THE SKOPELOS PUBLIC LIBRARY PROJECT
THE SKOPELOS PUBLIC LIBRARY PROJECTI was first introduced to Greece in 1954 when the Efstathiou family moved in across the street from us in Pleasant Hill, California when I was eleven. The mother of the family, Anna Efstathiou, was everything I wanted to grow up to become ... warm, strong, alive ... a life gobbler. She was instrumental in bringing Greek dancing to this country, and was honored for her contributions by the National Greek Orthodox Archbishop at her memorial in 2001. Anna was a very important mentor in my life, and I am still in close touch with her family.
After my last child took off for college in 1998 and I was seeking a place to rest and refresh, of course I chose Greece. One of my sons had been on the small island of Skopelos in the North Aegean Sea the summer before, and brought back pictures so compelling, Skopelos was my rather whimsical choice. The island is about 40 square miles in area, with a population of around 4500, which swells to three times that number during the summer months. The Island is rich in history and myth, representative of the best of Greek culture, with a warm, welcoming local population, and a number of ex-patriots. I lived in a house on Skopelos for two months in the middle of an olive and almond grove, with views of the Aegean and no one but a shepherd and his sheep in sight. I rested, read, wrote, rested, read and wrote. After a month I finished all the books I’d brought with me, and searched the small town for a bookstore or library. There was neither on the Island, and the only books to be found were a few racks of best sellers in the newsstands. They were in Greek, English, German, French, even in a few Scandinavian languages, but I am not a best seller reader, no matter what the language. Fortunately my friends in Athens could send me enough literature for the rest of my stay.
When I returned home, I began researching libraries in Greece. Surely Greece would have more public libraries. After all, wasn’t Greece the home of the first public library in the Western World? I discovered that there is indeed a National Public Library in Athens, but found on my second visit in 2002 that it is barely accessible and closed for renovation. There are many excellent university libraries, but only available to students. There are libraries throughout the country called public, but they are often limited in scope, serving as historical societies for the local population, or specific to an occupation or trade, and most of them are underutilized. This is in spite of the high level of literacy of the Greeks and their general sophistication as members of the global community.
As a gesture of appreciation for the nurturing two months I spent on the Island, I began sending books to the high school on Skopelos, and e-mailing academics in Modern Greek Studies around the world and residents of Skopelos, about creating a public library. In May 2002, I met with residents on the Island who are interested in the project, including The Skopelos Foundation for the Arts. The Foundation hosts art classes for teachers and students through the Corcoran and the Chicago Art School, artists from Greece and around the world, and local Skopeletes. Word of the possibility of a public library got around, and last year a local Skopelete specified in his will that his building on the main road on the harbor in Skopelos Town be used only for a public library. In the meantime, donated books are being stored by the Foundation. I and the Director of the Foundation are co-directors of The Association for the Skopelos Public Library, which accepts donations towards the shipping cost of books to the Island. A Bay Area Greek Orthodox Church is also collecting books and materials for the library. And I am working with the Athenian School in Danville, California, the only Round Square school in America, which has previously helped establish public libraries in other parts of the world, to eventually send teachers and students to Skopelos to help renovate the building, and later to help organize the collection.
It is hoped that The Skopelos Public Library will serve in the future as a model for small community public libraries around Greece. The timing is right for this project. A consortium of Greek ministries is committed to a viable network of public libraries. The Greek Minister of Culture has recently stated its commitment to develop a program of state assistance to build up a planned, coordinated network of public libraries throughout Greece. They are in the process of planning an ambitious program for the creation of a network that will give more residents the opportunity to experience the magical world of public libraries. Since Skopelos has a building and the commitment of its residents to establishing a public library, it will be one of the first places in the country to take advantage of this opportunity. The library will also help Greece meet a mandate from the EU that all EU countries promote life-long learning.
As I continued my research, I realized how thoroughly most of us take our own public libraries for granted. I found the extent that public libraries are changing with the times, and that some very thoughtful people have been considering the future of public libraries. I feel that public libraries are the best example of democracy and tolerance, that they represent freedom and nondiscrimination in a way perhaps no other organization or institution can. At the beginning of the Iraq war, librarians across the country were asked to hand over all records of the books their patrons had checked out so that potential terrorists could be spotted and investigated. Over sixty percent of them refused on the grounds that that information was personal, and stated that without some proof of terrorist activities of an individual, they would destroy their records rather than hand them over. Imagine being investigated by the FBI simply because you had read a book the bureaucracy considered questionable.
The newest libraries here and abroad must include free access to the internet. Though it is an important source of information, the world wide web is chaos ... without organization or filters ... and what you see online is not necessarily all there is or even related to truth in any form. Physical libraries and librarians not only provide readily accessible guides to finding and helping verify information, but in many countries they are community centers and teachers, essential to the social, economic and educational welfare of all stages of our lives. Public libraries won’t be going away soon, if ever.
Never has there been a better time for America to offer ways to balance the disastrously negative image its government has presented to the world. I call this project my small, individual attempt to extend the best America has to offer ... something beyond Starbucks and sitcoms ... and to help my favorite country, Greece, maintain its unique culture with conscious awareness of the possibilities for future generations of world citizens.
Thea Montandon
ŠApril, 2005
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