A Placeholder for an Absence: Amherst Town Manager John Musante, 1961-2015

the large flag on the Town Common at half-staff following the funeral for
Amherst Town Manager John Musante, 26 September 2015

Hampshire College Students Hold Vigil for Troy Davis

Late on Wednesday afternoon, Hampshire College students, like their counterparts and other citizens around the country, held a vigil to protest the impending execution of Troy Davis, sentenced to die at 7:00 p.m. for the murder of a Georgia policeman some two decades ago. A massive international petition movement protested the sentence, arguing that there was substantial doubt as to his guilt.

Surprisingly, I was the only member of the faculty present, aside from my colleague Chris Tinson, professor of African-American studies, who was one of the speakers.

Chris spoke both of the case at hand and of the broader problem of the "prison-industrial complex" and the death penalty, which, he said, disproportionately victimized the US minority population, especially African-Americans. At the same time, he reminded the several dozen students in attendance: to protest the sentence of Davis was in no wise to deny the suffering of the murdered policeman and his family, who, he said, we should hold in our hearts and prayers. The ultimate message, he said, should be not first and foremost to seek vengeance, but to set things right.

It was, all in all, a serious, sincere, and dignified event.

Around 6:00 p.m., the students boarded the PVTA bus and headed downtown to a larger rally on the Common. As all know by now, the Supreme Court—the last resort in this instance, because all previous decisions by the courts and review board had upheld the original sentence—declined to stay the execution, which was finally carried out around 11:00 p.m.


Epilogue/excursus

The only discordant note was struck by some outside "Spartacists," who, in their characteristically parasitical manner, attempted to attach themselves to this local protest in order to further their own interests. Typically, they made no statements about the Davis case and did not in any way take part in the event, instead (as is their default mode) merely attempting to peddle what they rather grandiosely call a "newspaper." (I hope that is not the sum total of their business model; I've never seen anyone actually buy the thing.) When one of them approached me, I made the mistake of being polite (yeah, I should know better), and she attempted to extol the virtues of the publication. Finally—even though it was the fortieth-anniversary edition (woo-hoo!)—I simply indicated that her parents had tried to sell me the same rag a generation ago, and I hadn't bought it (literally or figuratively) back then, either. She kept smiling her but eventually stopped talking.

Evidently the infantile leftists were not all smiles last time they darkened our doorstep, for today's internal college announcements included a lengthy statement protesting their presence on campus. The objection was not to their political views (which are merely ludicrous rather than dangerous), and instead, their social behavior. As the complaint explained, last year they "behaved in a transphobic and queer-phobic manner towards a transgender student of color on campus; in the process insulting both the student and that student's allies." To make matters worse, they declined to engage in proper (my characterization) Marxist-Leninist self-criticism: "Instead of apologizing or acknowledging the concern, the Spartacists claimed that transphobia was a made-up term, and although corrected multiple times, refused to address the student by their correct pronouns."

Not surprising that they had no idea how to talk about queer and transgender issues. They don't even have a clue about socialism. Sad that these wingnuts run around, interfering with our events and giving leftism a bad name. Maybe they should re-read what Lenin said about objective and subjective political conditions. Oh, yeah: and what their mentor Trotsky said about the garbage heap of history.

Vignettes of 9/11 10.0 in Amherst

Here, a few further scenes of the day of remembrance in Amherst.

Police Station flag at half-staff

preparations on the north end of the Common, in front of the 1889 Town Hall

officials confer

Firehouse bell

Fire Department officers at the ready

Peace Vigil packs up at the end of its weekly event

decorated planter on Town Common

x

official flags fly this year

small flags planted by UMass Democrats and Republicans dot the downtown

flags in Kendrick Park

The Town of Amherst recently completed a lengthy public process to determine the future design and uses of the newly created park, expected to become a major gathering place at the north end of the downtown.

North Amherst farmhouse

I greatly appreciate ritual as long as it is tasteful and dignified. Particularly when it takes place as a true public action, it has the power to convey shared values and create or reinforce community. However the private and spontaneous commemorative gestures are often also compelling. I saw some on the way home after the official events downtown: a small flag mounted on a rural roadside mailbox, a flag flying from a house in an outlying area. Nothing grand, nothing that shouts: just small statements of mourning and belonging.

the end of the day

9/11 10.0 in Amherst

As any one who reads the local blogs and papers (and well, yes, sometimes even just the national media) knows, Amherst has had a somewhat uneasy relationship with the at times awkwardly entangled complex of phenomena involving flags, patriotism, and the military. In part by chance, September 11 has come to be a focus of that tension.

Fortunately, this year the tension seemed to subside, and we by and large seemed at one with the rest of the country in focusing on the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Residents had a variety of commemorations from which to choose.

Along with fellow Select Board members Stephanie O’Keeffe, Alisa Brewer, and Diana Stein, Acting Town Manager (and Director of Conservation and Development) David Ziomek and Veterans’ Agent Steve Connor, I attended the official ceremony on the Common in the early afternoon. At our last Select Board meeting, we voted to endorse a request from Senator Frank Lautenberg to join in a national movement of commemoration, which entailed issuing a proclamation recognizing a Moment of Remembrance, and arranging for the corresponding tolling of bells or similar calls to attention and contemplation at 1:00 p.m.

A day that had begun with glorious sunshine (as can be seen in these photos from Larry Kelley's blog) had begun to turn overcast by the time that we started to assemble after 12:30. Still, the flags everywhere (permitted to be displayed again this year) stood out, even against graying skies. Along with the “official” flags on poles and lampposts, there were dozens of smaller ones, stuck in lawns or planters: the work of UMass Republicans and Democrats coming together in a rare moment of cooperation.

Members of the Amherst Police and Fire Departments as well as University of Massachusetts Police lined up in two formations at right angles to one another in the parking lot at the north end of the Common (where the "Merry Maple" winter celebration and similar events take place). It is not an intrinsically inspiring space, so it is a tribute to the mood of the event that one forgot one was standing on or near degraded asphalt striped with lines for parking spaces. Eventually, a fire truck and ambulance also made their way, backwards, into the parking lot (purpose not exactly clear; there seems to be some solemn significance attached to the mere presence of such vehicles).

The theme of the day proved to be in part commemorating the dead, but in equal measure, highlighting the spirit of unity and communal solidarity, and honoring special service to that community: on the part of first responders to the disasters and the military forces overseas, but also of the public safety officers who work in our midst and on our behalf day in and day out.

Firefighter David Dion called the assembled public safety officers to attention to begin the event.

Public safety officers at parade rest

Select Board Chair Stephanie O’Keeffe then formally opened the ceremony with words of welcome and exhortation. As she put it, the devastating attacks deprived us of our security and illusions in one blow: “We mourned for our feelings of invincibility, left devastated like those magnificent towers.  And we mourned for our lost innocence.” At the same time, however, they gave us a new sense of unity, purpose, and determination.

“In our collective grief, something amazing happened.  We opened our eyes.  We recognized just how precious is every person and every moment.  We recognized how truly connected all of us are.  We recognized with wholehearted clarity how indebted we are to those who protect us. . . .”

We came to appreciate “heroism," but also, “to savor simple moments, joyful or tranquil, thrilling or calm.” The very disruption of the daily routine made us cherish its humble pleasures all the more. [full text here]

Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe, Fire Dept. Chaplain Bruce Barbour, Fire Dept. Chief Tim Nelson

We observed a moment of silence, followed by the tolling of the bells at nearby Grace Episcopal Church.

Police Chief Scott Livingstone spoke next, expressing his gratitude to both the armed forces and the police, and singling out for attention members of our public safety team who also serve in the military.

Police Chief Scott Livingstone speaking

The Fire Department Chief elaborated on this theme. As summarized by Stephanie O’Keeffe:

Fire Chief Tim Nelson spoke about the loss of life on that day, and the appreciation for those who put themselves in harm's way, who heed the call to serve and protect, and who sometimes make the ultimate sacrifice.  He spoke of the special flags at each fire station representing the firefighters who are serving on active military duty, and how this helps to remind us of their service.

He also explained the fire department tradition of using bells to convey messages. A sequence of three sets of five rings once signaled the safe return of a unit. Eventually, this “Tolling of the Bell” came to announce the death of a firefighter in the line of duty, marking the final “return.” That gentle ritual, enacted here, was the centerpiece of the commemoration.



Fire Department Chaplain Bruce Barbour then offered a prayer on behalf of the dead and their survivors. Speaking without reference to any particular faith, or even any mention of a deity, aside from a reference to "light," he asked those assembled to remember the victims, but also the living: the families and other relatives whose lives were forever changed and who continue to need our support.

The ceremony closed with the now-traditional playing of “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes.

It was a disciplined and dignified ceremony.

To be sure, I wish that more people had attended. There were perhaps 50 present: friends and relatives of public safety officers, ordinary citizens, a few Town Meeting members, and some people who strolled over after the services at Grace Church. Admittedly, although the event was described in a recent issue of the Gazette and posted on the Town website, it may not have been publicized as fully as it needed to be.

In any case, a good many people, out for a stroll or an errand on a pleasant Sunday afternoon, simply went about their business, walking by without stopping to listen or even paying attention.

Notably absent were most of our politically more active residents, aside from the members of the weekly Peace Vigil, who quietly held their signs in their customary place and stood respectfully but did not take part in the commemorative event. On another corner was a lone protester, silently accusing.

There was moreover no official—or for that matter, other—representation from the college or university administrations: presumably because two of the three institutions held their own ceremonies (as noted, University Police did take part). Perhaps for that reason, faculty and students were likewise nowhere to be seen.

Equally puzzling was the absence of the local press, with the exception of intrepid Collegian reporter William Perkins. Puzzling, the more so, as the Gazette for some reason found it worthwhile to attend and publish a color photo of the "interfaith" event in Grace Church from the afternoon.

Admittedly, that grandly named gathering dedicated to “Memory, Healing, and Hope” attracted a much larger crowd (though the reporters who failed to show up three hours earlier could not necessarily have known that in advance). In retrospect, that’s not surprising. To begin with, it could draw on a set of ready-made constituencies. Above and beyond that, though, I suspect that it simply allowed people to remain in their comfort zone. There is something easy and affirming about listening to common pieties and treating murder and warfare in the larger and safer context of the unexceptionable desire for peace and brotherhood.

A ceremony—even a "solemn" "low-key and reverent" one, as Chief Nelson described it to the Gazette a few days in advance—dedicated specifically to commemorating victims of terrorism and honoring members of the military and public safety forces, may have seemed just too direct a confrontation with painful and complicated realities. Better the church, the songs, and the candles.

A final commemoration, held after nightfall, focused even more sharply on those thornier issues, attracting a small but attentive audience.

As they have on key past anniversaries, Larry Kelley and Kevin Joy organized a a gathering on behalf of their "Remember 9/11" Committee.

With help from the Fire Department, they had mounted a huge United States flag between two trees on the west side of the Common, forming a backdrop for a small commemoration of the tragedy of 9-11 originally used in a Fourth of July parade: twin metal towers, set in a pentagonal base on which are scattered shoes, thus representing the dead of all four planes on that fateful morning. In front of it, from 9 p.m. to midnight, were vertically aimed spotlights, imitating the iconic but transient early tribute to the absence of the twin towers. Although the organizers did not anticipate it, the lights, even directed upward, at the same time projected the shadows of the model towers onto the American flag, in front of which stood a group of veterans.

Early in the ceremony, a fire truck and police cruiser turned on their emergency lights, adding a more colorful glow to the scene, and conjuring up disturbing echoes of the chaos at "ground zero."

Kevin Joy began by likening 9-11 to Pearl Harbor. A former FBI agent, he spoke about the losses in his own circle of friends: one who died at the Pentagon, and another at the World Trade Center. The latter was John P. O'Neill, who, as an FBI agent, spent years warning of the danger of Al Qaeda attacks on US sites. He took over as head of security at the World Trade Center just a week before the attacks, and he died on that day, trying to bring others to safety. Many of us know his story from the "Frontline" documentary, "The Man Who Knew," and the miniseries, "The Path to 9/11."

For his part, Larry Kelley rehearsed the story of his intense commitment to the commemoration of the attacks, from  the unfortunately timed Amherst controversy over display of the flag on the eve of the attacks to his taking an American flag from Amherst to raise over the "ground zero" cite (he also tells it here).

Many of the speakers located 9-11, along with the Kennedy assassinations and the space shuttle "Challenger" disaster, in a constellation of tragic events that caused almost everyone of the baby boom generation to be able to say, "I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news." Vietnam veteran Kevin English was a case in point. He spoke at length and with both emotion and precision about his own experiences, beginning with the sudden instruction, one day in the Springfield Cathedral school in November 1963, that the class was to pray.  A few years later, English was a Marine in Vietnam, one of a dwindling number of troops pinned down in the old imperial city of Hue during the Tet offensive. He recalled how their spirits were buoyed when they managed to raise an American flag during the battle. The trauma of that conflict and the seeming lack of comprehension of that experience on the part of both contemporaries and subsequent generations made him sensitive to the need to remember the victims of the 9-11 attacks and the value of freedom.

Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan, sporting an American flag tie, spoke about the need to remember individuals as well as our collective tragedy. Unlike many other speakers on this weekend, he also spoke explicitly of the perpetrators. He referred to "evil"--a word that I doubt cropped up in the interfaith church service, even though it is of course at the core of Christian theology, and part and parcel of religion's general attempt to make sense of human nature and the human condition.

Understandably, actions that we regard as evil can provoke a strong reaction, even excess. Addressing that issue, English noted that he had come to find benefit in the power of prayer. The first reaction to danger, fear, and injury, he said, is anger and the desire for revenge. Today, prayer helps him to come to terms with those feelings and to seek, in what he called a higher power, the sources of goodness and kindness to others.

Preparing for 9/11 in Amherst

 The Town of Amherst will mark the 9-11 anniversary in various ways today.

• The by now customary ringing of the Fire Station bell at the hour of the first plane's impact

• The official ceremony takes place downtown, on the Common:

-12:30 to 1255 – Assembly.
-12:55 to 1:00 – Remarks by Selectboard Chair.
-1:00 to 1:01 – National Moment of Remembrance.
-1:01 to 1:02 – Grace Church bells ring.
-1:03 to 1:15 – Remarks by Chiefs Whitehead UMASS/PD, Livingstone APD, Nelson AFD.
-1:15 to 1:20 – Ringing of Amherst Fire Dept bell followed by a prayer and a final bell ringing .
-1:25 – Piper plays Amazing Grace. -
1:30 – Dismissal.

Among the private or unofficial commemorations.

• Many local churches are marking the day in their regular services.

• In addition, there is the collective "Memory, Healing, and Hope: An Interfaith Gathering on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11/01":

"Processions of various faith communities -- including Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Quaker, Baha'i and Buddhist -- will begin throughout the day. People of all faith communities and no faith are invited to begin gathering on the Common at 4 p.m. when bells will toll around town. After processing solemnly around the Common, we will enter Grace Episcopal Church (on the Common) at 4:30. Those who are unable to participate in the processions are welcome to gather in the church before 4:30. The service will include the reading of names of some of the dead, the sharing of prayers and readings, and a litany of healing and hope. be an interfaith procession around the Common, to the ringing of church bells at 4:00, followed by an interfaith service.

• Grace Church is also hosting a community performance of the Mozart Requiem at 7:30 p.m.


• The Remember 9/11 Committee, led by Larry Kelley and Kevin Joy, have hung a large American flag on the Common. In front of it, from 9 to 12 p.m. will be two powerful vertically aimed searchlights, echoing one of the most striking early memorials to the twin towers. There will be an open microphone at which residents may share recollections and feelings.

* * *

[updated: the original post should have contained the list of local events, from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, 10 Sept.:]

Sunday AMHERST

· Memorial Service, 8:30 a.m., Amherst College, Memorial Hill. The gathering will feature music from the Amherst Choral Society and carillon bells, silence and words of reflection from President Carolyn A. Martin and Paul Sorrentino, director of religious life at Amherst College.

· "From Towers and Tragedy to the Birth of a Book," 1 p.m., Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 125 West Bay Road, Amherst. Author Mordicai Gerstein tells the story behind his book "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers"

· 9/11 Commemoration, 4 p.m., Amherst town common on South Pleasant Street. An interfaith gathering.

· Memory, Healing and Hope, Interfaith Gathering, 4:30 p.m., Grace Episcopal Church, Amherst. Religious groups will hold the service, which is to include a reading of names, religious texts and prayers and a litany.

· Community Sing of Mozart Requiem in Commemoration of 9/11, 7:30 p.m., Grace Episcopal Church, 14 Boltwood Ave., Amherst. All are welcome to listen.

· Amherst Remembers 9/11, 9 p.m., Amherst town common on South Pleasant Street. Spotlights representing the Twin Towers will shine into the air until midnight, a large American flag will serve as the backdrop and a Twin Towers float from the first Independence Day parade following 9/11 will be on display.

BELCHERTOWN

· Candlelight Vigil, 5-8:30 p.m., Belchertown town common, North Main Street. The 9/11 memorial vigil is being held by the Belchertown Friends of First Responders.

EASTHAMPTON

· Remembrance Ceremony, 10 a.m., outside the Easthampton Public Safety Complex, Payson Avenue. The public event will be led by the Easthampton Fire and Police departments.

GRANBY

· Sept. 11 Memorial Service, 2 p.m., Granby town common. Members of the Fire and Police departments will be attending the special memorial service led by the Church of Christ Congregational Church of Granby.

HATFIELD

· Service of Remembrance, 10 a.m., Hatfield Congregational Church, 41 Main St. A service to honor all those who were affected by 9/11.

HADLEY

· Special 9/11 Mass, 10:30 a.m., Most Holy Redeemer Church, 120 Russell St., Hadley. Emergency responders are invited to attend the Mass, where Rev. Shaun O'Connor will offer a special 9/11 anniversary blessing.

LEVERETT

· Memorial Service of Appreciation, 7 p.m., North Leverett Baptist Church, 70 North Leverett Road. A service to remember those that died on Sept. 11 and to appreciate those who currently serve their country and communities. Keith Rivers, a retired New York City police officer, will speak about what it was like to witness the events of 9/11.

NORTHAMPTON

· Northampton's Day of Remembrance, 9:50 a.m., Northampton Fire Department, Carlon Drive. The city will commemorate the event with a moment of silence, a prayer by Chaplain Bruce Arbour and recitation of The Firefighters' Prayer.

· Movie Screening, 2 and 4 p.m., Wright Hall, Smith College, Northampton. The Media Education Foundation will screen two films, "Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of American Empire" at 2 p.m. and "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning us to Death" at 4 p.m. There will be a Q&A session with foundation Executive Director Sut Jhally and Trinity College professor of international studies Vijay Prashad following the screenings.

· Remembrance and Hope, Interfaith Community Service, 4 p.m., Smith College, Helen Hills Chapel, Northampton. The faith communities of greater Northampton will mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11 with a service of music, poetry, prayer and song.

SOUTH HADLEY

· South Hadley 9/11 Anniversary Ceremony, 1 p.m., South Hadley town common, on the corner of Routes 47 and 116. The ceremony will be led by the town's two fire districts and will include speeches and singing. Various public safety personnel and city officials will participate.

· Multifaith Service, 3 p.m., starts at South Hadley town common and continues in Abbey Memorial Chapel on the Mount Holyoke College campus. A reception will follow.

SUNDERLAND

· Service of Remembrance, 10 a.m., First Congregational Church, Sunderland. At 10:15 a.m., the special remembrance service will conclude and members of the town's police and fire departments wil attend a commemoration in Greenfield. The regular worship service will then begin.

WILLIAMSBURG

· Remembrance Service, 8:45 a.m., Williamsburg Fire Station, North Main St. Rev. Worth Noyes will speak at the event and firefighters will ring a fire engine bell in memory of those who perished on 9/11.

Monday

AMHERST

· Ringing of the Bells. The UMass campus will hear the ringing of the bells in the Old Chapel at 8:46 a.m., 9:03 a.m., 9:45 a.m., and 10:10 a.m., marking the times of the attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the crash of the airliner in Pennsylvania on that day.

· "9/11 Plus Ten: Islam, the Middle East, and U.S. Foreign Policy," 7:30 p.m., Hampshire College, Franklin Patterson Hall. Free faculty panel chaired by professor Michael Klare.

NORTHAMPTON

· "9/11 Reflections: Ten Years Later," 4:30 p.m., Smith College, Nielson Library Browsing Room, Northampton. The Global Studies Center will host the panel discussion to offer observations and impacts of Sept. 11.

Friday-Sunday and beyond

AMHERST

· The Amherst community is invited to express their sentiments about 9/11 using markers provided in Keefe Campus Center at Amherst College.

· "9/11: How We are Different 10 Years Later," Tuesday, Sept. 20, 8 p.m., Amherst College, Converse Hall. A panel featuring professors Frank Couvares, Lawrence Douglas and Pat O'Hara, moderated by Gregory Call, dean of the faculty.

NORTHAMPTON

· "Remembering 9/11," Smith College campus exhibition runs through Dec. 22 in the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Neilson Library. The exhibit features a dozen books and photographs created by 16 artists and writers.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

In yesterday's blogpost on the selection of a new Director for the Jones Library, I took the opportunity to note an irony: Although the topic assigned for the candidate talks was the library in the age of the internet and new media, the Jones Library has generally been rather remiss in taking advantage of the rapidly evolving digital culture.

Its web presence has not been very up to date in either form or content—as evidenced by the fact that it didn't even announce the choice of a new Director.

In fact, the page for public comment on the candidates was still up—and even accepting submissions—last night.

Well, no more.

Do you think they saw the blog?

Here today, gone tomorrow—or rather: there yesterday, gone today. And, as Martha Stewart would say: it's a good thing.

Of course, the homepage and Facebook page are unchanged, but: one step at a time.

Update: New Director at the Jones Library (and some advice on new media needs)

August 10

As noted in last night's brief update, the Jones Library has a new Director. Scott Merzbach of the Gazette has now provided a thorough run-down of the deliberations, which corresponds to the sense that I was getting throughout the process: Christopher Lindquist enjoyed strong support from those whose focus was on professional librarianship, financial issues, and management skills. Sharon Sharry, by contrast, was more popular among those who placed a premium on personal style and presumed ability to connect with employees and patrons.

The Library’s interim management team thus unanimously supported Lindquist, while a preponderance of staff favored Sharry. Among those with formal votes, the Search Committee favored Lindquist by 3-2, and the Trustees split 3-3 on the first ballot, but unanimously chose Sharry on the second.

Recommendation of the Search Committee in favor of Lindquist, by a vote of 3-2:

for Lindquist 

•  Trustee President Sarah McKee
•  Trustee Austin Sarat
•  Head of Information Services Matthew Berube

for Sharry

• Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tony Maroulis 
• President of Jones Library Friends Lucy McMurrer 

Among the Trustees, President Sarah McKee, Austin Sarat, and Michael Wolff supported Lindquist on the first ballot, while Chris Hoffmann, Emily Lewis, and Carol Gray supported Sharry. On the second ballot, the vote was unanimous for Sharry.

Thus, McKee praised Lindquist for his attention to (as Scott summarized), “budgeting, long-term action planning and Town Meeting processes”—what she called “the sorts of things I want a director to know about.” Carol Gray, by contrast, was more drawn to (again, in the Gazette’s wording) “Sharry's monthly reports to trustees in Greenfield and her responses to questions about how to deal with boisterous teens and homeless people in the library.” Gray, recently returned from her studies (and adventures) in Egypt, declared Lindquist unacceptable and said she could not have voted for him: "I would have grave reservations about hiring someone like that." (not clear what "that" means)


Tough Choices

Clearly, it was a complex choice, and I’m glad I didn’t have to make it. It’s a tall order at the best of times, all the more so under straitened financial circumstances and when coming out of a period of great internal discord. In the first place, it’s a question of how one defines qualifications. In the second place, it’s a more subjective matter of personal “fit.” Comments by Trustees Emily Lewis and Austin Sarat nicely summarized the contrasting approaches to the task and the candidates:

Trustee Emily Lewis . . . was extraordinarily impressed with both candidates, but [said] that Sharry's ability to attract library patrons was evident during her public interview. "She won the hearts and minds of the community and the staff, the businesses, and the schools," Lewis said. 

Sarat said Sharry is articulate, passionate and compassionate as well as engaging. But her weaknesses were more evident in specific questions by the search committee focused on financial planning and budget numbers. Even if Lindquist did not connect with the public or staff, this was not a concern, Sarat said. "We're not hiring an interviewee, we're hiring a director, and the interview is one part of the search process," he added. 

The choice then, is both a practical and a philosophical one: a matter not just of how one views the internal and external role of the director, but also of whether to go instinctively to one’s comfort zone or to make a choice that may require more adjustment and entail some risk but offer the prospect of bolder action and long-term gains. I know that, in academe, administrators and search committees occasionally (but not often enough) worry about a tendency “to keep replicating ourselves” by safely hiring people whose profile is “just like us” rather than opening themselves to the challenging possibility of the new and different. Clearly, the Search Committee and Trustees had to grapple with precisely this issue. There is no single “right” answer, and much depends on both personalities and circumstances.

What is clear is that there were two good choices, and that both the participants and the public seem satisfied with the ultimate choice and inspired at the prospect of new permanent leadership.


Encomium

In a formal announcement of the choice to the Select Board this morning, Trustee President Sarah McKee declared, "We thus embark on a new chapter in our common, but surely uncommon, history." Repeating the analogy of the voyage two sentences later but switching images from tomes to time, she commended to us Frank Prentice Rand's history of the Jones Library (1919-1969), and observed, "As we embark on a new era, I think its opening Apologia worth our recalling":

Every library is entitled to publish its history. For a library is something more than a repository and exchange center of printed matter. It is an incarnation of the wisdom within a community, and an embodiment of the communal personality as well. Its card catalog is an index to the dominant interests of the citizenry. Thus the widely known and highly regarded Jones Library is a manifestation of the widely known and highly regarded village of Amherst, Massachusetts -- a physical revealing of the men and women, living and dead, local and distant, who by their utterances and influence have made the little town what it is today. President Calvin Plimpton of Amherst College has said: "Good libraries are the extension of great people." So this library is in various ways the extension of people of varying degrees and kinds of greatness, all the way from the Medici to Samuel Minot Jones, from Thucydides to "Tip" Tyler. Its annals are short, but not simple. 

She concluded:

Now, you will probably have to google "Tip" Tyler. But I invite you to glance back, for a moment, at the long and noble history that you all have kept alive and thriving in Amherst during the past year, day in and day out, in spite of stresses of a sort that the Jones has probably never before seen. 

My two cents' worth of advice

Now I'm sure that Ms. Sharry has more than enough to do, but at the risk of adding to her burdens, I'll mention just one pressing task: Take prompt and firm charge of the Library's digital presence. In its current state, it is both primitive and chaotic.

Money is tight, and the taxpayer is not going to pay for the glorious geothermal heating and cooling system you mentioned (I crave it, too, but Amherst College can afford that; the Town of Amherst cannot). Fundraising from private donors will be crucial for any big projects, including capital ones. Of course, before you can persuade either public or private parties to make major new investments in your undertakings, you will have to start by demonstrating that you have, at long last, put your own house in order: implement effective long-range planning (quite overdue), and finally start budgeting fully for maintenance as well as operating expenses. (The Community Preservation Act Committee, for example, is not a piggy bank. Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency need, as far as the Town is concerned.) Recent practices have not been sustainable. They need to change now.

By contrast, investment in digital media is a relatively modest expense and, if done right, gets you a lot of bang for the buck. Especially given that you were selected because of your ability to connect with current patrons and other residents, this is your real opportunity to sell the Jones—and make the public buy in. The more you publicize what the Library gives to the Town, the more its residents will be eager to use it and willing to give back.

For example, hire a good web designer. The Jones Library homepage has long been a mess: clunky, old-fashioned, badly laid out, hard to navigate. It communicates an antiquated air as well as indifference to both the taste and the convenience of the user. It's at least a decade out of date. One need but compare this throwback with the updated sites of the Town of Amherst (public) and Amherst History Museum next door (a private institution whose resources, by the way, are but a fraction of those of the Jones, which enjoys support from both a public budget of $ 2.19 million and an endowment worth nearly $ 8 million). They're not perfect or pioneering, but they are modern in look and functionality. If they can do it, why can't you?

The Library web page is an embarrassment. The only exception is the award-winning Digital Amherst, which shows what one can do—and it's an instructive example. That took luck and energy, but relatively little money because it was the work of a dedicated and creative visiting employee funded by an outside grant (acting on the ideas and with the guidance of head of Special Collections Tevis Kimball, of course). Take a lesson there.

First of all, though, make sure your current new/social media presence is up to date. It is ironic that the topic assigned to the director candidates was the library in the age of the internet and digital media—and yet, the news that the Jones has hired a new director is nowhere to be found on its web presence.

• The Library homepage is its homely self. A visitor would have no clue that the search had been successfully completed (or even taken place).

• A visitor who knew the URL of the page for feedback on candidates would be no better served: That page informs us that it was last updated on July 19, before either candidate spoke, not to mention, before the feedback deadline was extended to August 3. And there is of course no indication that the search is now over.

[Update:] In fact, I just visited the page again, and was able to submit feedback even though that deadline passed more than a week ago and the new director was chosen yesterday. Ouch.

The Facebook page is not much better: It is now a week out of date. Thankfully, this one (but why not the candidate feedback page?!) does tell us that the time for public comment on the search has been extended to August 3. However, the last entry, from August 4, deals only with a staff reading recommendation about cancer survival (uplifting, I am sure). Nothing more about the search, the final meeting, or the outcome.

The Library should have led with and controlled the story of the hiring of its first new director in 30 years. That it somehow failed to do speaks volumes (to use a metaphor drawn from the era of print) about its strategic reasoning and positioning in the modern world.

The news of the hiring of a new director should have been trumpeted to the public via all new media as well as old: Library web page, Facebook updates, Twitter. As we've seen, the Library does not pay proper attention to the former two and apparently does not yet use the latter tool, though almost everyone else in the field of public humanities and cultural tourism now does. In fact, Twitter is ideally suited to quick communication of breaking news: a few moments and 140 characters, and your story is out there.

One might take as a counterexample the Springfield Library, a reasonably typical midsized New England small urban library: Its web page, though not a model of design or execution, is at least clear and contemporary—not revolutionary, but not antediluvian, either. Above all, you can actually use it easily. And its Facebook page is not only up to date (revised 10 hours ago, last I checked): It reports news of general literary-cultural interest, not merely local happenings, e.g., the appointment of the new Poet Laureate, Philip Levine (Jones Library, take note). In fact, it's even got a special teen page (a model that would interest Trustee Carol Gray, I assume), and a lively Twitter account, which I gladly follow.

The thing about modern digital media is that, once one starts to employ them, one has to do so regularly and consistently. We expect these resources to be up to date, and when they are not, users become frustrated or lose interest, or both. Even if one does not rush headlong into use of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking tools (after all, the activity has to be purposeful, not mindless), one can at least keep the website up to date. (Example: at least take down the public feedback page after the candidate has been hired.)

It is a rather revealing state of affairs when our public library lags behind the Amherst Brewing Company in its use of new/social media. The latter, an almost equally beloved institution, has a rigorously maintained website, Facebook page, and Twitter account. Why should residents of Amherst be able to get day-by-updates of the move of a private microbrewing enterprise from North Pleasant Street to University Drive—but not of the search for the Director of a publicly funded cultural institution? It's really an irony and a disappointment.

Fortunately, that's easy to remedy. In any case, that's in the past, and we should look to the future.

Let's combine the best of both topics: raise a foamy glass in toast to the library, with best wishes for a successful partnership between the new director, her staff, patrons, and the town.

Recent Posts

• Initial report on the choice of Sharon Sharry as Director
• Report on candidate presentation by Sharon Sharry
• Report on candidate presentation by Christopher Lindquist

[11.VIII. update: new screen shot]

Updated news coverage:

• Diane Lederman covers the story here: "Amherst trustees offer Jones position to Greenfield Library Director Sharon Sharry," Springfield Republican, 11 Aug. (posted Wednesday evening on masslive.com)

• Scott Merzbach offers further coverage in the current issue of the Amherst Bulletin (12 August) as "New Jones director impresses staff, public." This version contains a few additional quotations.

And the Winner is: Sharon Sharry (updated)

I was not able to attend the Jones Library Trustees' meeting devoted to the choice of a new Director this evening, but over at Only In the Republic of Amherst, Larry Kelley has conveniently provided the result (ahead of the professional print and electronic media, as is often the case).

As predicted: Sharon Sharry, though on the second ballot. In the first ballot, he reports, each candidate got 3 votes.
Neither result is surprising, and each squares with my gut feeling about both divided opinions and the ultimate outcome.



Update, August 10

The Gazette has now reported more fully on last night's meeting. An update follows in the next post.

First Candidate for Jones Library Director

Jones Library (here, undergoing repairs funded by the Community Preservation Act, fall, 2010)

It was 91 degrees (about 33 C) and humid when I left the house at 6:45 on Thursday evening and still a sticky 89 when I returned around 8:30, but in between I was in the cool, air-conditioned Large Meeting Room of the Jones Library, listening to the presentation by the first of two candidates for Director, to succeed Bonnie Isman, who held the post for some 30 years until the end of 2010.

Candidates are asked, in their presentations, to respond to the following statement, developed by Terry Plum, Assistant Dean at Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS):

Some critics of libraries claim that all of the important resources are available online, and that public libraries are just community centers with public computers.

In your view, can pubic libraries do things that patrons cannot do themselves on a computer?

And what services would you say that public libraries should offer which are typically not available at community centers?

This is of course a soft pitch, right over home plate: we all know the desired answer. No competent candidate could take a swing at this one and miss, so it’s not a question of hitting the ball, and rather, of the force and finesse with which the candidate connects and then runs it out. The hitter is guaranteed to get on base, but will it be a safe and easy single, a stand-up double, or a nail-biter of a slide into third? Or will s/he just knock it out of the park?

Trustee Sarah McKee explained the process and introduced the speaker.

Greenfield Library Director Sharon Sharry began by introducing herself to the audience in the packed hall, running through the list of her positions and experience for those who might not have had occasion to read her C.V. Although she sounded a bit nervous at the start, she also clearly came across as sincere and enthusiastic (some might say: chirpy). Presaging what was to follow, she made it clear that the human interactions were among the chief pleasures of library work. The talk was accompanied by a fairly elementary PowerPoint presentation featuring quotes by distinguished librarians, full-screen photos, and bullet points and a few well-chosen statistics to illustrate her arguments.

Her affection for libraries, their staff, and their patrons was apparent. In fact, she several times began a statement with “I love.” The main theme of the coherent and competently delivered talk was the importance of human agency: the role of the library as a true reflection and builder of community, and the role of the librarian as a sort of intellectual customer service agent (after all, we live in a consumer-capitalist society). Subsidiary points involved the library as both a good value and an agent of economic growth (did I mention capitalism?), and the role of the library in a world of changing technologies. (in what follows, I rearrange the order of some of her points.)

Libraries and "Community"

Addressing the hypothetical critic’s challenge head-on, she drew a distinction between a “community center,” which might not be free or for all, and a public library, whose duty it is to serve all residents, of all generations, social classes, and so forth. Social media, she said, will never replace face-to-face activities. Sounds good at first, but if it’s true, it is so only in a trivial sense. I am very close to acquaintances that I have known for years only through email or Twitter and other social media. The intellectual or emotional closeness that I feel has nothing to do with whether I have looked into their eyes (or even know how they look). And when I go to the library, it’s not mainly in search of “community,” and instead, of a book, CD, DVD. I can find community elsewhere. I can find those cultural resources only at a library (assuming I do not purchase them myself).

In the first place, her real point involved (or should have) not so much the contrast between “real” life and social media as the role that libraries actually do play in community life. We tend to think of the contrast between an “old-fashioned” library as a repository of books characterized by a church-like reverence and quiet in contrast to the “modern” library as social center. The historian in me wants to say: wait a minute, that distinction is false. A variety of institutions in the 18th and 19th centuries, some free, some involving payment, provided patrons with a combination of shared print resources and sociability. Moreover, the Jones Library itself was originally conceived as a sort of community center (it even had a 200-seat auditorium, lost in a subsequent expansion of stack space), then a radical idea. However, as a current long-range planning document reminds us, the focus of this community center was and is to be on culture.

Sharry noted that she had advocated a café at the Sunderland library when that idea was still relatively novel—and that it had proven to be a great success. The list of tie-ins and collaborations that she had either already created in her present post or envisioned for Amherst was long and varied. In Greenfield, these included not just Harry Potter parties, but also “knit-lit programs” (patrons knit and read together), animé clubs, and “technology petting zoos,” in which patrons could try out hardware or software before deciding whether to purchase it for themselves. For Amherst, she imagined not just collaborations with the Hampshire Shakespeare Company or the Ko summer theater festival, but, more creatively, a Bogart party at Cherry Hill Golf Course to benefit the Amherst Cinema: apparently on the grounds that Bogie loved golf. (Not so sure about the logic of that one. But hell, Faulkner liked to drink, so I suppose we could hold an event at Amherst Brewing Company.)

In the second place, what was missing was the prime emphasis on knowledge and texts. To adapt ancient wisdom: If a library is not about books, what will be about books? But if a library nowadays is only about books, what will become of it? To be sure, that point came later. It’s just that I would have made it the main one. Not everyone will join the knitting crew or the adolescent animé club, but (almost) everyone will want to use the print or electronic resources. Otherwise, the library could really become just a free “community center.” The mission of providing knowledge remains the same, but its nature and the means and setting of its delivery will change.


Libraries and the Digital Age

Addressing the argument that anyone could now supposedly obtain any text or information online, she rightly pointed out that one cannot just sit down and type a term into a search engine. Instead, one needs to understand how search engines work, why algorithms bring certain sites to the top of the result list, and how site owners know how to influence those results. If one is not savvy or just not paying attention, the outcome can range from useless to embarrassing to disastrous. She cited a number of examples. Exhibit #1: Anne Curry, who, delivering a commencement address at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, claimed among its graduates those who had in fact attended Wheaton College in Illinois. Oops. Lesson learned (as Ms. Curry put it): Never Google Drunk. (not sure how that compares with Michelle Bachmann’s announcing her presidential campaign in Waterloo, IA and claiming it as the birthplace of actor John Wayne when it is was instead there that mass murderer John Wayne Gacy first saw the light of day. But I digress.) She also said, to widespread laughter, “please, do not ever google a medical question.” You’ll die, she warned. (hate to say it but: actually, the equivalent of that one also goes back to the 18th century. Plus ça change). She also noted that the library, whether in the realm of interlibrary loan or safe and tested sites for children, provided a certain measure of quality for consumers. And it also promises to protect your privacy and civil rights, sharing your borrowing and internet history neither with corporations nor with government agencies.

Sharry was correct on all counts, although, as a historian of the book, I would have made the points in combination, and more simply (as, for example, James O’Donnell did over a decade ago): in pre-modern times, there was a deficit of knowledge and texts, and libraries and teachers were the repositories of this precious resource. In the modern or postmodern age, there is a glut of knowledge and information, readily accessible to anyone. Accordingly, the role of the librarian and teacher is less that of repository of knowledge or gatekeeper and, increasingly, that of the mentor who teaches information literacy and guides patrons in becoming informed navigators on the rising sea of digital data.

Books and Bucks

Moving from the role of the library to its social consequences, Sharry repeated the oft-made Amherst argument that the Library is good for local business: people come to the Jones, pay for parking (what’s that going to net the Town: 50 cents?), go to coffee shops and restaurants, shop at stores. Though some of my local friends and colleagues are among the major proponents of that argument, it has always struck me as at best vaguely plausible but strained and utterly unsupported. And remember that they at the same time tout libraries as a key resource for the poor, who presumably are not purchasing our lattés, sushi, or cashmere sweaters (you can’t buy cheap clothes or a bag of groceries downtown). Can both be true? Perhaps. But no one has proven the former in the case of Amherst, and no one can prove it, absent a scientific survey. (And locals differ from out-of-town cultural tourists, whose spending habits are better documented.) In any case, this is a weak argument aimed at the wrong target. We need libraries for the intrinsic cultural good they do. Period. If there’s an economic multiplier effect, so much the better. If not, we’re certainly not going to cut their funds or close their doors.

By contrast, a related point that she made earlier was superficially more compelling. She led with the assertion “Knowledge is the one true source of wealth.” It wasn’t developed, i.e. it was neither the old socialist argument that “Knowledge is Power” nor a more modern argument about the “information economy.” What she meant, rather, was that in the current context of both high technology and economic difficulty, residents rely more and more on the computers that the library provides, for job searches, printing, email, and the like. (It has also become fashionable to show how libraries contribute to the success of entrepreneurship.) Again, not a completely compelling argument, on the merits: one could set up those terminals in Town Hall or the Bangs Community Center, to equal effect.) I would have kept the focus on information literacy and mentoring.

Finally, Sharry reminded us that libraries are a good value in another sense. Employing a now commonly used approach (e.g. 1, 2) she cited statistics demonstrating increasing library usage (numbers of visits, items borrowed, program activity, internet services, and so forth) across the Commonwealth. Focusing on Amherst, she enumerated the more than 180,000 items borrowed, the some 5500 participants in adult programs, and so forth, and their supposed monetary value. Bottom line: the Town spends approximately $ 2 million in appropriations, and users get approximately $ 7.9 million in goods and services: “that’s quite the return on your investment,” she beamed. Again, a bit of a stretch, though valid in context. It’s sad but a sign of the culture and economic conditions that libraries need to justify their existence by resorting to contorted calculations of the market value of their goods and services. (value of a typical reference question in Vermont: $ 8.74. Who knew?)

The more compelling point that she made was one that lay behind Andrew Carnegie’s funding of public libraries back in the olden days: by pooling resources, libraries provide far more than the individual patron could reasonably obtain by him- or herself. As she put it in the language of consumerism (and rhyme), “your library is your superstore—and so much more.” (Ironically, perhaps, this reminds us that all those highly-touted "savings" to the patron come at a cost: the library, no less than the superstore, potentially takes revenue away from the small local independent bookseller.)


Closing Thoughts and Looking to the Future

A PowerPoint slide offered a quote from Librarian of Congress James Billington: “If we didn’t have libraries, they’d have to be invented. . . .” This signaled the transition to discussion of technology and the nature of the book, which was what interested me most. She painted a portrait of a world in flux: “libraries are permanent” even though technology, media formats, and economic conditions will change. Less room will be needed for material, but more in order to fit the needs of people using technology. (No argument there.) “Every room will be wired, and every room will be wireless.” There will be “quiet spaces as well as noisy rooms,” The Library will need to offer new services, stay on top of emerging technology, and the needs of patrons. The Library will not have a “dirty” oil furnace, and instead “clean geothermal.”

In her peroration, she declared, “a room full of computers is not a community, any more than a building full of books is a library,” and praised the library as a site dedicated to the cause of truth.

* * *

Trustee Austin Sarat moderated the Question and Answer Session

This did not add much in the way of substance to Sharry’s systematic presentation, and it probably told us more about the questioners than the respondent, but it was a chance for her to converse with residents: to satisfy their curiosity and put concerns at ease.

(in what follows, I identify by name only current or recent town officials whose office is pertinent)

People and (vs.?) Books; Paper and Digital Books

Q: Former Library Trustee Molly Turner: it is nice that you like to be surrounded by staff, but how do you feel about being surrounded by books?
A: "l love books and reading. I would love to tell you that paper will last forever." “I don’t mean to break hearts,” but the traditional paper book will eventually disappear. Although she thinks it will not happen in her daughter’s or granddaughter’s time, the disappearance of the paper book will be part of “the normal progression of things.”
Still, she doesn’t want us to think that the first thing that she would do would be to start getting rid of books. “I have a tablet but I don’t read my Daniele Steele on that—Oh, I probably shouldn’t have said that.” (the mock embarrassment pertained, of course, to the content rather than the technology)

Even if the answer was not terribly sophisticated, it was correct in the essentials, and it was refreshing not to hear another mindless defense of paper. However, it would have been interesting to hear some deeper reflections. This was actually one of the smartest and most pointed questions, which deserved a far better answer, the more so as the subject is at the heart of the topic assigned to the candidates.

I am just back from a conference on book history and science at the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution. We spent a great deal of time there—in the panels, in the hallways, and in restaurants and watering holes—discussing the implications of digitization and the digital humanities. A host of questions are being passionately and continually debated. They involve, among other things, the relation between the form and the content of print and digital books, the changing nature of the reading experience, intellectual property and fairness (HarperCollins recently caused an uproar when it proposed to cap ebook circulation), changing business models, and much more. It’s fine to talk about the library changing in every regard, but then one needs to talk about the way that this affects budgets, books, and readers. The changes coming will involve a hell of a lot more than the addition of still more couches and wireless routers.

BTW: speaking of technology, at least one attendee turned around and gave me the hairy eyeball for daring to profane the sanctity of the library atmosphere by: typing. I was of course tempted to respond by saying: “Wait just a moment while I check my calendar to see what century it is.” (I had moreover deliberately chosen an isolated chair at the back of the room, beyond the last formally arranged row of seats.) This is apparently becoming something of an issue nowadays. It also featured at our conference, where we had sponsored a Twitter contest that generated some 2000 tweets, mostly by younger participants. There, too, the typing occasioned some raised eyebrows among older folks, and at the closing session, our Vice President felt compelled to tell members that they needed to adjust to a changing world. Indeed. The library is supposed to be a "community" center buzzing with activity and human interaction, but I can't type gently on my laptop?  You see the challenge we face.


The Cost of Going Green

Q: Library Trustee Carol Gray (just back from a stint in Egypt) picked up on the energy question.
Geothermal is great, but costs a lot, she noted. “How would you fund that?”
A: It’s a process and it requires funding.

Weak answer. Context: A few years ago, Ms. Gray proposed a geothermal system for the library, to the tune of approximately $ 1.8 million, if I recall correctly. The Joint Capital Planning Committee, struggling with slashed budgets in every department, did not even take the idea seriously (remember that, this year, it declined to budget one-tenth that amount for War Memorial Pool). The total Library budget, as Sharry had just noted, is about $ 2 million.


More on Books and Bucks; Philanthropy

Q: How do you view the replenishing of the endowment from private sources?
A: I need to know more: can you provide details?
Q: Does she know individuals in Greenfield who would give if asked?
A: Oh, yes: the more they feel ownership, the more they participate.

Q: Another question about funding.
A: It’s always about collaborators.
Q: Who?
A: Government: fire, police, everyone; think outside the box.


BFFs?

Q: Louis Greenbaum (former Library Trustee): How well do friends and trustees in Greenfield get along? (a very pointed allusion to the months of chaos and gridlock that made the Trustees a subject of controversy and eventually led to the retirement of then-Director Bonnie Isman).
A: Very well. She gives great credit to them for so generously giving of their time. “I send out a lot of emails, so I’m always keeping them in the loop.” Someone from one group always attends the meeting of the other: “It’s all about communication.”

Q: What about the presence of the 26-story UMass Library and the Frost Library at Amherst College: Should there be a relation?
A: Absolutely, it would be crazy not to take advantage of them. However, their missions and constituencies are distinct: “public libraries are totally different from academic libraries—ok, not totally. They have one specific mission, and we are serving everybody.”


Patrons and Policies

Q: Hwei-Ling Greeney (former Select Board member; Chair, Committee on Homelessness) asked how a public library might treat the homeless (our homeless shelter has become the subject of some current controversy).
A: When Sharry began working in the library as a college student at 18, her duties included closing the building at 9 pm, and making the homeless leave. As she told it, the experience broke her heart, so that she would go home in tears. It was one reason that she ended up studying political science at the University of Massachusetts first, and only later returned to the library as a career option.

Libraries do have to have policies that enforce order and safety, she observed. “Every once in a while,” she explained, “you do get a stinker of a patron” or someone in a bad mood, etc. 98% are good, though. Her main desire, she said, using pop management/psychology lingo, is ”to get to yes” with every patron. Some need more attention than others, and she sees no injustice in devoting more time and energy to those who require more assistance or greater understanding. It was a sensible, humane answer.

Q. Carol Gray: “What if you had some very enthusiastic teens in library,” “so enthusiastic,” in fact, that they got too “boisterous” for some?
[This was a clear reference to newspaper stories, in the last year, to the effect that teens were causing a disruption in the Library.]
A: Upon reading those reports last year, her first reaction was: “I’m jealous.” “You’ve got them coming in the door, so let’s get them involved. Can we put them to work?” “Do they want to be on an advisory committee?” Give them a task, “and suddenly they’ve got ownership.” and “there’s a lot of space in this building for a teen place.” “Love that they’re here [there’s that “love” thing again], because there are a lot worse things that they could be doing.”

Maybe, but according to the press reports, they were not only “coming in the door,” but once inside, “running, yelling, eating and throwing pizza and engaging in inappropriate sexual activity” (I leave that latter to the reader’s imagination)

* * *

All the evidence indicates that Sharry was popular with the Amherst audience (no mean trick, as we can be a tough crowd), so that sets a certain standard for Westfield Athenaeum Director Christopher Lindquist. He speaks—same time, same place—on the 26th.

Stay tuned.

Amherst Media is posting full videos within about a day after the presentation. (You get the raw information there; you get some sifting and interpretation here.) Here is the recording of Sharry's presentation.

What do you think?

The trustees will take up the issue on 2 August, and the candidate could begin the job on 1 September.

Residents can submit feedback on the candidates through 28 July online here.




[updated text, link for presentation prompt]