Refusing to let a good thing go
As Newton shuts branches, patron-run library is thriving
Books for every reader's taste line the shelves and boxes that fill a 12-by-14-foot room in the Shuman Center of Oak Hill Park, and Charlotte Cutter, 88, and Pat Bley, 71, serve as their gatekeepers.
Devastated by Newton's 1991 decision to close the branch library in Oak Hill Park, Cutter, Bley, and their late friend, Ida Zellen, created their own. It could be a model for the future. Last month, Newton shut down its remaining branch libraries - Auburndale, Waban, Newton Corner, and Nonantum.
The issue will be revived when the city's Board of Aldermen takes up the budget at a special meeting Monday. Alderwoman Amy Sangiolo filed a resolution requesting all four branches be reopened.
But if they remain closed, Cutter and Bley offer a real alternative for residents scrambling to replace their neighborhood meeting places.
Every Tuesday since the early 1990s, one of the women have opened the doors to the house-like community center on Saw Mill Brook Parkway. For an hour and a half, mothers come with or without their children and browse, picking up every kind of story, from the Berenstain Bears to Winnie the Pooh to the Goosebumps to Ramona Quimby, or such classics as "The Secret Garden."
People from across the city leave bags filled with books on the porch as donations for the community library. No textbooks, please: "Nobody wants them," Cutter said.
And then there are the Scrabble games, iced tea, and Oreos. Patrons Rosaline Scott, Frieda Wald, and Edith Suvalsky, 91, come from as far as West Roxbury to hang out with their friends on Tuesday afternoons. They look at pictures of grandchildren, tease one another, and take their wordplay seriously. And, of course, they exchange books - Debbie Macomber, Nicholas Sparks, and Maeve Binchy are favorites.
"It's the sense of community," Bley said recently. "You come together and catch up, see the neighbors, trade books. You don't get that from the big library."
The Oak Hill Branch Library was among six branches the city closed in 1991, when the main library opened. Those buildings were converted into different facilities, including a senior center, police station annex, and the city's health offices. The Oak Hill library became the Shuman Center, which is operated by a neighborhood association that allows the women to run the library as a community resource.
At the end of June, in response to voter rejection of a $12 million property tax override in May, Newton officials closed the remaining four branches, saving $273,000 a year. The city said the libraries were underutilized. During one March week, the four branches averaged nine to 18 people per hour, according to city statistics.
There were also 40 layoffs in the schools, shorter hours at the main library, and 16 Police Department jobs lost, but the library closures were among the most heavily opposed cuts.
Hundreds of people signed petitions, held mobilization meetings at private homes, and waged letter-writing campaigns. At a public hearing, residents packed the aldermen's chambers, where, one by one for about two hours, they spoke about what the libraries mean to them.
The stories were familiar to Cutter and Bley, both of whom had spent countless hours in the Oak Hill branch before it closed.
Bley, a resident of the area since 1956, said it was such a part of her family's life that when one of her daughters, then 5, ran away from home, she went to the library. When the branch closed in 1991, Bley didn't have transportation to get to the main library.
For Cutter, a resident since 1951, it was about a love of reading.
"Reading is such an important part of education," said Cutter, whose son, Alan attributed his love of reading to his mother. "When you learn how to read, and to love to read, when you are little, you'll keep it up."
Initially, the city had a bookmobile that would come to the neighborhood once a week for a couple of hours. But it was quickly shut down because it was underutilized. People were either at work, or kids were at school, during those hours, Bley said.
Zellen had the idea for converting a portion of the community center, which stands where the branch library once did, into a neighborhood library. The city donated books from the main library and bookmobile.
The community library is more of a book exchange, where people can take the books and keep them for as long as they like.
Cutter began working with Zellen at the library in the early 1990s. Bley started volunteering only five years ago, but she took the lead when Cutter broke her back last year.
Newton resident Judith Aaronson and her three children, ages 2 to 7, have visited the Shuman Center library every couple of weeks for the past three years and generally take five or six books home with them.
"It's close, it's convenient, and you don't have to worry about returning books - you can even take them on vacation with you," Aaronson said during a recent visit. She also donates books because she knows they "won't be destroyed, but read."
Cutter and Bley see community libraries like theirs as a way other neighborhoods can preserve their gathering places. They were sad to hear about the closures - and curious.
"What are they going to do with the books?" Cutter said to Bley.
"I was wondering about that, wondering if we could get some of them," Bley responded with a smile.
Rachana Rathi can be reached at rrathi@globe.com. 