.png)
Bridgeport Unmasked
Bridgeport Public Librarian Adam Cleri hosts talks & interviews on all things about Bridgeport, CT, the Park City!
Bridgeport Unmasked
Why get a library card?
Librarians Matthew Blaine & Adam Cleri talk about why you should get a library card: a Bridgeport card gets you access to books, computer use, & online resources, all for free, & those online resources include job searching, tutoring, audiobooks, movies, & much more. Also, we talk about library buildings as free spaces for the public to use.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Bridgeport Unmasked, an episode series all about everything that has to do with Bridgeport, Connecticut. Today I'm with my fellow librarian Matthew Blaine, and he will be telling us all about why you should get yourself a library card. So sit down, relax, or if you're doing chores during this, do your chores or driving, whatever, whatever you're doing, just hear us out why that little card in your wallet could do a lot of good to you. Well, hey Matt, thanks for coming down uh to Beardsley uh library. It's cool to have you in here. I know it's not your first time physically being in here, but it's first time having you on with Bridgeport on Mass. So thank you for coming in. Uh, maybe just uh a wee bit about yourself and the good work you do over at BlackRock Branch Library uh here in Bridgeport.
SPEAKER_01:For sure. Thank you so much for having me. Um yeah, I'm at the BlackRock branch of the Bridgeport Public Library System. I've been there for almost two years. It seems like two months, but I've been there for two years now.
SPEAKER_00:Um Well, is that a good is that a good thing that it's only seemed like two months and just uh uh been been quick and uh kept going and all that jazz?
SPEAKER_01:You know, I think it just speaks to uh the uh the life cycle of a job, you know. You've you've start something where and you kind of feel like you're still starting for so long because you keep learning and you keep like uh coming up about new problems and new things you gotta uh get through. Um but and then all of a sudden you're there for 10 years and then you're oh absolutely, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:No, um, and there's there's uh it helps that in our job, there's a lot of different places that you can go. I know you were doing some work at City Hall this morning. I was. Uh why don't you tell all of us what was going down City Hall today?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so um September is uh the American Library Association's uh National Library Card Sign Up kind of initiative. Um so as part of the the team of outreach folks that we have here are going around to different places in the city um to encourage people to sign up for cards. And why I was at City Hall is that all of our city employees are eligible to receive a e-resources library card. Um so if they live in Bridgeport, obviously they can get the full card. But if they're living in Stratford or Fairfield, Seymour, Oxford, you know, any anywhere really, um, but they're city employees, they can access all of our online uh resources like our e-books, audiobooks, um, and uh other databases like um I don't know, consumer report.
SPEAKER_00:And I would love to hear about those uh resources, but first just wanted to ask because I I'm not a hundred percent sure myself. So uh obviously any Bridgeport resident can, and I hope by the end of this podcast, you'll agree with me, should get themselves a Bridgeport Public Library card. I know that any city worker can get the card specific to accessing our electronic resources. Um, I I feel that students can do something too. I forget if those who are studying in Bridgeport can get the full card, or is it just the e-resources card?
SPEAKER_01:So it's a little the student card is a uh is an interesting one, and I'm glad you brought it up because we were also at UB last week. Um, a few of our librarians were there, and I think we're going back there again, I could be mistaken. And then I myself was at the Fairfield uh University Bellarmine campus, um, which is relatively new. I think they're about three years old now, but um, yeah, any student who uh resides on campus is considered a um a resident, so they can get full access to a card, but they also have their their university library access to. So we're kind of like a supplement in that way. Um, but yeah, they can certainly use any of our libraries for uh physical collections as well as the online.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so basically a student in Bridgeport should be swinging by a library to see uh what kind of card they could be getting. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and and from personal experience, I used to work at a university library, and the collections there are much different, of course, because some are focused at the universities, they're focused on um, you know, resources to support the curriculum, whatever. So there's less of that popular reading, the leisure reading. Certainly. Um so that's where you know the public library could supplement that collection uh and those interests of the of the students.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yes, no. Uh libraries in Bridgeport very well complement themselves. Yes, you have the academic library that I often send folks to for uh textbooks and more academic questions, but then you would come to us for uh uh a lot of nonfiction book books that are uh not quite academic, but they're still about facts, and of course, your novels, your graphic novels, and stuff like that. That makes a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_01:Uh as well as uh children's materials, because you know, if you're a working and and uh parent returning to school, you might have to bring your kid along. Then you can go to the public library, bring the kid along, have the root have the uh you know, kids' books, kid, kid areas, all that. Um, which the academic libraries usually don't carry unless they're to support like a an education uh school.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, that's really cool. And I think that that is what people typically associate, many people typically associate a library with is their books. And certainly we are we are still a book organization, and that's not gonna go away, but we are a number of other things. Also, people can come in and use the internet uh with their card, they can access our computers, which are connected to the internet with their card. Uh, and even more so, they can then access our electronic resources with their card. And I did want to spend a moment on that. I mean, I might have a thing or two to say about uh some of my more favorite electronic resources. Uh what um what are the ones that strike you most or the ones that you use most in your in your job?
SPEAKER_01:Um yeah, so they will differentiate between what I do for my what what resources I use for my job and what I use for my personal time. Um because I still obviously uh take advantage of the resources that you know Bridgeforce offers as an employee here. Certainly. Um namely uh Libby, our audiobook and ebook app. Um I uh I live in New Haven, so I have about a 30-minute commute, um, which is you know a perfect amount of time to kind of get into an audiobook if you know if I'm not feeling like listening to music or something.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I'm actually a hoopla guy myself, but I appreciate that you use Libby, both of those being software that you can borrow audiobooks and ebooks, which are books you read on a screen. And I I believe there's a few other like some music movie things going on, but it's mostly audiobooks and ebooks.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Hoopla has uh movies, TV shows, and comics as well, whereas Libby is strictly audiobooks and e-books. Okay, okay, fair enough, fair enough. And then as well, I also uh have been not a uh an avid user of it, but I've casually used the app uh Mango languages. Uh um because I, you know, like a lot of people, you know, want to you know learn a second language so I can communicate with our community better as a librarian in a city with wait wait, you you would be you'd be learning the beautiful language of Italiano, correct? I see.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay. Very good, very good. No, um it's it's a beautiful language. I'm sorry, I'm biased for Italian.
SPEAKER_01:If I had more use for Italian, I would definitely learn Italian. But um That's fair. That's very fair. My I uh I took about eight years of French throughout my school, and I can understand none of it now just because of the way you learn. And that's what I hated about the Duolingo app is when I was trying to learn Spanish or you know, bone up on my French, um, all it was is basically reminding me of that experience in school where I'm just like tapping answers or you know, filling in you know multiple choice kind of things, more or less. But with Mango, it is uh similar to I don't remember the Pimsler um language. I know of it. Yeah, I remember using a CD uh to learn Spanish when I was going to Mexico once, and it got me a enough there, but that was more conversational, even if you're just having the conversation with yourself in your car, at least it's still uh uh kind of engaging in that way, whereas um building wasn't. So yeah, I would say for myself, I I like um either Hoopla or or Libby. I personally use Libby, but I also use Hoopla for for the streaming movies and and TV shows, as well as Canopy, which is another um movie streaming app. And uh surprisingly, they got a lot of recent stuff. I when I first got Canopy years ago, it was seemed like a very limited kind of uh niche kind of collection of of film. Um but lately they've kind of just expanded to whether that means they expanded differently studios to get their content from. Um but there's some very good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, it um the the few times I've used Canopy myself, the there were some major shows on there, like some of the major history channel shows. Um and the one thing I will say is there are some softwares out there that are a little limited in their selection, but uh I have to agree with you, uh Canopy is not one of them. Uh does have a decent selection of movies to um to to to to watch with your library card for free.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it's great too because they have those apps on that you can access to like I have on my Roku, I've got all those apps, so I can just like you know, if I'm not finding anything I don't watch on Netflix or Hulu, I just skip back to the to the main page. Oh, there's there's the canopy app and and it's already paid for because I have library cards. So there's no subscription that I have to maintain. Um, they're not constantly up upping the charge on me every every year. Um, there's no limitations on like you know, if I'm borrowing someone else's access. Um so uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um absolutely. Uh with your library card, you get free access to these, and why they're free is nothing weird is going on. The library is picking up the tab and paying for these services. I appreciate you bringing it up because uh there are things you can do at a library that are fun and uh not so much educational, but of course, we also have a bunch of educational uh databases, right? Uh databases for research for looking up articles. Um, I believe on our website we have let's see how good I am as a reference librarian. We have the Wall Street Journal, we have Connecticut Post, and I know I'm missing another one.
SPEAKER_01:Um we have the uh historical New York Times, I think. I think history goes up until uh usually they have like some weird date of 1992. Um, but I think you can get more recent than two. I think I've also seen the LA Times, Hartford Current, a few of the other ones that um uh you can get the back catalogs.
SPEAKER_00:I know that there's uh a lot of people who ask for these newspapers, um, and then there are other sources and services that we have that are um very helpful in my opinion. My own uh experience with them. Uh we have a tutoring uh site, tutor.com. You log in any day of the week from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. and you can get an online tutoring session, um, various grades, various subjects. We have Brainfuse, which is a uh job searching engine. Uh and not for nothing, a lot of people who come to the library to use our computers are either looking for a job or making a resume. Like one of the biggest things I do as a librarian is computer assistance and helping people with job stuff is one of the biggest inside that, you know, group.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Uh actually I'm glad you brought up tutor.com because when I was at uh Fairfield Bellermine the other week, the students were uh that was like the one they were they were most interested in because while their universities might offer some kind of tutoring or you know writing help services, it's not as on they were excited about how on demand the tutor.com was. Um and I kind of demonstrated a little bit, you know, if you you can use the card, uh you use the service for um pretty much free, but if you sign up for an account, it's a free account. You can like schedule appointments, you can uh follow up with your tutors, you can um do there's a lot of more features that you can get with like a free account there, um, including uh resume and uh kind of interview prep. Um so you could get on with one of those tutors who, you know, I don't know, you know, there's I don't know how they select their tutors, but it's um they're experts in whatever field they're you know signing up to uh to offer their services for. Um and you could get like a basically have a practice interview kind of on demand any day of the week. Um which is in which is a huge, huge advantage um in uh in your um job search process. Yeah, LinkedIn Learning. Um so it used to be lynda.com, LinkedIn bought it out. Um and so it's the same exact service if you're familiar with lynda.com. Basically there's uh you know, I'm gonna probably exaggerate the number, but there's you know tens of thousands of different courses you can take. Um they're all asynchronous, meaning that you can do them on your own time. There's no grades, there's no nothing, but you can follow along into a course format um again at your own pace. Uh and you know, there's certain classes that offer like a certificate if you've complete it. Otherwise, it's just kind of on your own. But you can take like coding classes. You can if you're really trying to like up your um your skill set for you know whether it's the job market, your own personal use, whether that's for your creative endeavors. Um, if you're in school and you needed like some extra help on like you know, your biology, there's courses on that. It's uh it's a really incredible service. And again, the library card um gets you free access to it.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Um, I've taken two of the courses myself. Uh one was on video editing, which has obvious uh assistance and implications for podcasting. Uh the other one was uh how to have friends at work, right? Because I'm yeah, I'm a very friendly social guy, but I I can really work on the boundaries and friends at work um requires some tricky boundaries to be set.
SPEAKER_01:It's it's very different, yeah, isn't it? And I and that's I'm glad you brought that up because I forgot about all the they're not like necessarily like uh part of a curriculum that you would typically see in a school, but they're things you need to learn how to do. And a lot of the stuff that you know we are kind of asked to teach ourselves throughout life, like making friends at work or you know, being a good colleague, or um how to uh you know, um uh personal finances, public speaking, and all of these things that you know there aren't really um easy access to courses for. Um like there might be financial barriers to learn to taking a public speaking course, right? Um or you know, financial uh literacy or personal finance course. Uh you'd have to seek out like an expert, you know, seek out like someone who has the time to teach you how to do it, but with LinkedIn learning, it's it's all right there.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and in fact, these courses are uh also uh costly, but the cost falls on the library, uh, and that's why you get it for free with the card. And with that, we've been kind of touting reasons why you should be given a card, right? So you obviously you can get books, you can get these e-resources, and you can go to the library to use computers and internet. I would also like to say there's another reason to get a card, and that's to help the library out. Yes. Uh, the library very much benefits when more people in a community get a card because that is a major metric that people look at when they're deciding to donate or not to donate to the library. One of the quick metrics people use to kind of gauge how active and successful a library is, is the number of people who have signed up for a card in a community and the percentage of residents in a city or town that have signed up for their library card. So if it motivates you to get a card because you get access to these cool services, that's great. If it motivates you because you want to help out your local library, that's a very real thing too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I mean, we all are proud of the communities that we're part of uh or serve and or serve. Um, you know, I I don't particularly live in Bridgeport, but I serve the community. I've lived in the area for a long time. Um, and I know how important library services can be to uh people who might not be you know familiar with those services. So that's why we're out here doing outreach. But the people who already um have cards can encourage their friends to use these their cards if they even if they don't think they need one, which is kind of crazy. Maybe we can touch on that again um in a in a few minutes. But um the fact that you know you you say you're a member of a community and and what a way to be a member is to have a library card. That's like a a proof of that you're a part of that community, right? Um and again, even if you don't use that service, uh we can then tell you know uh potential donors, um city itself who are who we seek funding from, um like X percent of our population has an active library card. Um and I was actually looking at those numbers recently. Uh so Bridgeport has a population of about 150,000, I think.
SPEAKER_00:Sounds about right.
SPEAKER_01:Um we have just under 19,000 cards. So I'm not a math guy, um, not a math scientist by any means. That's why I'm a librarian, but uh that could be definitely improved, I would say.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, absolutely. I I agree with that. Um and not not even for selfish reasons. I mean, you know, I just I just want as many people in the community to be using art services. Yeah. Yeah, no, these uh I also want to talk about another service that the library provides, a little less tangible than the ones we've been talking about, but certainly quite as real. Uh, and that is a meeting space, a place for people to come together. And yes, that sometimes means people literally booking a room to meet in, but it's also the notion of the space and the environment uh that you experience when you come in. Uh a space that's free and not just in terms of not costing anything. Uh now, Matt, I know you've delved uh deep into uh this type of a of a public space. Um I will spoil nothing. Why don't you tell me what you've uh what you found out about it?
SPEAKER_01:Um yeah, so one of the things that it brought me to libraries in general was the fact that it wasn't uh it was one of the few places that isn't trying to sell you something um or isn't just interested in taking your money. Uh so that's a true public service, right? Um and as a public service, whether that even if that it was at a you know an academic library or something where it's a private institution, the idea of a space where you can go to um that isn't dependent, isn't um you're not required to purchase anything to be there. You're not required to uh you know be a member necessarily. You know, we we want people to have library cards for all the reasons we just mentioned, but we're not checking IDs at the door. Um, and we're not kicking you out until we close, uh, essentially.
SPEAKER_00:Um pretty much, and even that we don't like doing, but we also sometimes like to see our home as well. So we have to balance that, yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, and we would love to be open for longer hours, and that's another reason to get a library card so we can say, Oh, all these people are needing cars, we need more access to it.
SPEAKER_00:Uh for all the times that you wake up at three in the morning and say, Darn it, I want some Dostoevsky or something. Uh that's uh sorry, you're in the profession for 10 years, you start making jokes like these. Anyways, um, you you did some research specifically on third spaces or third places. I'm sorry which one is which. Um, I wasn't able to figure out because I tried to find the book. I tried to find Ray Oldenburg's The Great Good Place, uh, which you recommended to me. And we have a copy and it's checked out, and I have very mixed feelings about that. I am happy that someone out there is reading Oldenburg right now and about these third places, these third spaces. But also, I would have liked to have had a peek before we met in this room, right?
SPEAKER_01:So there's a um there's a a preview, I think, on Google Books or somewhere where you can see like think the foreword for it. But um, I will say that the there's a so the the book you're talking about, the Great Good Place, Ray Oldenberg, came out uh 1989. Um, so that was the year I was born, coincidentally. So it's 36 years ago. So in those 36 years, a lot has changed about public spaces. Um yeah. So coincidentally, this uh the I think it's the second edition of um the book, The Great Good Place, uh addresses some of these concerns about how you know access to information has has changed uh in the past you know almost four decades. Um so that means because we all carry around a smartphone, all that information is right there. It kind of keep makes us very isolated from um the world around us if we're you know, I don't we're not gonna be the first podcast to talk about how bad phones are for people. Um and we won't be the last either, I would have to imagine. No, I don't think so. Uh I think that's gonna be a uh uh a talking for a long time to come. What I love about libraries is that um, as I said before, uh there while we take information about library cards to make sure we're, you know, the books that are getting checked out or coming back, we know we're keeping track of where our our materials are. We're not really interested in uh what you're uh who you are, what you're doing. We just want you to feel like you're uh in a community space, in a safe space where you can, you know, meet with friends, meet with colleagues. We have a lot of people who come from you know who who work from home who come to use the space. Uh we're not checking to see if they have a library card every day, but they they know that this is a space that they can be in freely, uh, that isn't gonna require them to, you know, um keep buying a cup of coffee every couple hours to to show that you're a you know paying patron or something. And these spaces aren't really uh around as much anymore. Uh that's kind of the point of of Oldenberg's book is that these uh spaces are kind of dwindling. Um and especially over the past uh I would say since um the COVID pandemic started, um the the model, the business models of these traditional third spaces like uh pubs, cafes, coffee shops, um restaurants, they're they're all there's this like new kind of grab and go mentality where you're not encouraged to stay, to to meet with people, to do your do your schoolwork. I always used to go to a Starbucks when I needed to do my um my grad school work because I couldn't concentrate in my apartment and you know the library was closed at you know whatever you know 9 p.m. So I went to the to the Starbucks, which was open later.
SPEAKER_00:Um Yeah, coffee shops could have been the third place and you know libraries, you know, are are kind of filling the void a bit.
SPEAKER_01:I would I would say we're filling the void for some of the ones that have definitely fallen out of um the the kind of definition of what a third place is. To some of their credit, they're some of the remodeling. I've seen some of the remodeling of Dunkin' Donuts have been trying to get more comfortable, more of a cafe kind of style where you can sit down. But ultimately, the the business model is grab and go. And our we don't really have a business model like that. Our business model is serve the community, and that means keep our spaces open, accessible. Um and that's in uh that's like in the literal sense, but also in the kind of um more I don't know, um emotional sense of feeling like you're you belong in a place that you're not gonna get kicked out, you're not gonna be harassed for not buying anything.
SPEAKER_00:And on one end, it's uh you know, on one end, it's a good place for studying and for paperwork type things. Um it's also a fun place. Uh I know we have uh frequent chess games and puzzle doings going on, and we do have a bunch of programs. You're watch your watch a movie programs, your learn about this, that, or the other interesting thing programs. No, there's a lot of things going on in this third place.
SPEAKER_01:And I think you mentioned this at the top of that convert this conversation was that uh we have meets actual meeting rooms for people. So at my branch in BlackRock, we have different condo associations coming, you know, for their monthly meetings. We have local uh kind of political groups coming for a meeting. Um there's no charge for these meeting rooms, which always ever everyone always asks, you know, how much these rooms cost, and we're like, oh no, it's free. And then they're always like, oh, amazing. Um so there's that expectation that you have to pay for everything these days, which is is not the case of the Right.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it's one of the things we're prouder about, I would say.
SPEAKER_01:Which is why I'm proud to do what I do as a librarian, because I'm I'm not trying to, you know, pinch people's pockets. Yeah, the other thing, uh so even if it's not like our programs, uh our patrons are kind of seeing the space as a space for them to do um their kind of their own group uh model where you like people will just crochet and kind of gossip and talk and um or uh you know people come in, you know, if they're working. I have a we have a patron who's filming a documentary and he's coming in with his his uh subjects and and recording. Um so yeah, there's a lot of like kind of patron-initiated meetings going on too. It's not just the ones that the library uh and the various librarians uh kind of initiate. Yeah, going back to the uh the idea of like the social decline or the increase in um isolation from from each other, obviously the pandemic didn't help. Um, but I think we are already on that track with the way our technology is kind of uh isolating us ours within ourselves. Um we have our communities online, don't get me wrong, but the actual interaction of that is all contained within that thing. So you lose that sense of the wider space around you being uh your environment. Um there's a book that came out. Um the idea that like antisocial behavior is kind of um encouraged or kind of built into the way things um kind of operate these days, whether that's uh you know, online learning, you know, online, you know, everything doing online. So you're not going to an actual store to you're not actually going to the bank to deposit your checks, it's doing it all on your phone. Um and the you know, increase in work uh remote work jobs, uh remote education, which obviously have it both of those have their benefits, and I would um I really enjoyed having uh I did my master's all online and and found ways to make that work. Um As did I, yes. Yeah. But you as you probably remember, you you miss that kind of connection with your you know, your fellow students um that you would get from that online class.
SPEAKER_00:The memories are very different.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. I mean, I I can't I can hardly remember a single professor's name, and I don't think I met any like they're the students are different because it was a master's program, so you kind of end up being colleagues with some people that you went to school with. Uh last thing I want to say about um you know the this idea of how third spaces are valuable to uh our population, especially in the post-COVID era, is this idea of um the epic epidemic of loneliness, which the author, uh social psychologist Jonathan Hayde, published in his book, The Anxious Generation. It's um I think it's on most of our shelves. It got some popularity. I'd imagine. Yeah, and I would recommend reading it if you can. It basically talks about how social media is depriving um, you know, adolescents, but even even adults too. You know, every time you're in a in a social group, you get those natural endorphins, the the energy, the you you feel good if it's a if it's in a good environment, of course. Um but what you don't get when you're just online, you get those those endorphin rushes from getting likes on your on your post or whatever. Um, but it's not the ordinary human relationships.
SPEAKER_00:So I appreciate you coming down, Matt, to the Beardsley Branch Library. I know you work at the Black Rock Library because there's actually right now five branches of the Bridge. Bridgeport Public Library, five different buildings in Bridgeport you can go to for all these public library services that you've heard today that you can get with your library card that will become six branches when Eastside opens up. They are currently renovating. Uh Matt, would you please tell me what is going on at Black Rock?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Black Rock. So uh like I said, currently we're in the month of September. We're doing um our main focus is getting people library cards. Uh we're really running with the theme that the ALA uh is um is promoting this month of getting a library card. So we're out here in the community. I was like like Adam said before, I was at City Hall. Um we're also going to the government center next week, um, as well as I think we're gonna be at the Beardsley Zoo, as well as some other uh I know I know tonight we're gonna be um at Central High Schools doing like a back to school thing. Uh yeah, so this month we um are really focusing on getting people library cards as you know, following the the theme of library card sign a month that the ALA is promoting this this September. Um starting October, we're gonna get um back to our regular programming, uh, which includes um the group Yoga in our city, offers free yoga classes. Uh they come to our library, we do it I think we did it twice a week uh last year, Tuesdays and Saturdays. Um so we're working on the pro on the planning for that. So keep an eye out for those dates and times. Um we also have a lot of great kids' programs, we have story times, um, we have uh STEM programs every Thursdays. Um a lot of engaging things for all ages. We also have an adult book club um and uh uh adult movie club. So um check out our calendar, those dates.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely, yes, and definitely check out our calendar at bportlibrary.org. That's the letter bportlibrary.org to find out what's happening at the library. And with that, thank you so much for joining us at Bridgeport on Mass, the podcast all about all things Bridgeport. Today we've been talking about all the great things that you can get with a Bridgeport Public Library card. So please, if you're a Bridgeport resident, you go to school in Bridgeport, or you work for the city, come on down to any of our branches. We have buildings all over the city. Thanks for spending some time with us. Can't wait till next time.