On the right is James Welbourne, one of the champions of the High John Library.

He also co-authored the article cited below.

The High John Library was an experimental library based in a poverty-stricken neighborhood called Fairmount Heights (in Prince George's County, Maryland). The library got off the ground in 1967, but by 1970, the project had run out of money. It appeared that the library would be shut down, but black members of the Fairmount Heights community protested to the Prince George's County Library System Board.

"Of the 14 branches now in existence in the Prince George's County System, none are in black communities. Nore are the two brances which are currently under construction being erected in black communities. Why not? The Fairmount Heights people asked the same question in another way--'How do you select those areas where you build branches?' The answer from the board is important to all of us. 'We send out bookmobiles and see where the heaviest use is, and this is the way libraries have always done it.' What was most impressive perhaps was the calm, perceptive, analytical interpretation of the previous statement from one of the members of the black community. Pointing out that many homes in Fairmount Heights are without electricity, he asked, 'How could the library expect the community to read if there were no libraries in the area? Has it ever occured to you that perhaps there is probably no place at home to go and read books borrowed from the bookmobile?'" (Croneberger and Welbourne, 1707).

This library was saved by a community that was underrepresented by the library's method of choosing locations for libraries. Furthermore, this library would become a library for the uniquely black community it was supposed to serve. Fairmount Heights community members assumed that the Prince George's County Board was simply racist, when really they were just underinformed. When the black community insisted on making the library work for the community, it could be considered a true success.

"How can you send a bookmobile filled with books that are heavily used at the Central Branch and expect it to be used in Fairmount Heights? Who will have control over the collection at the new library branch?" (Croneberger and Welbourne, 1708).

These were both pertinent points (among many more) that were tended to by the director of Student Affairs and Recruitment at the University of Maryland School of Library and Information Services, James C. Welbourne.

"After all the motions previously mentioned were passed, Jim suggested that a motion be made to officially recognize the Board of High John and give them certain powers: site selection, selection of architects, contractors, etc. It was passed off by the Prince George's County Board members who suggested that the members of the community become 'Friends of the Library'" (Croneberger and Welbourne, 1708).

Such stipulations reminded me of Abagail Van Sylck's __Free To All__. In that book, Slyck claimed that the space was all important to the way the library was used. The working class, according to Van Sylck, long saw libraries as propaganda tools of the elite around the turn of the century (the twentieth century). According to this passage (a passage that is relevant when examining both of these eras), "elite" librarians are often ignorant of working class needs. "Library trustees belonging to a social elite maintained their control over the decision-making process in library matters. Ambivalent about public access to culture, they continued the nineteenth-century practice of reserving a palatial cenral library building for upper-class use" (Van Slyck, 124). In this case however, Fairmount Heights residents demanded a library that catered to its own.

High John Library was a high tech library for a low-income community. It included:

-For the kids

*"a bear that went up in a balloon"

*"a ball of string taller than a boy"

*"a homework machine"

*"a dinosaur egg that hatched"

*"a snake that went to school"

There was also an Information Center, a Reading Center, a Learning Center, an AV and art center, and outdoor activities (Croneberger and Welbourne, 1705). The library originally began to fail when white library students were intimidated by working in a very poor neighborhood. Even Ruth Brown (made famous by our very own Louise Robbins), became involved in the fight to save the underfunded, misunderstood High John Library project.

"'Negligence' was a charge brought by Ruth Brown, member of the Model Cities Neighborhood Board. Mrs. Brown declared that large numbers of young people in the library had been considered a 'problem' rather than an 'opportunity.' She felt that the library, plagued by lack of space and staff, had been negligent in offering little to its teenage patrons, with the result that 'mischief' had occurred" (Croneberger and Welbourne, 1706).

P.J. Craven

Sources:

Robert B. Croneberger & James C. Welbourne, Jr. "Triumph and Tragedy: A Play in Two Acts." Library Journal. May 1, 1970.

Abigail Van Slyck. Free To All.