Just lately named Chief Librarian of the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), Edwin B. Maxwell oversees the sixth-largest public library system in the USA. He described his function as overseeing public service in all Brooklyn libraries (62 branches).
“There are specific baseline companies that we should always present to all folks of Brooklyn, to ensure they’ve entry to collections, info, expertise, and that there’s programming for each age group,” stated Maxwell. “Every department, every neighborhood in Brooklyn, and what makes Brooklyn particular is [that] all of them have their very own tradition. … We’ve to determine acknowledge and repair every a type of communities, every a type of cultures, that basically outline what Brooklyn is. That’s the thrilling a part of the function for me.”
Maxwell stated data is crucial to the lifeblood of communities, and data is in books in addition to a myriad of different containers. Libraries have at all times supplied house to realize info. In addition they present connection by programming and shared areas, together with the power to have discourse regardless that folks could disagree on points.
“There are usually not many locations left in society the place you may come and it’s open to everybody,” Maxwell stated. “The opposite huge piece is it’s free.”
He loves strolling right into a department and seeing folks join. A New York Metropolis native, Maxwell was born and raised within the Bronx, however all through his grownup life, a lot of his time has been spent in Brooklyn. After incomes his bachelor’s diploma at Cheyney College (changing into a proud member of the Kappa Alpha Psi® fraternity), the nation’s oldest HBCU establishment, he returned to NYC and found his calling. He earned a grasp’s diploma in library science at Queens School and commenced his profession as a youth companies librarian, creating packages just like the Rising {Dollars} and Sense Teen Digital Funding Membership, which related younger folks with monetary professionals to find out about monetary literacy and investing.
One other place was serving because the supervisor of New Heaps Library. Throughout that point, the department was awarded the Revson Award for excellent group service. Previous to his place as Chief Librarian, he managed main BPL renovations, expanded Satellite tv for pc Providers, and launched the Teen Tech Heart community. He additionally positioned BPL to extend its function in environmental and civic engagement.
His library journey was not conventional. Maxwell stated that, as a teenager, he noticed libraries as a quiet house to which he didn’t absolutely join.
“I didn’t actually perceive the complete breadth of libraries till I began working part-time and volunteering within the youth wing,” stated Maxwell. “Coming from Kingsbridge within the Bronx, an underserved inhabitants, I didn’t put precedence on libraries rising up. It was not till I used to be 20 or 21 years outdated, after I began working right here, that I might see all of the issues. It was so surprising to me. I wished to take that again to my neighborhood. I wished everybody to know the quantity of assets that had been out there within the library.
“It’s not that quiet place that it was; it is filled with packages and folks,” he added, noting that after seeing libraries as bustling group facilities, they turned his profession focus. It’s his mission to advertise what is definitely out there by the BPL. There’s a super quantity of programming — from occasions to movies to exhibitions to panel discussions and extra.
For younger folks, particularly these looking for themselves, libraries present alternatives, belonging, publicity to tradition, and life abilities. Maxwell stated there shall be continued funding in youth programming. As libraries are renovated, there’s a eager eye towards making house for youth.
“We wish to do this for each age group, however…that’s one of the vital weak age ranges that we encounter,” stated Maxwell. “To present younger folks an area the place they will discover and join with different members of their group and folks that they may not meet every single day.”
Maxwell has compiled a Chief Librarian’s Library Listing that accommodates not solely books — together with “The Alchemist,” “Between the World and Me” and “Grit: The Energy of Ardour and Perseverance,” but in addition occasions, like group cooking and cultural occasions, and a tremendous vinyl assortment, together with such gems as “Summer time of Soul” and “The Low Finish Idea.”
“The Listing is different by disciplines and authors and audiences, but it surely’s very me,” Maxwell stated. “These are issues which have resonated with me through the years. Pointing again to the breadth of issues that we do within the library.”
Go to bklynlibrary.org and bklynlibrary.org/bpl-presents for more information.
