Richmond Memorial Library

Richmond Memorial Library patrons and supporters got a chance to meet new director Bob Conrad during a reception Tuesday.

Conrad is originally from Rochester, a 1992 graduate of Eastridge High School. He lived for 22 years in the Chicago area where he earned an undergraduate degree in Radio, TV and Film and a graduate degree in Library and Information Science.

He worked for 10 years in the Chicago library system before he decided he wanted to take his career to the next level. He started looking for jobs in New York and California and when he found the opening in Batavia he said it was "a perfect fit."

As a new director, he's not coming in looking to make a lot of changes. We have something good here in a library, he said, and he wants to keep it that way.

"I want the best library that this community can support and the best library that can support the community," Conrad said, adding, "Right now, I'm just learning the job. I'm delighted that the staff all seem to know what they're doing and that the community really treasures the institution, so my first job is not (to) break it."

Conrad is buying a home in Batavia, but in the meantime, he's staying with family in the Rochester area.

He's very familiar with WNY. His family took annual trips to Letchworth and Watkins Glen and he worked at Seabreeze in high school. But when Conrad started spreading the news that he was taking a job in Batavia, it prompted a little geography lesson for those around him in Illinois. They are far more familiar with another Batavia (their very own).

"I did have to disambiguate to all of my colleagues when telling them where I was going to be library director," Conrad said.

Children who came to the Richmond Memorial Library this morning had a chance to be entertained by and learn about improvisational acting.

Karen L. Eichler and Andrew M. Spragge, of Defiant Monkey Improv, told the children (and parents) about improv and performed skits. 

Above, Eichler, playing Billie Bob Horton, squirts a security guard for Billy Bob Thornton with a water pistol while trying to gain access to the actor's mansion. The scenario and scenes were suggested by the audience.

In the final skit, Eichler and Spragge were assisted by Jean Berry and Gina Bergman. Eichler and Spragge couldn't move their bodies on their own. Berry and Bergman had to manipulate their hands, arms, legs and heads appropriate to the dialogue, or at times initiating movements that drove the dialogue. In this scene Eichler is Spock and Spragge is Capt. Kirk and they've just encountered a one-eyed monster that apparently communicates through clicks.

Voters today approved the Richmond Memorial Library budget by a vote of 238 to 42.

Norm Argulsky was elected to the Library Board of Trustees with 265 votes.

Unless you're a serious local history buff, the name Miss Mary Elizabeth Wood may be unfamiliar.

In China, however, especially among those who appreciate the country's public library system, Miss Wood is revered.

Her fame has brought a Chinese film crew to Batavia this week as part of their effort to create a documentary chronicling the life of the "Queen of Modern Libraries in China."

Born in Elba in 1861, Wood became the first librarian of the Richmond Memorial Library in 1889, a position she held for 10 years. The only daughter of Edward Farmer Wood and Mary Jane (Humphrey) Wood, who had seven boys, Miss Wood took a trip to China to visit her youngest brother Robert in 1899.

On that trip, she learned there was no public education system and residents had little access to all the wisdom contained in the world's books, even ones in their own language.

Wood decided to stay in Wuchang, where she eventually made 3,000 books available for borrowing at the building known as the Octagonal Pavilion.

Soon, she traveled back to the U.S. for a year of study, her first actual courses in library science, having gotten as far as she did before then on her strength as "a great reader."

While on the trip, she raised funds and secured book donations that enabled her to open in 1910 the Boone Library in Wuchang.

By the 1920s, Wood was lobbying Congress for funds to advance library science in China and through the grants received and with the help of two of her Chinese prodigies, Wood established the first school for library science in China.

Following her death of an illness in China in 1931, her body was returned to Batavia and she is buried in the Batavia Cemetery.

These pictures were taken while the film crew prepared to interview Kathy Facer, Richmond's reference and technology librarian.

Here's the Wikipedia entry on Mary Elizabeth Wood, which contains greater detail on her life and work.

Cheng Huanwen, professor and university librarian, School of Information Management, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

It was all fun and games in the children's section of the Richmond Memorial Library this afternoon as staff threw a birthday party for the library.

Batavia's library, founded with a gift from the widow of Dean Richmond, is 125 years old this month.

Today, the children participating in the party made birthday hats and played games.

Batavia resident and avid chess player Kevin Larsen has had some free time on his hands lately, so he decided to start a chess club in Batavia.

This comes just as the game of chess seems to be making a comeback. According to a recent article in The New York Times, the game lags in popularity in spite of a record number of players worldwide -- possibly due to the absence of an appealing personality to represent it.

A promising candidate is 22-year-old Norwegian player Magnus Carlsen, who is the top-ranked chess player worldwide. Larsen has not followed Carlsen too closely, but he agrees that an appealing personality as the "face of chess" might, in part, be what the game needs.

"If people see someone young and cool playing chess," he said, "they might be more interested."

Furnished with United States Chess Federation regulation boards, clocks, and scorebooks, the "Batavia Community Chess Club" is for novices and chess buffs alike. 

"As long as people have fun with it, it's fine with me," Larsen said. "But I do hope to get people who are interested in coming every week and want to get better at chess by studying and competing."

He would like people to use clocks so that competitors have equal playing time, as well as scorebooks so they can keep track of their progress in the game and discover what they need to work on.

So far, 13 people have said they will come to the first meeting this Thursday from 6 until 8:30 p.m. at the Richmond Memorial Library, at 19 Ross St. in Batavia.

Club meetings will take place every Thursday during that time frame. All ages are welcome, but young children should be accompanied by their parents.

Larsen said it will be easier if everyone who is interested comes at the same time, since otherwise people might have to wait 30 minutes to an hour for someone to play against. But people are welcome to walk in at any time between 6 and 8:30.

Because "Batavia Community Chess Club" is being run with the support of the library, it is open to the public at no cost. However, Larsen said he will accept any donations to pay for equipment upgrades, clocks, and funding for the NIOGA Library System so they can purchase more chess-related books.

Chess has been touted as a tool for helping people to sharpen their concentration, build patience and perseverance, develop critical and analytical thinking, and improve planning and management skills.

Larsen rejects the stereotype that you have to have a high IQ in order to do well at chess.

"It helps," he said, "but if you have a good teacher and are willing to study, you'll do fine. I've read scientific literature about people who had below-average IQs but were high-ranking chess players."

Right now, Larsen has only a couple of volunteers helping with the club. When he gets more, he would like to have people available to teach the game.

For more information and to contact Larsen, visit www.bataviachess.org.

It's important to fund both history and reading, members of the County Legislature were told today during a meeting of the Public Service Committee.

Representatives of local libraries as well as the Holland Land Office Museum presented annual reviews that both contained requests to keep county funding for these programs at current levels.

"County support is very important to use in order for us to provide the level of service we do to our guests and to our community," said HLOM Executive Director Jeff Donahue. "We are doing what we can (to increase revenue) though our programs such as Wonderland of Trees and the summer program, but this only brings in a small portion (of our budget)."

Laura Cerri Pastecki, from the Haxon Library in Oakfield, said libraries still play an important role in the community. Seniors on fixed incomes still depend on borrowing books and many come into learn how to use computers, and people who can't afford computers depend on the library for online research and creating resumes.

"You might think the library is a thing of the past with technology these days, but just the opposite is true," Pastecki said. "There's more information out there and more entertainment out there and people use the libraries for information and entertainment."

Debbie Rider, a trustee with the Richmond Memorial Library, said there is typically a 30- to 45-minute wait to use a computer there and that many middle school children use the library as a place to do homework after school.

"There's such a huge number of children who come from school to the library directly," Rider said. "It allows the library to reach a population it might not normally reach and a chance for the children to access resources they might not otherwise get."

Donahue gave a detailed report on HLOM actives, which includes school and group tours, visits to local schools and leading history tours in the local area.

"Our history just isn't in one building," Donahue said. "It's our entire area."

In the past year, 3,000 people have visited the muesum and more than 400 artifacts were added to the collection.

Upcoming events include the 12th Annual Wonderland of Trees, the Batavia Antique Show and Sale, a bus trip to the New York Central Terminal in Buffalo and a lecture series of women's rights in the 19th and 19th centuries.  

In December, the museum will host a traveling exhibition, "Lincoln, the Constitution and the Civil War."

No budget numbers were discussed and legislators offered no comments on what they might support, or not.

The Richmond Memorial Library will clost at 5 p.m., Tuesday, due to sewer repairs on Ross Street.

The library will reopen at its normal hour, 9 a.m., Wednesday.