Sisters right at home in a world of words

Carol Axelrod (left) was elected as head of the library board in Brookline last month, while her sister, Janet, has been chairwoman of the Cambridge library trustees for eight years. (Michele McDonald/Globe Staff)

They share borders and T lines with Boston. Now Brookline and Cambridge have something else in common: A woman named Axelrod heads the board of their beloved public library.

Janet Axelrod, 56, has been chairwoman of the Cambridge library trustees for eight years. Last month, her sister Carol, 60, was elected chairwoman of the Brookline library trustees.

"We didn't plan it that way," Carol said. "It evolved organically." But, she said, the two do share a love of books and libraries.

Growing up in the Bronx, and later Mount Vernon, N.Y., the two were regularly taken to the library.

Carol recalled a family story about getting her first library card: "When I was about 2, or maybe older, the librarian said I couldn't get a card until I could sign my name," she said. Needless to say, she "signed" and got the card.

"Neither one of our parents were fantastic readers, but our mom recognized the library was a place we could have a good time," Janet Axelrod said.

She recalled the Mount Vernon library as "a book palace" with murals and high-ceilinged reading rooms.

"Ever since, we've had a love of libraries," she said. "We've been patrons, participants, and now protectors."

In addition to her work with the library, Carol is a career counselor privately and at the Brandeis Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She also volunteers for a program at Cambridge Rindge & Latin that helps students get into college.

Janet moved to Cambridge in 1978 and worked at the Haymarket People's Fund before landing a job at Lotus, eventually becoming a vice president for human resources. She now works with nonprofits as a consultant and likes to join their boards.

The sisters' two library boards are slightly different. Cambridge has six appointed trustees; Brookline's 12-member board is usually elected in a townwide vote.

Carol's campaign slogan? "Book lovers never go to bed alone."

There are differences in the institutions they steer, too.

Janet's main focus has been the $91 million reconstruction of the main branch in Cambridge.

Brookline's main branch was renovated in 2003. While hailed as a huge improvement over the dusty stacks and cramped basement Children's Room that preceded it, that project cost a relative pittance at $13 million .

"They are spending five times as much as we did on our renovation," Carol noted. "It's going to be outstanding."

Janet agreed, saying, "It's a temple to public learning."

Brookline boasts one of the country's first children's departments. Cambridge boasts six branches and one of the city's lovelier structures - a Richardsonian 1889 brownstone - for its main branch. Brookline's two branches are larger than most of Cambridge's, says the town librarian, Chuck Flaherty.

Perhaps most important, both libraries are central to the communities' identities.

"The library is the most visited public building in Brookline," Carol said. "It's a completely egalitarian, democratic institution that educates the public. It offers true availability of all knowledge."

In Cambridge, Janet sees the library as a pillar of education and integration in the city and beyond.

"I feel the libraries are second only to the public education system in this country as a place where people become American citizens," she said. "We have a huge international population from all classes; the numbers grow all the time."

Patrons at the Cambridge libraries include scholars, the homeless, high school students (the main library will be connected to the city's high school), and immigrants.

Both libraries sponsor an annual program in which a book is chosen for the community to read, and speakers, movies, discussion groups, and musical performances highlight aspects of the book for all audiences.

Brookline's book this year was "Alice in Wonderland."

Cambridge read "Three Cups of Tea," a book about building schools in Afghanistan. A Nov. 9 speech by the subject of the book, Greg Mortenson, drew more people than could fit into the 1,100-seat Sanders Theatre.

"Amazingly enough, people are still engaged with books," Janet said.