SPOTLIGHT: Library gets by ‘with a little help from my friends…’

By Christian Kirkpatrick Special Writer
    Hundreds of supporters of the Princeton Public Library received an early campaign debriefing Friday night (Oct. 24) from Newsweek editor-at-large Evan Thomas. He was the featured speaker for the library’s annual benefit, which began with his talk at Nassau Presbyterian Church.
    Mr. Thomas was introduced by Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In addition to Mr. Thomas’s work for Newsweek, he is, for the next four years, the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University.
    Newsweek, as in the past three elections, will soon feature a lengthy article by Mr. Thomas, analyzing the current campaign, from its beginnings to its end on Tuesday next. The eager audience heard something of what he expects to say.
    Observing that journalists love conflict, Mr. Thomas noted that Hillary Clinton and John McCain have provided much for them to write about, while Barrack Obama has remained true to his nickname, “No Drama Obama.”
    He expects Mr. Obama to win the election, in part because of his unflappable style, which has contrasted sharply with John McCain’s. During the debates, he said, Mr. McCain sounded like “the angry old man yelling at the kids to get off the lawn” while his opponent was in control of himself and the situation.
    However, Mr. Thomas maintained that the economy, not the candidates’ affects, has turned the tide against the Republican candidate. Even the Democrats, he joked, can’t lose while a Republican president presides over financial disaster.
    He predicted that after his election Mr. Obama’s biggest threat will come from the left wing of his party, which will encourage him to overspend to stimulate the economy. He thinks Mr. Obama will resist this temptation.
    “It’s still a slightly right-of-center country,” Mr. Thomas said. Mr. Obama understands this. He knows that as president he must serve the entire country, not just a part of it, he suggested. The candidate’s defining moment, he noted, occurred when he became president of the Harvard Law Review after convincing editors on both the right and the left that he was one of them.
    After closely following the election since its beginnings, Mr. Thomas admitted that he still doesn’t know much about Mr. Obama’s politics. But, he observed, “you never know what kind of president a candidate will be until he is president.”
    One thing Mr. Thomas does know is that “he listens to critics as well as supporters, to a variety of voices.”
    “Obama gives me hope,” he said. After Mr. Thomas’s talk, about 320 patrons continued on to the Princeton Public Library for cocktails, a silent auction and dinner.
    “We love dining in the library,” declared Pam Wakefield, president of its Friends Council. On the day of the benefit, the library closes at 1, then “great forces of people come in and transform it,” said the Princeton resident. A bar is set up, and room is found for more than 30 large dining tables. They are everywhere, even among the stacks.
    It’s a very popular event. “People come because they truly love the library,” observed Princeton- resident Claire Jacobus, adding that the library, like the artwork on its walls, reflects all the elements in the Princeton community.
    Every annual benefit celebrates the close connection between the library and its community with a Quintessentially Princeton Silent Auction. This year it featured more than 110 items, most of which had a strong local component. They included a hand-written poem by Pulitzer-prize winning Paul Muldoon, an art print of Rush Holt’s 2008 campaign poster, a sketch by architect Michael Graves, bike tours of Princeton, meals at local restaurants and four season passes to the Princeton Garden Theater.
    Proceeds from fundraisers like the annual benefit raise money for the library’s collection, said Katherine McGavern, president of the library’s Board of Trustees. Princeton Borough and Princeton Township fund only 80 percent of the library’s expenses. “This is a wonderful foundation,” the Princeton resident noted, but it doesn’t help the library acquire such items as books, CDs or DVDs.
    It also doesn’t help fund new programs and projects. For this reason, the library is raising an endowment. In 2010, when the library turns 100, it hopes to have $10 million.
    And why not? The library is a vital resource for the Princeton community, enjoyed by people from all walks of life. Its programs drew 42,000 attendees last year, and its director, Leslie Burger, is a former president of the American Library Association who both advocates for libraries and works for their future. She and her staff are always finding ways to make the library more useful and exciting.
    Now, said Ms. McGavern, the challenge for the Princeton Public Library is to become “even more amazing.”
    Sponsors of the Princeton Public Library’s annual benefit included Johnson & Johnson consumer companies, the Gould Group of Wachovia Securities and WoodAllen Capital.