透过疫情，展望新时代——美国印第安纳波利斯公共图书馆馆长访谈

访谈对象：杰基·尼特斯（Jackie Nytes），美国印第安纳波利斯公共图书馆馆长，她从2012年开始担任这一职务，是这座历史悠久的图书馆的第14任馆长。她拥有威斯康星大学政治学学士和图书馆学硕士学位，还是印第安纳州最高荣誉萨加莫尔（Sagamore of Wabash）勋章的获得者。从1987年开始，她一直参与国际寄宿家庭项目，累计接待了130多名国际学生。

本刊：新冠疫情给我们的工作、生活都带来很大的影响，您和您的图书馆是如何应对疫情带来的挑战的？为了在疫情期间继续保持对公众服务，图书馆都做了哪些改变？

杰基·尼特斯：没有人能预料到我们的图书馆和我们的城市在过去的一年里会经历这样的变化。2020年3月到6月，我们关闭了所有的图书馆，但大部分员工仍然可以通过复杂的安排继续维持远程工作，比如订购新的馆藏资料；经过严格的培训之后提供在线服务、远程交付等公共服务。在城市封闭期间，我们为保障设施能够正常运行，为在外出禁令下到馆来上班的员工支付了额外的工资。

我们有20多名员工退休了，这意味着我们失去了很多宝贵的经验和专业知识，而此时外部招聘又被限缩，空缺的职位无法得到填补。

为了重新开放，我们对建筑空间进行了一些重大改造。我们减少了普通座位和可用电脑的数量，以保持社交距离；设置了有机玻璃隔板，让员工和用户可以在保证安全的情况下互动；还建立了门禁计数系统，严格限制每个区域的人员数量。

早期个人防护用品（PPE）供应不足，我们的工作人员缝制了600个手工口罩，为图书馆的重新开放做准备。还用3D打印机制作了面罩，并制定了新的用户协议，期望在为用户服务的同时能保持安全的社交距离！

目前，新冠肺炎患者人数呈明显下降趋势，我们图书馆目前只有少数非公共服务人员仍在家中办公，对于这一模式是否会继续也还存有诸多疑问。尽管现在所有员工都可以随时获得疫苗，但大家仍然对病毒感到焦虑。我们目前还没有接到有员工在工作场所感染病毒的报告，所以我们有信心现在的工作流程可以充分保障员工的安全。

除了物理空间的变化，儿童和成人活动也从线下转向了线上的虚拟形式。我们开展了527场线上活动，获得了27 429次浏览量。我们相信，这是一种有价值的转变，即使回归到可以正常举办线下活动的时期，线上活动仍然具有一席之地。我们还提供了“路边取书”服务，用户可以在尽量少与人接触的情况下将他们需要的资料搬到他们的汽车上去，这一服务非常受欢迎。

去年，我们损失了大约34%的开放时间，用户的资源需求也呈现出了明显的变化。馆际互借量下降了74%，实体资源的流通量下降了20%。从积极的一面来看，电子资源的使用量增长了31%，而且有迹象表明，许多新的电子资源用户将会继续保持这一使用习惯。 因此，我们将更多的预算转向了电子资源。

杰基·尼特斯

在行政管理方面，我们也有一些调整。我们的人力资源团队必须了解和执行联邦政府针对新冠疫情制定的一系列福利政策和工作保护计划。我们的财务团队反复调整预算，为建筑空间的改造和员工购置个人防护用品提供资金，我们还通过寻求更多的赠款来帮助支付这些费用。图书馆董事会尝试通过ZOOM会议处理业务工作，同时仍然保证对公众的公开透明。

本刊：在疫情的影响之下，您觉得接下来图书馆会面临更严重的资金问题吗？如果是，图书馆应该怎么想办法去缓解这一问题？

杰基·尼特斯：美国的一些图书馆正在因为资金问题苦苦挣扎。例如，一部分由所得税资助的图书馆，如俄亥俄州的图书馆，由于所得税收入下降而境况不佳。然而，我们图书馆80%以上的资金基于财产税。这是一种波动性较小的税收机制，因此我们在公共资金方面并没有什么损失。但我们确实失去了一些用户在图书馆打印、传真、预订会议室和支付停车费方面的收入。我们认为，鉴于疫情给低收入家庭带来的压力，图书馆现在应该免除用户的图书资料逾期费。虽然这会导致部分收入上的损失，但在这个时候，这些特殊的家庭更加需要公共机构理解他们面临的困境，并努力为他们访问图书馆创造条件，而不是制造障碍。

在疫情期间，我们基金会筹得的款项超出了预期的目标，这是我们之前没有想到的，但确实是一件幸运的事。我们认为，在这一特殊时期，学校关闭、公众因社交距离要求被困在家中，人们看到了图书馆的作用、价值和努力，并且迅速增加了对我们的支持。

所有这一切的关键经验是，我们要有多样化的资金来源。这样，在困难时期，就不会因为过于依赖某一种类型的资金而遭受巨大的风险。还值得一提的是，图书馆日益关注通过联合服务来降低运营成本。

本刊：数字化一直是图书馆非常重要的一个发展战略，我们想听听您对未来图书馆数字化发展的观点，您觉得图书馆数字化的重点应该放在哪些方面？

杰基·尼特斯：数字通信和数字化的迅速发展改变了当今图书馆的运作方式，对我们如何建立馆藏，以及如何与社区建立联系都产生了重要的影响。

展望图书馆在保存社会记忆方面的角色，我们有机会也有责任去追踪、整理那些被书写下来的记录，并将之数字化，就像我们曾经建立了大量照片、回忆录、会议录和市场营销材料的档案收藏一样。这项工作是图书馆之间开展合作的伟大舞台，因为技术提供了共享最终产品的绝佳手段。在美国，可以通过美国数字公共图书馆（DPLA）的工作（在印第安纳州是印第安纳记忆项目@https://digital.library.in.gov/）来举例说明。印第安纳波利斯公共图书馆在其中投入了巨大的精力，以数字格式记录了众多艺术机构和多个政府部门的历史，包括我们的警察和消防部门、公园部门和公立学校。可以在http://www.digitalindy.org/上看到这个不断增长的收藏。

出版数字产品是建立在数字馆藏基础上的图书馆新任务。今年，印第安纳波利斯公共图书馆将与印第安纳波利斯的大学信息学院合作，创建一个新的“印第安纳波利斯数字百科全书”，计划于今年夏天推出。公共图书馆拥有该百科全书的版权，并将随着城市的发展不断更新。我们的市民积极参与了这项新的资源建设计划，这有助于确保通过广泛的技术应用（例如时间轴以及视频和文本关联）以更加真实、客观的方式讲述我们城市的故事。该项目采用了联合共建的方式，可以链接到有关该城市的许多其他数字资源，并为读者和研究人员带来更丰富的体验。与印刷版本相比，这一形式可以以更少的精力和成本投入保持资源处于一个最新的状态。

虽然我们已经基本掌握了如何数字化那些先前出版的资料，但我们仍然面临挑战：如何理解我们在处理新的数字化材料中扮演的角色？这些材料存在的时间可能很短暂，或者难以追踪和保存，尤其是考虑到目前很多学术著作以及自出版物仅在互联网上发布的趋势。位于印第安纳波利斯的印第安纳—普渡联合大学正在深入研究这项工作，并且协助教师和研究人员制定相关标准。我们希望向他们学习在这一领域的先进经验。

今天，我们与公众沟通图书馆工作的方式以及我们可以提供的服务也变得越来越数字化。我们再也不能只是打印宣传单，然后期望人们在走进图书馆的时候把他们拿起来……我们的一些用户已经很少亲自来图书馆了。我们必须让我们的信息直达用户，并且更加个性化。为此我们推出了一个名为Communico的新产品，该产品允许我们根据用户的选择偏好、邮政编码以及市场划分的其他指标来为用户定制信息。图书馆一旦订购了新的资源，用户马上就能知道。社交媒体的影响力每天都在增长！

本刊：图书馆和数字出版商之间存在着一些矛盾，比如之前有报道麦克米伦公司对公共图书馆实施了部分电子书禁令，您是怎么看这一问题的？您觉得需要如何来缓解这种矛盾？另外您是怎么看待数字化可能会导致的网络安全和隐私问题的？

杰基·尼特斯：这是两个很大的话题！

我们非常幸运，就在新冠疫情大爆发之前，一个主要的供应商在宣布对图书馆实行电子图书禁令的三个月后主动放弃了这一做法。出于公民的责任意识，许多出版商在疫情最严重的时期都做出了一些特别的安排，以使人们能以更实惠的价格访问电子书。

但是今天，电子书的定价仍然很高，计量访问的限时使用电子书也仍然是一个问题。一些供应商正在提供更方便的购买方式和计量方式。这意味着我们可以购买1或2个副本用于永久保存，然后购买一些限时使用的电子书以满足最初的高需求。越来越多的内容也会以“每次借阅成本”来计算，这也有助于满足最初的高需求。由于OverDrive在去年收购了RBDigital，原来RBDigital平台上的电子杂志移到了OverDrive，我们现在能够使用的电子杂志比以前更多了。我们还购买了部分Flipster的数字杂志。越来越多的供应商正在试图进入电子书市场——Vox books刚刚宣布了“iVox”计划，这是针对Tumblebooks早期读者的电子书。随着市场的发展，平台数量不断增多，可能会给用户带来困扰。总的来说，因为目前大家都在关注其他问题，所以还没有关于电子书定价模式变化的重大新闻。

对于我们以及那些越来越多在数字领域开展工作的机构来说，网络安全是一个非常现实的问题，也是当下主要的关注点。我们的工作必须从对员工的培训开始，重点关注网络的安全性是如何受到破坏的问题。这已经变得越来越具有威胁性，网络钓鱼和看似无害的电子邮件都可以使图书馆及其利益相关人暴露在重大的安全隐患之下。许多图书馆都购买了保险以帮助更好地处理此类风险的善后工作，但是最重要的仍然是避免此类问题的发生。

在我们的图书馆中，我们安装了更强大的防火墙来保护我们的服务器，并制定了政策和实施方案，以帮助员工避免在无意中导致馆内网络遭到破坏的情况发生。

本刊：印第安纳公共图书馆的使命是“通过终身学习来丰富生活和构建社区”，您的图书馆是如何来推动这一使命的实现的？随着社会的发展，图书馆支持人们终身学习的方式应该怎样与时俱进？

杰基·尼特斯：我们刚刚发布了新的“2021-2023年战略规划”，您提到的这一点仍然是我们的使命，但其中有一个重要变化——我们在使命中添加了“为所有人”这一短语。大家可以在我们图书馆的官网上找到这一新的规划。我们致力于与社区中其他组织的合作，希望共同努力支持人们的持续成长和学习。我们尤其关注边缘化群体，更加重视那些当下最被需要的领域，例如数字/技术、教育、阅读和写作、健康与保健以及金融素养等。

本刊：图书馆一直处于信息需求的最前沿，您是怎样考虑信息服务的公平性问题的？尤其是在新冠疫情这种不确定的时期？面对虚假信息泛滥的状况又是如何考虑信息服务的真实性的？

杰基·尼特斯：新冠疫情向我们揭示了整个社会在信息获取方面存在的诸多不平等。无论是对互联网本身的访问，还是所提供资源存在的语言障碍——并非每个人都有同样的机会。图书馆必须关注并帮助解决这个问题。我们一直在一些我们所知道的互联网访问量特别低的社区中提供移动热点服务。鉴于手机上网并不能满足学龄儿童的学习需求，我们也一直在社区开展分发谷歌网络笔记本的活动，供那些可能只能通过手机上网的家庭借用。

美国最近发生的事使人们比以往任何时候都更加怀疑他们在电视上看到的、在网上读到的或是那些印刷出来的东西的真实性。在这个每个人都有发言平台的时代，那些确保信息可信的旧方法都被绕过了。作为图书馆，我们仍然必须设法验证我们提供信息的可信度，并为社区提供工具，帮助他们自己辨别信息的可靠性。

本刊：美国是个多元文化社会，有来自各个国家的移民，也有丰富的土著文化。印第安那波利斯公共图书馆是如何保持城市文化的多样性并为此服务的？

杰基·尼特斯：我们很幸运，印第安那波利斯的人口非常多样化。趋势表明，在未来的20年中，印第安纳波利斯的有色人种（黑人和棕色人种）将超过历史上占多数的白色人种。我们已经处于一个多样化的时代了！但随之而来的是，人们也越来越意识到我们对真正的多样化存在着传统认知障碍。

在内部，我们已经开始了一些行动，帮助我们的员工意识到他们的偏见，以及在与边缘人群相处时不自觉地表现出来的小冒犯。我们列了精选书单，要求所有的员工阅读，这将有助于我们对美国种族主义的历史达成某种共识。我们还建立了众多内部流程，以进一步在更广泛的员工群体中放权。我们将继续努力，增加工作人员的多样性，使我们的用户能够在为他们服务的图书馆员身上看到自己的影子。在我们所有的项目规划中，我们都要求员工考虑对不同社区的影响和参与度。

在外部，我们将继续珍视我们的姊妹城市关系，并期待有一天可以再次共同举办活动。与此同时，我们也在与当地组织合作，开展更多的联合项目，例如与墨西哥领事馆共同推出“社区广场”，让这些拉美裔美国人有机会用他们的母语完成基础和中等教育。现在，我们的中央图书馆将成为“移民欢迎中心”的所在地，这是一个非营利性的地方组织，致力于确保所有移民都能在印第安纳州有良好的发展机会。

本刊：印第安那波利斯公共图书馆的中心馆是著名的历史建筑，后来又经过了扩建，图书馆是如何将这种历史和现代融合在一起的？在文化遗产的保护方面，图书馆做了哪些工作？

杰基·尼特斯：尊重历史很重要。我们的翻新工程使我们能够像展示美丽的珠宝一样向公众展示古老的建筑，并在其后附上深色天鹅绒布，确保它能耀眼地呈现！保罗·克雷特（1917年建筑的建筑师）是我们前面的那一颗珠宝，而埃文斯·伍尔大楼（埃文斯·伍尔是2007年扩建的六层塔楼的建筑师）则成为了提供未来服务的关键。在这座新老建筑结合在一起的机构投入运行十年后，我们调整了馆藏和服务，以反映新的需求。例如我们在一个古老的克雷特阅览室建立了黑人文学和文化中心，它集技术收藏、展览和大量藏书于一体，功能的多样令人惊叹。除了为孩子们提供更多的技术服务外，塔楼内的藏书、计算机实验室和传统儿童服务也得到了扩展。在塔楼的顶层可以欣赏到整个城市的风景，这使它成为了游客“必看”的景点！

本刊：您是如何理解公共图书馆员现在和未来的角色的？

杰基·尼特斯：今天，公共图书馆员的角色正在发生迅速的变化，并且这种变化将在未来的一段时间内持续。传统的参考服务已经不那么重要了，因为人们有了多种获取信息和获得指导的途径——对初学者来说是网络和YouTube。但是，这种巨大的变化也为图书馆员提供了机会，他们可以在信息获取的技术上提供指导和建议，帮助辨别哪些信息是最准确和真实的。人们很容易接触到新的信息，但也面临着越来越大的数字鸿沟，在这个时候，图书馆员比以往任何时候都更加需要促进信息的获取，根据公众所需展开技能培训。

图书馆员将会需要越来越多的技能，不仅仅是关于阅读或参考服务的，还包括技术、STEM活动、网络和链接资源等，这些都要求我们的员工保持与时俱进的能力并了解可能发生的情况。指导年轻读者需要的技能仍然非常重要，因为阅读和体会阅读乐趣的能力是需要和花园里的幼苗一样培养的。这将仍然是图书馆员能为我们社区提供的最好的礼物之一。

本刊：印第安那波利斯和杭州是友好城市，印第安那波利斯公共图书馆和杭州图书馆之间也有过诸多合作，对于未来中美图书馆之间的交流和合作，您有什么期许？

杰基·尼特斯：我们渴望有一天能再次访问杭州，希望在之前合作的基础上再续前缘。我们相信，一旦疫情的阴霾散去，我们两国就将能够再次专注于共同的机会，未来合作的前景是非常光明的。

以下为访谈的英文原文：

COVID-19 has been seriously impacting our daily work and life, how are you and your library reacting to the challenges coming with the pandemic?What changes have your library made to continue serving the public during the pandemic?

The last year has been a journey no one could have predicted for our library and our city. We closed all of our libraries from March until June of 2020.During that time, the majority of our employees remained on payroll through a complicated plan to continue work remotely such as accounting and ordering new materials for the collection, or for those who had worked in the public areas-a rigorous schedule of remotely delivered staff training and on line patron service. During closure we provided premium pay for essential workers to come in during travel bans so that our facilities would be safely maintained.

Two dozen employees retired and that represented a loss of valuable experience and expertise at a time when all hiring from outside to fill vacancies was curtailed.

In order to reopen, we made major building modifications eliminating general seating and the number of computers available to increase social distancing, constructing plexi glass partitions to facilitate safe interactions between staff and patrons, and creating a system of door counters to limit attendance to proscribed safe numbers at each location.

Staff sewed 600 handmade masks for re-opening in the early days when Personal Protection Equipment(PPE) was hard to purchase. They produced shields on the 3D Printers and instituted new protocols for assisting patrons while maintaining social distancing!

Now that Covid numbers are trending downward significantly, only a small number of nonpublic service staff are still working at home and many questions are being asked about whether that model might continue.Staff remains anxious about the virus, even though vaccines are now readily available for all employees.We have had no reports of any employees contracting the virus while at the workplace however so we are confident that our processes provided ample safety forour employees!

In addition to the physical plant changes, we pivoted from in person to all virtual programming for children and adults. This new approach resulted in 527 programs being presented virtually! We recorded 27,429 views of them by our patrons. This is one change that we believe will continue to have a place in our world even when we return to in- person library programming. We also offered “Curbside” service where patrons could request materials and have them delivered to their car with minimal interaction—this service has become very popular!

In total, we lost 34% of our open hours last year and as a result the demand for materials changed significantly. Interlibrary loans were down 74% and conventional physical circulation was down 20%. On the bright side, electronic content use was up 31% and we have indications that many of those new e resource users will stay in those formats. We have moved significant amounts of budget from print to e-materials as a result.

For the administration there were also adjustments. Our Human Resources team had to learn about and administer the many federal programs of benefits and job protections that were created in response to Covid. Our Finance team adjusted budgets repeatedly to fund the changes in the buildings and the acquisition of PPE for the staff, while chasing grant dollars to help pay for it all. And the Library Board learned to conduct all of its business over ZOOM calls while still providing ample transparency for the public.

Under the impact of the pandemic, do you think libraries will face more serious funding difficulties?If so, how could libraries do to solve or ease this issue?

Some American libraries have struggled depending on the source of their revenues. For example, income tax funded libraries such as those in the State of Ohio fared poorly as income tax collections dropped. However our funding is 80%+ property taxbased. That is a less volatile taxing mechanism so we did not lose revenue on the public funding side. We did lose incremental monies that patrons spent at the library for printing and faxing, booking meeting rooms and paying parking. We concluded, given the pressures of the pandemic on low income families, that the time was right for the library to abandon the practice of charging late fees for materials returned past their due date. While this results in a loss of income to us, we feel that at this time in particular families need public institutions to understand their challenges and work to increase access to the Library not block it.

Our Foundation actually exceeded their charitable fund raising goals during the pandemic which is counter intuitive but a real blessing. We believe that many donors appreciated the heightened importance of the public library during a time when schools were closed and families were home bound and were quick to increase their support of our efforts.

The key lesson in all of this is to have a blended array of funding sources so that in a difficult time,you do not risk great losses by having too great a dependency on one type of funding resource. There is also renewed interest in consortiums to deliver services at lesser costs.

Digitalization has always been a very important development strategy for libraries. We would like to hear your views on the future digital development of libraries. What aspects shall we focus on?

Digital communications and the move to digital formats for information are rapidly increasing and transforming the way our libraries function today. This trend impacts how we build our collections and how we reach out to our communities.

Looking to the library’s role in maintaining the record of society, we have the wonderful opportunity and the responsibility to track down, organize and digitize the written record much as we once built large archival collections of photographs, memoirs,minute books and marketing materials. This work isa great arena for collaboration among libraries as the technologies offer excellent means of sharing the end product. In the US, this is exemplified by the work of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and here in Indiana by Indiana Memory @https://digital.library.in.gov/.The Indianapolis Public Library is heavily into this work having documented in digital format the history of a myriad of arts organizations and multiple government departments including our police and fire departments, parks department and public schools. You can see this growing collection athttp://www.digitalindy.org/.

A new role for libraries that builds on this digital collection building is the actual act of publishing digital products. This year the Indianapolis Public Library is working with POLIS at the School of Informatics here at the University to create a new Digital Encyclopedia of Indianapolis which will launch in the summer of 2021. The Public Library holds the copyright to this new publication and will continue to add to it over time as the story of our city continues forward. Extensive citizen involvement in the planning of this new resource helps to insure that the story of our City is told in a factual and objective manner, utilizing a wide variety of techniques such as time lines and video linked to the text. It is a federated construction linking to numerous other digital resources across the city and producing a richer experience for the reader and researcher, one that can stay current with less effort and cost than a print encyclopedia could ever achieve.

And while we understand how to digitize the previously published record of mankind, our next challenge is understanding our role in working with the material that is born digital and seems at time to be either fleeting and ephemeral or at a minimum difficult to track down and retain given the trend now to publish scholarly work as well as many self-published titles only on the internet. The Indiana University Purdue University Library here in Indianapolis is delving deeply into this work and assisting both the faculty and the researchers in established standards for this work.We hope to learn from their leadership in this field.

How we reach out to the public to communicate about the work of libraries and what we can offer is also becoming more digital today. No longer can we just print flyers and hope people will pick them up when they come in to visit the Library…some of our patrons will seldom come to visit us in person. Our messaging must reach out to people and customize what we communicate more than ever. We have launched a new product called Communico that allows us to customize messaging to sub groups of recipients based on choices they have selected, zip codes, or other aspects of market segmentation. WOWBRARY let’s patrons know of our new materials as soon as we order them. And social media grows in impact every day!

There are some contradictions between libraries and digital publishers, such as Macmillan’s pending embargo on new e book titles for libraries. What do you think about this? What could be done to mitigate this conflict? What is your opinion about cyber security and privacy issues that digitalization may bring?

These are two big topics!

The main vendor that put the embargo one books for the first three months after release dropped the idea right before the pandemic really hit which was fortunate. Many publishers made special arrangements to access e books more affordably during the worst of the pandemic out of a sense of civic responsibility.

But today, pricing still remains high, and metered access expiring content is still an issue. However,some vendors are making things available for purchase AND metered access. This means we can purchase 1 or 2 copies to retain in perpetuity and then purchase the expiring content for the initial high demand. More content is becoming available as “cost per circ”as well, which also helps to serve that initial high demand. The shift of magazines from RBDigital to OverDrive was a big event this year, and has resulted in more discovery and usage of e magazines. We still have some content on Flipster as well. More vendors are trying to get into the market for e books--Vox books just announced “iVox” which are e books for the Tumblebooks early reader audience. SO many platforms can be confusing for patrons as the market develops. Overall, there has been no major news about changes in e book pricing models, as everyone has been focused on other issues.

Cyber security is a very real concern and a major focus for us now as it must be for all organizations who are increasingly working in the digital realms.Our efforts must begin with education for staff especially about the way that security is breached now days. This has become more and more threatening as phishing tricks and seemingly harmless emails can expose a library and its patrons to significant security exposures. Many libraries have purchased insurance to assist with the aftermath of such exposures, but the most important work is the work to avoid and ward offsuch exposures.

At our library we have installed stronger firewalls to protect our servers, and instituted policies and practices to help staff avoid situations when they might unwittingly expose us to cyber breaches.

Indianapolis Public Library’s mission is to"enrich lives and build communities through lifelong learning", how do you contribute to this mission?With the development of society, how should libraries support people's lifelong learning in line with the times?

We have just launched a new Strategic Plan for 2021-2023 and this continues to be our mission with one important change—we have added the phrase “for everyone” to the mission statement. This new plan can be found at www.indypl.org and in it you will see that we are committed to work with other organizations in the community who share the effort to support continued growth and learning. We are especially sensitive to the extent to which some groups have been marginalized and excluded from these opportunities,and we are being more intentional in focusing on areas that are of greatest need—Digital/Technology,Education, Reading and Writing, Health and Wellness,and Financial Literacy.

Libraries are always at the forefront of information needs. How do you consider the fairness of information services, especially in an uncertain period like COVID-19 epidemic? And what about the authenticity of information services?

COIVD-19 has revealed to us the inequities that exist in access to information across society. Whether it be access to the internet itself or barriers in the languages that are offered for various resources, not everyone has the same opportunity and the Library must call attention to this and help address it. We have been circulating mobile hot spots in neighborhoods where we know access to the internet is especially low.In some communities we have been circulating Chrome books for families to borrow who have perhaps had internet access only on their phones and found that does not meet the need of their school age children.

Recent history in the United States has caused people to be more suspect than ever before about the validity of what they see on television and read on line or in print. Old methods of ensuring the credibility of information have been bypassed in this age of everyone having a platform from which to speak. As libraries, we must still seek to provide validation of the credibility of information that we offer and provide the community with tools to discern that credibility for themselves.

How does Indianapolis Public Library serve and maintain the cultural diversity of the city, as the US is a multicultural society with immigrants from various countries and a rich indigenous culture?

We are blessed here in Indy to have a very diverse population and the trends indicate that in the next twenty years, Indianapolis will have more population of color (Black and Brown people) than its historicCaucasian majority. Our diversity has diversified! And with it has come increased awareness of the traditional barriers we have had in place to authentic diversity.

Internally we have begun work to help our staff become aware of their biases and the unintended micro aggressions we display when interacting with folks who are in any way different from the majority population.We are asking all staff to read from selected lists of books that will help us gain a shared understanding of the history of racism in America, and we have instituted numerous internal processes to further share power across the wider employee group. We continue to strive for a more diverse staff so that our patrons can see themselves in the folks who serve them at the Library. And in all of our program planning we ask staff to consider the impact on and engagement with diverse communities in designing library activities.

Externally we continue to value our Sister Cities and look forward to the day when we can again plan activities together. Meanwhile we are doing more with local organizations to offer joint programming such as launching the Plaza Comunitaria with the Mexican Consulate to give Hispanic Hoosiers a chance to complete elementary and secondary educations in their first language. Our Central Library will now be the home of the Immigrant Welcome Center, a local not for profit that specializes in insuring that all immigrants can thrive in Indiana.

Your Central Library showcases renowned architecture. The original 1917 building was considered one of the most outstanding secular buildings in the U.S., and the new addition opened in 2007. How did your library well merge the history with the modernity?

Honoring the history is important—our renovation allows us to show case the old building like a beautiful jewel that you display with a dark velvet cloth behind it to allow it to really show off! The Paul Cret (architect of the 1917 building) is our jewel in the front and the Evans Woolen Building (architect of the 6story tower added in 2007) became the new backdrop that offers the key to future services. Both have proven to be very flexible…after the first ten years of operation of the joint facility, we rearranged many collections and services to reflect new needs and it has opened us up to additional opportunity—we created a Center for Black Literature and Culture in what was one of the original Cret reading rooms. It is stunning and integrates technology collections and exhibits along with a large book collection. The Tower has seen the expansion of the overall book collection, computer labs, and conventional children’s services in addition to the integration of more technology for children. And the views of the City from the top floor of the Tower make it a tourist “must see” stop!

How do you understand the role of public librarians today and in the future?

The role of public librarians is changing rapidly today and will continue to for some time to come.Traditional reference service is less important as people have multiple sources for information and instruction –the web and YouTube for starters. But that very vastness also creates opportunity for librarians to offer guidance and advice in techniques of access and discerning what information is the most accurate and factual. As we face an increasing digital divide in ourcountry between those with easy access to these new worlds of information, the Librarian is called upon more than ever to increase access and identify the skills and training that the public needs.

Multiple skill sets will continue to be required of librarians, it is not just about reading or reference, but it is also about technology, STEM activity, networking and linking resources calling out our staff’s abilities to stay current and aware of what is possible. Our work in guiding young readers will continue to play an important role as the skill and ultimately the joy of reading is something that needs cultivation like a young plant in a garden. That gift continues to be something that the Librarian will continue to be able to give our community.

Indianapolis and Hangzhou are sister cities.Indianapolis Public Library and Hangzhou Public Library have cooperated a lot in the past. What are your expectations for future exchanges and cooperations in libraries between China and the US?

We long for the day when we can again visit Haugzhou and hope to build on our earlier work together. We believe that once we have the health concerns behind us, and our respective countries are again able to focus on shared opportunities, the future for collaboration will be bright!