Browse the Branches

Episode Transcript

Virginia Marshall Hey, Borrowed listeners ... Virginia here. 

Adwoa Adusei And Adwoa! 

Virginia Marshall It’s been a while since we brought you an episode. 

Adwoa Adusei It has! Thanks to all the support we’ve gotten for Borrowed and Banned, we have a number of new listeners. If you just started listening during our dedicated series about book bans, you might not have heard the other audio stories we make.  

Virginia Marshall Right. When we aren’t talking about book bans, Borrowed is a podcast for "stories that start at the library." At least, that’s our tagline. We’ve done stories about teens gaming at the library, about neighborhood histories and even New York City trash. There’s a whole catalog of Brooklyn stories that you can binge if you’re new to the show. And if you haven’t heard our Borrowed and Banned series about America’s ideological war with its bookshelves, all ten of those episodes, including interviews with banned authors, teens and librarians ... that’s all out now. 

Adwoa Adusei So, after taking our storytelling national with Borrowed and Banned, this season, we’re bringing it back to Brooklyn.  

Virginia Marshall And for our listeners who don’t live here, this could be a fun season for you! Fritzi, our editor, was saying recently that people who don’t live here might think of Brooklyn as a suburb of Manhattan. 

Adwoa Adusei Oh no. We are so much more than that! 

Virginia Marshall For sure. I mean, if Brooklyn were its own city, we would be the fourth largest city in America. There are 2.7 million people living here, people who have come from all over the world to set down roots. 

Adwoa Adusei And, if that’s not enough of a distinction, Brooklyn actually was its own city until 1898, when it joined forces with the four other boroughs to become part of New York City. And before that, Brooklyn was made up of a bunch of different towns. There was New Lots and New Utrecht on our southern and eastern waterfronts, and the towns of Flatbush, Flatlands, and Gravesend in between.  

Virginia Marshall That really wasn’t that long ago. And I think it's one of the reasons Brooklyn maintains its distinct neighborhood identities. We're really a patchwork borough. And Brooklyn is big, too! Its about 70 square miles, 10 miles end to end, measuring from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge on the south tip to Greenpoint on our northern border with Queens. And Google Maps says would take me about four hours to walk across the borough.  

Adwoa Adusei So, to kick off this season of Borrowed, and to celebrate our stories coming home to Brooklyn, we thought we would take a tour around the borough with the help of our neighborhood libraries ...

Virginia Marshall ... and some stalwart patrons who recently visited all 62 of them ... in a matter of days! I’m Virginia Marshall. 

Adwoa Adusei And I’m Adwoa Adusei. You’re listening to Borrowed: stories that start at the library. 

[Music] 

Virginia Marshall About a month ago, BPL launched a new initiative called “Browse the Branches,” and in it, we challenged our patrons to visit every single library branch (at least every one that is not closed for renovation) over the course of 2024. They get a booklet, like a little passport, and each library branch they visit, they collect a sticker for the booklet. We were thinking ... okay, maybe by April someone will have visited all 62 of them. But, our patrons surprised us. 

Victoria O'Bey I did it over four days. Technically five, but the library is closed on Sundays. 

Vandita I started on February 7th, and then I finished on February 15th.

Adwoa Adusei That was Victoria O'Bey and Vandita, two of our first patrons to complete the “Browse the Branches” challenge! 

Virginia Marshall These folks had a whole year and they did it in less than a week! And actually, just over two weeks after we announced the challenge, we already had our first 10 winners. 

Adwoa Adusei These people must be avid library users, right? Like total book nerds? 

Virginia Marshall I think that’s fair to say for Victoria and Vandita.  

Vandita I'm a student and someone who frequents the library, borrows books kind of excessively, sometimes.

Victoria O'Bey I'm a diehard library person. Like, whenever I move to any new place, like, it's one of the top five things I do on my list is like, go sign up for another library card and, like, figure out where my closest branch is. 

Virginia Marshall But we also did have a winner who had never been to any of the branches before this challenge.

Ryan Ammann  My mom forwarded me the email. She said, you should check this out. I'd just gotten, like, rejected from this job. And something in me said, yeah, I'm going to I'm gonna do this challenge today.

Virginia Marshall So that’s Ryan Amman. And get this: he visited all the branches in three days! 

Adwoa Adusei What? How? 

Virginia Marshall Well, he borrowed a friend’s car. Actually, during the interview, he unfolded his print-out map to show me his route. 

[Sound of paper unfolding] 

Ryan Ammann So the first day I kind of left in a flash. I just was like, I'm going to do this. I got in the car and I went to Marcy, got my book. And then I just would get back in the car and use the map on your website and see what the closest was, Google Map it, drive there. And I did that from like 12 to 6 p.m. and I believe I hit, yeah, 22 different ones. 

Adwoa Adusei Wow, it is kind of like our version of the amazing race! 

Virginia Marshall Totally. Ryan told me that the next day, after substitute teaching in Manhattan, he got off work and then zoomed through the borough, got to almost all of his remaining library branches and just missing the Center for Brooklyn History because it was closing early that day. So he finished on Friday with his last two branches. 

Adwoa Adusei I get that with a car, you can zoom through and get to all the branches. But a lot of the winners used public transit, right?!  

Virginia Marshall Yes. Vandita and Victoria said they traveled by bus and train and walked to a lot of the branches, and only borrowed cars for the farther-out libraries. And we had a winner who walked to all of the branches. And get this, she’s about to turn 60! 

Adwoa Adusei That's amazing. And our very first winner ... he did it by bike, right? 

Virginia Marshall Yes! Biking might be the fastest mode of transit because you don’t have to worry about parking a car. My boss is actually trying to get to all the branches with her running group. She has it all mapped out.  

Adwoa Adusei I imagine that the winners must have favorite branches, right?  

Virginia Marshall Definitely. 

Victoria O'Bey Tie between Arlington Library. It just was like ... so cozy. Like, it has a fireplace, guys. And then my last one was Gerritsen beach, which is just like, we happened to be there during like sunset almost, and the light was streaming through the windows off of the, like, harbor that it's on. And like, the whole thing was just filled with amazing light and, like, airiness ... 

Vandita Clinton Hill, their sticker was a cat, and one of the staff members there was giving out fliers explaining why the sticker has a cat on it. And it was about all the cats in the area. And I just thought that was so cute and it really stuck with me.

Virginia Marshall I actually live in Clinton Hill and I have seen the cats around the library. So, it's true. The sticker does represent reality.

Adwoa Adusei These folks are really motivated. But it's not like there’s a cash prize at the end, right? 

Virginia Marshall No. We should be clear: The library is not going to pay you to do this! Ryan actually said he would tell his friends about the challenge, and they were all pretty confused. 

Ryan Ammann Anyone I talked to, I’d talk to my roommates, anyone I would talk to, because they didn't know about the challenge ... it sounded kind of manic, you know, which I think it was, a little bit. And they were like, so what do you get? I was like, oh, you get this cool tote bag. [Laughs]

Virginia Marshall I mean, it is a pretty amazing tote bag! Once you finish half of the libraries ... so 31 of them, you get a 25 percent discount on an item in our online shop. The first 100 people to visit all 62 libraries also get a special book mark and a BPL Ambassador library card, which is very cool. And, we’ll have more prizes rolling out throughout the year. So, there’s definitely time to be a winner. And, you can do it at any age! I wanted to mention that we had a mother-son team visit all the branches, and the kid was only eight years old!  

Adwoa Adusei These winners who have seen all of our branches ... they must have a pretty unique take on not just Brooklyn Public Library but the borough as a whole. 

Virginia Marshall Yeah, here’s what Vandita said about that. 

Vandita Being able to get a feel of what these neighborhoods were like from a library I think really shows what the local neighborhood uses their community for and what it constitutes. So I think one of the branches has sewing machines that you can borrow, I think it was Mill Basin. And then another branch had bike repairs you could get. So just kind of getting an idea of what could be part of the neighborhood's identity. 

Virginia Marshall I asked the winners if they would recommend the challenge to friends, and they all said yes ... with a caveat. Do it slower! Take your time, enjoy our library branches more. Here’s Victoria. 

Victoria O'Bey If you can't go to all 62, go visit just even the library in your neighborhood, there's one closer than you think. And they're all beautiful. And the staff is so helpful. Get to know the people in your neighborhood. The library is a great place.

Adwoa Adusei I’m jealous. As library workers, we sort of have to stay at one branch. It’s our job to get to know one particular community.  

Virginia Marshall And actually, the three winners I talked to all said the library staff they met at the branches were, first of all, so impressed that these patrons were completing a feat that takes us years to accomplish. And second – kind of jealous! They wanted to be on the journey as well. 

Adwoa Adusei So, Virginia, I think it’s time to bring in our final guest. Because there is someone at BPL who visited all our branches in 2024 ... perhaps mostly because it’s his job to go to as many branches as possible as frequently as possible: Edwin Maxwell, Director of Neighborhood Services here at BPL. Edwin is our first staff winner of Browse the Branches ... Edwin, how do you feel?

Edwin Maxwell Exactly like you said, Adwoa. I’m doing my job. So it’s kind of an internal joke to say that I “won” Browse the Branches, because that’s something that I’m supposed to do. 

Adwoa Adusei It’s a flex. I'm assuming you’ve been to all the branches before though, right? 

Edwin Maxwell Of course. 

Adwoa Adusei What was it like to try to get it all done as quickly as possible? And also, what mode of transportation did you use? 

Edwin Maxwell Like I said, it is part of my job. The only thing I can take credit for is we had to speed it up. Because I knew people were on my tail so they would try to get there before I did. As far of mode of transportation, it’s a little bit of all of it. Some of it was public transportation, some was car, some was by walking. The only thing I didn’t do was bike or run. 

Adwoa Adusei You were kind of running though, if you had to speed it up... 

Virginia Marshall You were probably speed-walking. 

Edwin Maxwell We’re New Yorkers. Everything is a speed walk. 

Virginia Marshall Right, right. And you have your passport here. 

[Sound of flipping pages] 

Virginia Marshall Yeah. Wow. Look at all those stickers! 

Edwin Maxwell It’s a lot. 

Adwoa Adusei It does look a little beat up, too. It looks like you’ve been holding onto it hard. 

Edwin Maxwell The story is ... Saturday I got up early, me and my wife and I was like we have to finish this today. And as you might recall, Saturday was a storm. So, I was out running around in the rain. 

Adwoa Adusei That's dedication.

Edwin Maxwell So that's why it looks weathered like that. 

Adwoa Adusei Tell us more about your role at BPL. As Director of Neighborhood Services, what do you do? What’s it like, day-to-day, to manage 62 neighborhood libraries? 

Edwin Maxwell I think every day is different. I think it's the most enjoyable job that you can have. The think that I always say is that each branch has its own neighborhood, its own soul... don't make me pick the favorite branch

Adwoa Adusei No I wouldn't do that! Never.

Edwin Maxwell Everyone knows what my favorite branch is. 

Adwoa Adusei Oh really? You can whisper it to us. We won't tell anyone.

Edwin Maxwell Absolutely not.

[Laughter]

Virginia Marshall Not on record. 

Edwin Maxwell Not going on record. At all.

Adwoa Adusei But okay, so how would you characterize that soul? Are neighborhood branches the soul of Brooklyn? 

Edwin Maxwell I think it represents the soul of Brooklyn. Of course, the library is a beacon, a staple of each community. And it's a public institution, so you're going to see a representation of whatever that neighborhood is. And then outside of that branch, the culture, the food, the music. I mean, you see pieces of that. Brooklyn is one of the most diverse places in the world. It's beautiful to go to a neighborhood and they don't speak English in the whole neighborhood. People that are bringing whatever their home country and culture is to a specific neighborhood... essentially by traveling through the branches and Brooklyn, you get to travel through the world in some sense.

[Music]

Adwoa Adusei Borrowed is brought to you by Brooklyn Public Library. This episode was produced by Virginia Marshall, and written and co-hosted by me and Virginia. You can read a transcript of this episode and see pictures of the winners at BKLYN Library [dot] org [slash] podcasts.  

Virginia Marshall Brooklyn Public Library relies on the support of individuals for many of its most critical programs and services. To make a gift, please go to B-K-L-Y-N-library [dot] org [slash] donate.   

Adwoa Adusei  To take the "Browse the Branches" challenge, just visit any Brooklyn Public Library branch to pick up a booklet and start collecting stickers. If you don’t live in New York City, take this as encouragement to visit the public libraries near you and show them some love. 

Virginia Marshall Our Borrowed team is made up of: Adwoa Adusei, Fritzi Bodenheimer, Robin Lester Kenton, Damaris Olivo, and Ali Post. Jennifer Proffitt and Ashley Gill run our social media. Our music composer is Billy Libby. Meryl Friedman designed our logo. We rarely get to shoutout the behind-the-scenes folks, but I want to give credit here to Erica Moroz, who wrote the copy for the booklets, Laurie Elvove who designed the stickers, and Amanda Singleton who has been coordinating with the winners. The idea came from Robin Lester Kenton and Ashley Gill. And thank you to all our enthusiastic patrons who are browsing the branches!  

Adwoa Adusei We’ll be back in a couple of weeks with another episode of Borrowed: stories that start at the library.