ARLINGTON, Texas—The Arlington Public Library system, like libraries throughout history, helps to preserve the human story through its collection of books.
At Arlington’s George W. Hawkes Downtown Library, librarians also help patrons discover and preserve the stories of individual families.
Books are not all the library offers
Like most libraries, George W. Hawkes was designed as a welcoming place, complete with a polite greeter and information desk near the entrance. As patrons walk deeper into the space, they can find the expected shelves of books both new and old.
But that’s not all there is to a modern library.
Arlington’s George W. Hawkes Downtown Library takes up three floors and includes not only books but a multitude of meeting rooms, study spaces and a rooftop garden. The library holds many events and hosts seasonal and holiday activities.
With all of these events and options, Brandon Washington, who’s only been in Arlington a few months, was pleasantly surprised by all the library had to offer.
“I do enjoy it,” he said. “This is one of the best libraries I’ve been to. I was in school in Belton for a couple years.”
The first floor is available for children to entertain themselves with books and a reading nook along with toys and areas to play in. The second floor is the teen section, where they can play video games and find books in the teens section.
The library also gives adults the opportunity to study English, improve their literacy, and to take citizenship classes in the Arlington Reads workspaces.
Patrons can also explore their creativity with different art labs on the second floor. The labs offer 3D printing technology, fiber crafts and a lot more, along with demonstrations to help users throughout the day.
Evolution of Arlington library services
The first library in Arlington was run by a woman named Pearl Wade, a librarian who was paid $12 per month to manage a total of 500 books. The books were stored in wooden crates in the corner of the Farmer’s National Bank in downtown Arlington. Those who wanted to read a book could visit Wade on Wednesdays and Saturday afternoons, and this became one of the first library services of Arlington. As the years passed, the library and its services grew.
And as technology progressed, so did the equipment and services the library could offer.
Today, the George W. Hawkes Downtown Library has equipment that can digitize and restore tapes, cassettes, films and a variety of other media. Paul Wilkinson, an aide who works for the genealogy department of the library, helps not only organize the books but also updates and manages family trees and information on genealogy websites.
He showcased the family tree he worked on for his grandmother. He said he has actively worked to preserve her life and store it in the cloud for not only easy access but also to hold those memories in a safe place for years to come.
Wilkinson said the library’s genealogy department can help families restore and salvage priceless family artifacts. He noted that a lot of things can damage a photograph, from tears to weather damage to scratching. But many times those images can be restored and preserved.
The genealogy section uses a machine called the FastFoto FF-680W scanning system, which scans the photo for all its damage and then creates a restored version of that photo. The machine will take away dust or discoloration and make an attempt to re-create the photo to bring it back to its original quality.
“Our main purpose is, within the realm of genealogy, and bringing forward that information for the next generations,” Wilkinson said, “Maybe your brothers and sisters, your aunts, uncles, cousins. They could all look at that and see those video files or photograph files or listen to an audio tape of Grandma telling her life story.”
Perhaps no one understands the power of preserving memories more than Genealogy and Local History Librarian Mark Dellenbaugh. . Dellenbaugh has been with the Arlington Public Library for 15 years and has seen a variety of people come through with things that need to be maintained. After finishing the preservation process and converting the material to a digital format, the material is put onto a USB stick and sent off with its respective owner.
“They go home with the digital file on a USB stick and with the promise that they’ve made to me that they will quickly get that onto a computer and into the cloud as quick as possible, because USB sticks are notorious for failing,” Dellenbaugh said. “They’re not long-term storage. They’re a lifeboat.”
‘It’s part of my job’
The Arlington Public Library is a place that strives to be the most sought-after place for information, learning and discovery. The library is open to all people who visit, and a library card allows a variety of additional resources. It also provides many monthly programs for both children and adults to enjoy.
This process is different for every material that enters the genealogy department, and finding the right resources to preserve them is always a journey. One young lady entered the library with more than 100 video cassettes and visited so often that many employees believed she was staff that they had not met yet.
Dellenbaugh said helping people preserve memories and pass them on to future generations has become the most satisfying part of his job. But emotions are inevitable.
“One thing that a lot of people might not know is I buy boxes of Kleenexes for this every so often, because this is very human, deep kind of stuff,” he said. “People are seeing people that are no longer with us in some cases, or people that they have grown apart from, and it’s not at all unusual for me to walk by as somebody’s digitizing things and see that they need a Kleenex and it’s part of my job.”
