When William Brahms began managing the Voorhees Branch Library 11 years ago, there was no Wi-Fi, only a minimal amount of programing geared toward adults, no librarian specifically for young adults, and the library was still lending LP records and cassette tapes.
“When I came here, we were the statewide reference center,” Brahms recalls. “That meant that if a library anywhere in the state could not answer a reference question, they called us and we had the books and a big staff to look it up.”
While that particular function of the library ceased in 2006, the core function of the library to educate, inform and entertain remains as it has since its founding in 1969, albeit ever changing to suit the needs of its patrons.
Over these past 10 years, Brahms said those changes have included almost everything, from the addition of more than 75 public access computers, Wi-Fi throughout the building, more adult courses, more meeting space and meeting rooms, a librarian and space specifically for young adults, literacy programs, high school education programs, online tutoring services, streaming services, downloadable books and music, and more.
“We really wanted to make this more a community center — where are the community centers in towns anymore?” Brahms wonders. “A lot of the organizations that used to foster that sort of stuff have kind of faded away, but we are open more than 60 hours a week.”
Take for example the library’s teen space, The Corner, also added within the last 10 years, which features an HD TV, a performance stage, booths, chairs and shelves filled with graphic and young adult novels.
“It’s important to keep up with the changing trends, and young adults are the gateway to the trends, and if you capture someone young in life as a library user, you have them for life,” Brahms said.
For the books the library does have, which is still many, sophisticated software now tracks the rate at which books are being checked out, something impossible to determine 10 years ago outside of physically looking at every book in the collection.
“When I came here, we used to pour through magazines and circle reviews and order books,” Brahms said. “Technology has really aided the ability to see what people are reading.”
Brahms said being able to remove books no one was using, along with big back catalogues of magazines and other old print media now available online, has physically changed the landscape of the library.
“That’s opened space, and opening up spaces allows us to put computers in, put in educational centers, the teen center, and I think that’s one of the reasons why we’re doing more.”
Even programs geared toward the library’s youngest patrons, those who still can’t read, have increased over the past decade.
“This is just my theory, but young kids, before they really become computer accessible, they still need a physical book,” Brahms said. “We’re the main point for parents to get physical books into kids’ hands, and children’s programing has also increased.”
And, as Brahms noted, the library has far more programs for adults in 2015 than it did in 2005, including advanced computer education classes, senior groups, lecture series, concerts, high school education and even multiple books clubs, some with very specific niches such as meetings for those with intellectual or developmental disabilities or discussions on books that are entirely non-fiction.
“The library was typically seen as a place that only does programing for kids, but adult programming has grown a lot,” Brahms said.
Brahms said that although calling the library leads to a recorded message announcing most of the library’s services are now available on the web, the branch still receives more 400,000 visitors a year.
“Technology has opened up space in the library,” Brahms said. “It has opened up easier access to service and different services, has allowed us to learn what people want more and has allowed us to put more technology in the library that people want to use and need to use in their lives.”
