(Photo by Linda Arntzenius)
An early infatuation with Sherlock Holmes and Maigret led Barbara Silberstein toward her future career. Following trails of clues is among the challenges of her job — not just in response to calls to the reference desk, but to queries that have stumped other librarians. The Princeton Public Library serves as the New Jersey Statewide Reference Center, so Ms. Silberstein has plenty of opportunity for sleuthing. Unlike her detective heroes, however, she makes use of the Internet and a plethora of databases in addition to standard works of reference and logical deduction. While keeping up with the latest in technology, she has single-handedly built up the library's media collection to boot. You can find favorite television series, as well as foreign, blockbuster, and documentary films there — marking some of the changes she's experienced during her 22 years. Here, she talks about her work in her own words.
Reference librarians handle a lot of arcane knowledge — not always knowledge that one retains. Some questions are outside of our expertise and we rely on other libraries and librarians, notably the Newark Public Library, which has a strong newspaper collection and good collections in art and the humanities; the New Jersey State Library, and Princeton University's Firestone Library. There's so much more quick reference available to the public now than there was 22 years ago. Then, people would call for company names and addresses, the weather, stock information. Now, people do it through the internet; historical quotes for example, can easily be accessed online. We usually get the tougher, meatier questions. One recent request was for census figures and maps of a very specific area. It was helpful that the patron knew exactly what he wanted and I was able to find a source for online census maps detailed down to the block. That was fascinating.
Evolving Technology
I came to the library in the pre-computer age. We moved to the area from Merchantville in South Jersey when my husband, Ralph, took a job with the Plasma Physics Laboratory. I had been a librarian at the Pennsauken Public Library and at the Cherry Hill Public Library, so I was looking for a job when someone suggested that I contact Bob Staples, then director of the library. Bob built up the library when it moved from the old Historical Society of Princeton building, Bainbridge House on Nassau Street. I was told that he hired part-time librarians and that's how I started here. Very quickly there was a full time position and I've been here ever since.
When I became media librarian in the late 80s, we had just started a small video collection and were beginning to move from vinyl to CDs. Now we are moving to DVDs and it's possible to download audio books onto MP3 players. Most of the films on the library shelves are for home viewing but we also buy films with public performance rights that allow screenings at public events such as the International Cinéclub, Films with a Bite, and the Princeton Human Rights Film Festival. The collection now includes television series such as HBO's Deadwood and The Sopranos. As we add DVDs we delete videos, some of which have been viewed as many as 200 times.
I feel lucky to live in a community that wants more than blockbuster films and books. People make clear to me their interest in foreign and independent films and documentaries. They tell me what films, music, and audio-books they want and so far we've been able to respond to their demands. Literacy these days is more than reading and writing.
I'm very excited about a new program that will begin next February: "Looking At: Jazz, America's Art Form." It's a six-part documentary film series with Anthony Branker, the director of the jazz program at Princeton University, introducing each film and leading a discussion. There will be films about New Orleans and the origins of jazz, the era of swing, and film biographies of Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker, as well as Latin and Afro-Latin jazz. It's a pilot program in partnership with the American Library Association and Jazz at Lincoln Center and supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and we are very pleased to be part of it.
Cover Art
Early in my career, I had a job indexing The New Yorker for the Cumulative Index to Periodical Literature, and I'm an inveterate reader. I have a collection of covers going back to the 1940s — some my mother had from before I was born. My favorite cover artists are William Steig and Saul Steinberg. They are very different from one another but both have a touch of humor in their work. My parents started me off reading pieces by J.D. Salinger and John McPhee, who is a patron of the library here.
My mother was a New Yorker. My father was a German-Jewish immigrant — the youngest of his family and the only one who had a formal education. He studied medicine in Berlin and then got his medical degree in Italy before coming to New York where he met my mother, who was working on Welfare Island. My father was a doctor in the United States Army and I was born in Santa Fé, New Mexico, while he was in the service.
I was two when we moved to New Jersey and I grew up just outside of Camden. We used to go to the Italian Market in Philadelphia and to Reading Terminal Market where people would gather and you would get to know the person selling your food. My mother believed that if you wanted blueberries, then you went to Hammonton for them. I still have an interest in farm markets and locally grown seasonal produce. I belonged to the Watershed Organic Farm for a while, but now I go to the Trenton Farmers Market where they sell vegetables and cheeses. I like buying local. Issues such as genetic engineering and lack of clean water at the global level concern me.
Living in Princeton, within twenty minutes of three of our five grandchildren, gives me great pleasure. We have three-and-a-half-year old twin granddaughters, two grandsons and another granddaughter. Also, drop me in an art museum and I'm as happy as a clam. I appreciate working in downtown Princeton where it's possible to walk to the Princeton University Art Museum to check out a gallery at lunchtime. The Herban Garden and Quark Park are wonderful downtown jewels.