybe even a book club, a Next Chapter book club. I don't know if you're familiar with that program. Next Chapter Book Club is like a national thing where people with various disabilities meet and discuss books at their level of short stories. That would be an amazing thing to add to this community because we have lots and lots of group homes and lots of people who don't really have a place to do anything like that. They can come and hang out, of course, and that's fine, but it would be really neat to engage them more fully.
- [09:40]
Carol Daw
That sounds great.
- [09:41]
Debbie Makula
It's so wonderful to hear how you have looked at the needs and the wants of the community members and you're incorporating them. And I know it's hard work because you're writing grants and you're trying to put programs together, but you've actually identified some of the needs that are happening within the community. Have you recognized other things from community members that need something out of the library that you've incorporated?
- [10:07]
Virginia Demumbram
Yes, we've increased our library of things tremendously. So we have all sorts of products that people can borrow. We've got a radon detector, and we've got some basic household tools, and we added yard games. And that's my next goal, is to put together block party kits so people can host a block party that will again, connect people to people and build some connections across the community. Because that's what I'm all about, is those connections getting people connected to people. And also, of course, people connected to information, ideas, technology, all of that.
- [10:34]
Debbie Makula
But people too, which is what's missing in our society sometimes.
- [10:38]
Virginia Demumbram
That's what worries me. Yep, that's what worries me. The other thing that I'm working on is. And again, a grant. We got a grant to put solar panels on the roof of the library, and that will generate about a third of the electricity we need and save us a couple hundred thousand dollars over the next decade or so. And we also got a grant to get solar tables, solar picnic tables during COVID And I was really pleased to see there's a group in our community called the Montague Commoners, and they're very big into community efforts that are sustainable. They're into sustainability efforts. And they just had a thing at the library on emergency preparedness planning, and they put together maps of where you can get water and where you can do this, that and the other thing in case of an emergency and how to build your own personal emergency plan. And the library's three different solar picnic tables, which are at three locations around the community, are on their maps of where you can go to charge your phones if you need that, or plug in a device because they're solar powered and they've got outlets on them. So it was really neat to see that we are part of that emergency planning. And I'm working to formalize that even more and figure out ways if we can be on the map as a water source, because we do have outdoor spigots. What else can we do in case of an emergency? Because emergencies are coming faster and faster. My sister lives in Etchville, and so she was talking about how the library there provided WI fi in the midst of all their hurricane nastiness a couple months ago and how that was such a lifesaver.
- [12:02]
Debbie Makula
Let's take a quick break to hear more from our episode sponsor, Hoopla.
- [12:08]
Virginia Demumbram
Fact or fiction? Expiring licenses are causing your digital catalog to shrink. That's a fact. Yearly, 3 to 4% of your digital titles are going bye bye. But Hoopla instant retains 99% of its back in mid list catalog. Connect with Hoopla to learn more.
- [12:25]
Carol Daw
I think Whitelake is a very interesting community and helping you with your strategic plan. I've done many of these, but the question when I asked, what else would you like us to know? Most people say they'd like more fiction, they'd like more digital books. In your community people said things like, we'd like world peace, we'd like there to be no hunger. And it was very broad. And I thought, boy, that was just lovely. So can you speak to that a little bit?
- [12:52]
Virginia Demumbram
I'm not sure how to speak to that, except it's true. We have a lot of really active groups that are very intent on things. We've got a grassroots White Lake Area Climate Action Council that's doing amazing work. They partnered with us and helped us. They gave us like a 50% matching grant to buy electric yard tools, landscaping tools. We have all sorts of groups that are working hard to get stuff done. Our Rotary is super involved in things and like those. The commoners. My most favorite project are the Montague Commoners is they do a community sugar bush. They do a syrup making project every spring and they bring in volunteers to help chop the wood and tend the fire and tap the trees. And everybody who helps gets a share of the syrup that they make at the end of their maple syrup. Just cool.
- [13:39]
Debbie Makula
We're going to solve a lot of issues in White. It's so interesting because you're, you are thinking so much larger and, and the community is impacted, the patrons are impacted. But tell us maybe a story about how has perhaps a patron impacted you? New impact patrons. We know that. But for you personally, what has a patron done for you? That might be a good story.
- [14:03]
Virginia Demumbram
Yeah, that's a harder one. And my husband and I were just talking about that. And what we landed on is that the way the patrons impact me is by reminding me over and over again that it's the little things that count. That's what really matters is the little things. We have a story trail because we're right on a bike path through town. Our Library is unusual. It's set up in the woods on property that was donated by a manufacturing facility. So we're not downtown and we're not on a sidewalk kind of area at all. But there's a bike path that goes right past the building. And there's a story trail on that we put up recently. And we had some women come into the library that I honestly didn't recognize. I didn't recognize them as regulars or anything. And they said, we've been bringing mom here. She's in the nursing home. And when we bring her out to get out of the place for a little while for a visit, we bring her here. And we've been enjoying your story trails, which we've been putting out on homemade ones on yard signs, like political yard signs, only with stories on them. And she passed away and we would like to do something. What's a project? And they helped fund a new story trail for us. That's a permanent one. It's like the cemented in kind like that. And so we had a big ribbon cutting for it. And I was all excited about. We've got this fabulous new thing. And this is amazing. And those women came back to me and they said, you know what? This is the memorial we wanted for our mom. We didn't have a service. We didn't do anything. This ribbon cutting right here is the memorial for our mother. And thank you so much. So it's the literal.
- [15:33]
Debbie Makula
And I are both sitting here with tears coming down right now.
- [15:36]
Carol Daw
I have to think of a better story. I can't think of anything more beautiful.
- [15:43]
Virginia Demumbram
If you had tasted the stuff. They brought refreshments for afterwards. And it was all of mom's favorite recipes. Really fabulous food. It was delightful.
- [15:50]
Debbie Makula
And this is because of what you do on a daily basis. Never will you ever know how you have affected the citizens of your community, even if they're not right. How they affect you in the kindness and the work that you are doing to connect what you said human to human. And you absolutely made that critical.
- [16:16]
Virginia Demumbram
And their random acts of kindness are so valuable to me. Just the occasional somebody will drop in with cookies and say thank you so much, or they'll. We had somebody bring us a gift card because we stayed open up a few minutes late because their meeting ran over one night. And just little things. Or they'll drop off flowers for us, bring us donuts. And kind words are even more important than cookies. And we get those regularly. And it's just so nice, so nice to hear from people who are happy with what's going on.
- [16:42]
Carol Daw
The other thing I'm hearing is that you're not afraid to say yes. You say yes, and when you say yes, you get these gifts, you get this impact, you get this joy. And that's what libraries do best, is when we say what if and not, or even why not, or what if or what can we do? And when we say yes, that's a perfect example of that.
- [17:06]
Virginia Demumbram
Yes. People have given me that example over the years that. Find a way to say yes. That's the goal. Find a way to say yes. Work out the details later. But yes is the answer question is how and maybe when.
- [17:19]
Debbie Makula
What's changed over the course of your career? So what. What did you do before you were a librarian? Were you just a homemaker or did you work in other industry before that?
- [17:30]
Virginia Demumbram
Yeah, I call it the. My. My first life is what I call that. Before the kids, my first life, I actually worked as an aide to a state senator. So that was right out of college. That's what I did is worked in Lansing for Senator Connie Binsfeld out of Maple City. And by the time I left to have my first kid, she was lieutenant governor. Yeah. So I had a really fancy office, and they had a really hard time getting my name to fit on the nameplate because it's so long. And I learned a lot from that experience. I wasn't there very long, probably three or four years, but learned so much doing that. And then I spent a few years at home with my kids or running a home daycare, but not out in a professional sort of career. And then, like I said earlier, I just fell into this position as the children's librarian here. One of those moments where you see the ad pop up in paper and, like, really, they're hired. We wonder if I could do that. And you take your time because you haven't been in the workforce a long time, and you get your resume updated and you take it in and they look at you and they say, what took you so long? We've been waiting. Like, oh, all right.
- [18:35]
Debbie Makula
I think they looked at you with the capital campaign stuff. And the. All of that is, she's already a doer. Like, we already know that. We already know that. We count on her.
- [18:44]
Virginia Demumbram
So they must have. I guess I was really surprised at their response because I was certainly a regular with my kids, all of that, but I didn't know anybody thought of me that way at that time. And then becoming director, that changed everything. That's a whole different kettle of fish from being the story time lady. I'll tell you.
- [18:59]
Debbie Makula
Tell us about that.
- [19:02]
Virginia Demumbram
Oh, goodness. First of all, storytime ladies don't have to deal with hr and they don't have to deal with boilers. So that's just two right there.
- [19:11]
Carol Daw
Very helpful.
- [19:12]
Virginia Demumbram
We know that. But it is nice to be the one who's in a position to say, yes. The storytime lady also doesn't get to be the one to make those decisions that, yes, we will attempt this. Yes, we will find a way to make that work.
- [19:23]
Debbie Makula
So there's that yes word again. There's that yes word.
- [19:27]
Carol Daw
Carol, what challenges do you have at your library? Are there challenges? Are there things you wish that you could change?
- [19:35]
Virginia Demumbram
Oh, we need more space. That's a big challenge. I don't see a way to fix anytime real soon, not with what construction costs have gone up to. We need more space. What else are we dealing with? Sentiment is all right. We're doing okay. Reputation wise and community support wise. We're doing just fine. We have our naysayers, but everybody does. As I was saying, you might need.
- [19:57]
Carol Daw
More time in the day.
- [19:59]
Virginia Demumbram
A lot more time in the day. A lot more time in the day. And probably more staff. Honestly, that's something we're going to need to think about adding over the next couple of years, if we can. Quick story. And this might not really fit right here, but I was thinking about it. We had, speaking of community sentiment and support and all of that, we have a gentleman in the community who posts from time to time about his general dissatisfaction with the library for political reasons and has actually posted at least twice that we need to defund the library and instead use that money for the police. And that's his opinion, and that's okay. But we also then hosted, when the new Michigan gun safety laws passed, the whole package of gun safety legislation passed. We hosted an information session about that because we thought it was important for people to understand how those red flag laws were going to work and what all that was like and what was actually expected now in terms of gun safety in the home. And we lined up a couple of speakers and we advertised it. And sure enough, this gentleman showed up, as I suspected he would. And after the program was over, I went up to him and I said, hey, what'd you think? And he said, not what I was expecting. It was just information. That's a win right there. If I convinced him that we are not some organization out to push an agenda, but we are just here to provide information, connect people with ideas and information in an unbiased way. And as far as I know, he has not posted about defunding us since then. I can't guarantee it because they don't really follow the social media all that much.
- [21:37]
Debbie Makula
But I think the whole concept of the human to human, you at least you're talking to people, you're accepting what they have to say, you're taking their ideas and running with them if it works. And if it doesn't, you're trying to mold and shape them into something that works for your community. But I think the key is that you have taken that human to human connection so far that the listening component of it, that is who you are. I'm just getting to know you right now. Right. And I'm just like, it's an amazing feat to be able to listen to the community and to then put that into play within the library and into the work that you're doing. It's commendable. Thank you.
- [22:24]
Virginia Demumbram
Thank you. Thanks. But yes, I do, I do like to listen. It sometimes takes more effort than others, but I can almost always spot the humanity and whoever's across from me. It's always a person I'm dealing with. It's always a person and everybody's dealing with something.
- [22:36]
Debbie Makula
We just have a few more minutes with you, Virginia. Carol, do you have another question?
- [22:40]
Virginia Demumbram
Maybe. Yeah.
- [22:42]
Carol Daw
I was wondering if there's something that you're very proud of or a surprise about something that happened.
- [22:49]
Virginia Demumbram
Outer surprise. So many things I'm proud of. The one long table is something I'm really proud of.
- [22:54]
Carol Daw
What about a surprise?
- [22:57]
Virginia Demumbram
Yes. I had a patron come in just the other day and she threw me a curveball. I was never expecting. I did not know, first of all, that she is a beta reader. Didn't even know beta readers existed. But she is on a first name basis with a popular author who writes cozy mysteries. And there's a cozy mystery series she writes that's about a librarian in a small town. And my friend Becky is a beta reader for her reads chapters, gives suggestions. And this past summer she wrote to her author friend and said, hey, I think your small town librarian needs to be the grand Marshal in the 4th of July parade. Because I had been the 4th July parade grand marshal because I was selected for that because of a Rotary Award. And so I was the grand marshal. And she saw me in the parade and she said, I think you need to write a book about that. And the author did. And there is now a book coming out in July about a small town librarian solving a mystery by sitting on top of that float as the grand marshal fourth of July parade. And the book is dedicated to my friend Becky.
- [23:59]
Debbie Makula
What a great story.
- [24:01]
Carol Daw
Soon to be a major motion pitch. That's so exciting. Thank you for sharing that.
- [24:08]
Debbie Makula
That's a great story. So our last question maybe is just Virginia, you're such a positive influence, but what gives you hope for the future of libraries? What are you most excited about? For the future?
- [24:22]
Virginia Demumbram
What am I most excited about? I'm not allowed to say retirement at this point, am I? But there's a lot of work I want to get done between here and there. And at the risk of sounding kind of smarmy or whatever, I am really grateful for the support of Library of Michigan and mla. I am on some, like, listservs and chat groups and stuff with librarians from all over the country. And what we have in Michigan is really truly special. I take advantage of all of the continuing ed I can get my hands on. And there's so much here and there's so much support for women and men who are serving as librarians in small libraries where we aren't required to have that professional degree. And the amount of support we get to make sure that we are doing the best possible job here in Michigan is incredible. That gives me hope. My colleagues give me hope. Just connecting with them at conferences and stuff and hearing what they're doing and how strong everyone is standing in these difficult times. Because, let's be honest, it's going to be a little bit dicey for the next little bit. People are ready for it. We're up for the challenge. We've been prepared. So that gives me great hope.
- [25:22]
Debbie Makula
This has been a lovely interview today, so thank you so much for joining us. Being a part of the library land, right, I had to learn that word. Library land is in good hands with people like you. So thank you.
- [25:38]
Virginia Demumbram
Thanks so much for having me.
- [25:40]
Debbie Makula
Thanks again for joining us today and thanks to everyone for listening to the January episode of Channel Chapter and Verse Storytime from the Stacks. Join us each month for new episodes and be sure to subscribe to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. We also want to take this moment to thank our episode sponsor, Midwest Tate and Hoopla. Much appreciation for listening and we'll see you next month when Steve Bowers, the co op director of the Library Network in Southeast Michigan, and I sit down with Azita Fraternelli, who is the director of the Riverview Veterans Memorial Library in Riverview, Michigan.