Beloved Librarian Retires（英文）

By Tim Woodcock

2022年2月至3月

此内容暂无简体中文译文，以下为英文原文。

During Lamkin’s final week in the job, neighbors coordinated visits to thank him for years of service, with well wishes, gift cards and cakes.

Historical February–March 2022 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.

After 29 years as librarian at Charing Cross Library (356 Skinker Blvd.), Charles Lamkin finished up his last shift before retiring on Dec. 31.

With his unflappable, gracious manner and quiet humor, Lamkin has played a vital role in the Skinker-DeBaliviere community over the decades.

When asked about what a typical day at the library is like, Lamkin says, “I tend to wear a lot of hats,” Part of what he has enjoyed most about the job over the years is variety of tasks it offers: interacting with patrons, sorting and shelving the items arriving at the library each day from other branches, and organizing themed window displays.

In a larger library, these tasks would be shared among several people. At Charing Cross, Lamkin handled it all.

He especially likes the problem-solving aspect of being a librarian, saying there’s “always something at the back of the mind [related to the library] even on my days off.” “I’m going to miss the branch, the people, and the work,” he says. Prior to becoming a librarian, Lamkin was in graduate school in Houston studying forecasting. Jobs in this area most often come up in the government and corporate sector, he says, but the job growth in the field seemed to dry up around the time he finished his degree.

As a result, Lamkin changed track and moved to St. Louis. Charing Cross – a short history Charing Cross is the smallest branch in the St. Louis Public Library, and it was established as an experimental “mini branch,” a model that has proved successful, Lamkin says. Central Express downtown and Marketplace Library on Manchester Avenue followed the model in subsequent years.

The Charing Cross branch replaced a kiosk on Kingsbury at Four Corners, and in its earliest days it was half the size that it is now, with the southern half of the space being occupied by a beauty parlor.

When the beauty parlor moved out, the library expanded. For a two-year period in the early 2010s the library was relocated to Delmar, while Washington University renovated the building that houses it. Charing Cross is especially good for kids who tend to “like the coziness of the size,” Lamkin says. And the library punches well above its weight as it specializes in new books and there’s a supply of new titles “always trickling in.” The core of the collection – which is ultimately managed by the Schlafly in the Central West End, with which it is paired, and the city’s overall library system – is designed so that most items are less than two years old. “People come here expecting new things,” he says.

The future of libraries Given Lamkin’s professional background in forecasting, what would he predict about the future of libraries?

As long as libraries are widely used and funded, they will continue to exist, but the exact mix of offerings will inevitably change, he says.

While books (and now ebooks) are the mainstay of what contemporary libraries offer, DVDs and music CDs are already becoming less important to public libraries than they once were, Lamkin says.

While consortiums of libraries can negotiate for the rights for digital content and they are growing part of what SLPL offers, “digital materials are not free,” he says.

It would be hard to characterize a typical patron’s response to digital material, Lamkin says. For every person who enthusiastically embraces the move toward the digital content, he says, there’s another who says, “I want a hard copy.

I don’t want to read on a screen.” In recent days, the greatest challenge to the library system is one that no one could have forecast: the COVID-19 pandemic, which for libraries led to a host of new policies. Initially, like many other institutions, SLPL shut down its public-facing operations and furloughed many of its staff in early 2020. For a few weeks, Lamkin’s job was principally at the Schlafly branch, one of the larger branches in the city, which cautiously reopened to the public for curbside service only. Yet even that development did not mean Lamkin was absent from Charing Cross.

The system for transferring materials between branches did not switch off during this time period and Lamkin came in most days to manage that. Additionally, when concerns about COVID-19 included the possibility of surface contamination – wiping down your groceries and mail, remember that? – the library system had to invent systems for quarantining the constant flow of materials. Thankfully, as more as been learned about the virus’s transmission, that has turned out to be an unnecessary protocol. Then, once the branches ready to reopen to the public, six-foot social distancing was in place – not an easy task in a space as small as Charing Cross – and library patrons were requested to make their visits quick. Now, with the addition of masking, life at Charing Cross is more or less back to normal.

With the significant absence, of course: the familiar face of librarian Charles Lamkin. Stephen Morris, Charing Cross’s new librarian, has come to us from the main library downtown. Asked if he prefers to be addressed as Stephen or Steve, he said we could call him either and, if we slip and call him Charles, that’s okay, too, as Charles is his middle name. Looks like he’s already nicely settled in.