Ben Gocker takes over the helm at Goff-Nelson Memorial Library

by Rich Rosentreter

The Goff-Nelson Memorial Library reopened to the public on Monday and the facility also has a new director, Ben Gocker, who began at the post on April 7 replacing Peg Mauer who retired after nine years at the helm.

The Free Press recently spoke to the new director about his new role and how important the library is to a small community such as Tupper Lake.

Mr. Gocker has lived in Tupper Lake for nearly four years and worked part-time at the library for three years prior to taking the director position. He is married and has three children ages 3, 1 and a half and 2 months. His wife works as a librarian at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake.

“So the kids sort of were born into a bookish family,” he said, adding that his oldest daughter and son did story time on Facebook page while quarantined at home just to provide some type of programming for the community. “My kids would join me and we’d read children’s books. That was a lot of fun and they enjoyed hamming it up in front of the camera.”

Mr. Gocker said he is happy that the library finally reopened, and it is the first library in the area to do so.

“I’m nothing but excited and relieved. I think we’ve taken the appropriate measures and followed all the state guidelines. I feel like we’re ready to do this in the safest way possible and let the people of Tupper Lake back into their library,” he said, adding that on Monday, about 20 people came in to browse and check books out. “It went very smooth. There were a few happy dances, people were pretty psyched. A few people said they needed their fix, and they got it.”

According to Mr. Gocker, the library is a vital component of a community and so far its patrons have been respectful of the restrictions in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Libraries are not just a community resource where you lend materials, but also as a public space I think is one of its most valuable assets. We want people to come into the library and know that the library staff is going to make it as safe as possible for them to do so,” he said. “By this point for everybody a mask is really just second nature, so no one really has an issue. They didn’t really care what they had to do (as far as safety). They just wanted to get back at their books. That was way more important.”

He said disposable gloves are also available to patrons and there are also hand sanitizing stations throughout the library.

Experience

Mr. Gocker has worked in libraries for about 13 years ,including being a part-time employee at the Goff-Nelson Library. He started library work in the New York City area, and worked at the Brooklyn Public Library, which has several locations in the borough, for about nine years.

“I worked all over. I was the adult librarian in Bushwick, the local history librarian in Brooklyn,” he said, adding that by the time he left Brooklyn, he worked as the manager at the Coney Island branch. “It was a bit different working in an urban setting than working up here.”

And that experience has prepared him for working in just about any library setting.

“Managing the branch in Coney Island, I oversaw a staff 13 employees, had a security guard because we needed one, five librarians, along with a custodian, volunteers and part-time workers,” he said. “I got a lot of hands-on experience with management, but there’s a lot that’s new to me here. You have to do sort of soup to nuts at the library when you’re the director of the library.”

Here at the local library, Ben is the only full-time employee and he said he does everything from creating the website to managing the facility to paying the bills and doing the payroll.

“It all comes down to me,” he said, adding that he has had assistance getting acclimated to his new post. “The board has been really helpful in helping me learn all these aspects of managing the library. So far, it’s been really great.”

“Everyone has wished me well and so far so good, but they probably want to wait and make sure I do a good job before they give me a passing grade,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s definitely been a challenging time. One of the first things I had to do on the new job was to write a pandemic outbreak policy, which I think most library administrators never have to write. We’ve been doing a lot of learning on the fly and responding to an unusual and dynamic situation, but so far the job has been equal parts exciting and challenging.”

Important to community

Mr. Gocker said the local library is an integral part of the community and he explained his view on the role it plays.

“I think a library is essential. I mean we’re not essential right now in the same way a grocery store or hospital is, but maybe we’re at that second tier as to what is essential for a really healthy and strong community. It’s not just about what we provide in terms of the collections or the services, it’s about having a space that’s free and open to the public where anyone is welcome,” he said, adding that it’s not just the individual aspect but the community aspect as well. “We do programming here. We do story time for kids, we have a GED class that meet here. We can provide a place for people to come together. In the times we’re living in now, it’s hard to say what the future has for public libraries, not just for small communities but for anywhere, because of the fact that public spaces may have to be re-imagined. I hope that we can act as not only a library but as a community center. We can also offer programs people may expect such as a literary, for children, for the elderly and craft programs and things like that.”

“If the library is not a backbone, it’s definitely a vertebrae in the backbone of a small town.”

Future vision

Libraries across the nation are facing challenges due to changing technology – and that includes the Goff-Nelson Library, a fact not lost to Mr. Gocker.

“I think libraries in general are having to respond to 21st Century demands put on them by the changing technologies or be able to offer more e-books, and we’ve seen a dramatic rise in ebook usage during the pandemic. Maybe that’s something we’ll do more of, maybe our budget will shift to purchase more of those digital items for the community, but not to lose sight of the in-person sort of power that the library really has to bring people together,” he said. “It’s old-fashioned maybe in that regard – I mean it hasn’t changed since libraries were invented - but to me it’s still very much the future of libraries, and we always have to look to safeguard these public spaces to make sure that we don’t lose them before we realize what we had.”

Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind when someone thinks about a library are its books, something that is not appreciated as much due to today’s focus on modern technology. But Mr. Gocker said the one-on-one relationship someone has with a book has great value.

“It’s just you and the book, there’s no mediation through technology. You don’t have to have a proprietary platform like Kindle, you don’t have to login. You pick up a book and you’re reading and immediately you’re having a private experience, and yet it’s a private experience that opens the door to unparalleled moments of empathy where you can really learn about other people and other cultures and other times – and there’s never been more of a time that we need to focus on what reading does for people and in getting away from the screen and having more of an active engagement with the content that you’re devouring,” he said with clear passion in his voice. “I think that books still can’t be beat.”

Today’s youth are enamored with video games, and Mr. Gocker had his thoughts on that, and compared that technology to books.

“As incredible as some of these video games are today and the narrative that they create, playing a video game is a unilateral relationship because most people who play video games do not know how to make a video game, but if you know how to read you also know how to write, and by reading, the more you read, you’ll just have an almost instinctive knack for writing or for what language can do,” he said. “Books are so easy to take for granted, but they are so fundamental and so powerful. Children can be pretty absorbed with their tablet, but a kid with a picture book - that’s where the real spark is. It’s both tactile and personal because it’s being read to someone. There’s something really there that I think is lost if you translate it to technology.”

Adapting

The library has to adapt due to the restrictions of a post-COVID-19 landscape, and there are still plans to engage the community in the future. Mr. Gocker said among the things the library would like to do is offer adult learning classes.

“We have a great big community room that we would love to transform, we want to add more computers down the road. We have an incredible local history collection here and an Adirondack collection, the Simmons Memorial Room, that is something we’d like to promote a little more,” he said. “We have a historic photo collection that can be found online. We’d like to bring people in and offer them more access to these primary source material that we have.”

Starting this Friday the library will begin operation of its own Youtube channel and on Saturday programs used via the library’s Facebook page.

“On Friday we’ll have the first of what will be a weekly summer reading videos – all of which will be remote,” he said, adding at 10 a.m. on that day the library will post first summer reading video. “We’re working with school teachers who also are members of the local Kiwanis Club who help the library with its reading program.

“On Saturday we will have a regular story time, sing-a-long and craft time,” he said as crafts material will be provided by library and kids and families can come to library and pick up a craft kit in the lobby and take it home to do the crafting online with the staff on Facebook. “That will be a live program rather than pre-recorded. They can go to the Goff-Nelson Library Facebook page to access it.”

The Saturday programs will begin at 11 a.m. - that and the Friday program will then take place weekly.

Message to community

Mr. Gocker said that although things are on the road to some type of normalcy, the process is not complete and time is still needed to get back up and running at full speed as the library going through its reopening phases.

“I just want to say that we’re really happy to be open again, but I would ask for everyone’s patience,” he said, adding that people can read the library’s complete reopening plan on its new website: tupperlakepubliclibrary.org. “Come on back but also be patient because we’re going to reopen very slowly. We want to ensure everyone’s health and well-being above all else.”

He said that currently the library does allow browsing and checkout services, but will not permit people to stay and use computers or sitting areas.

“As long as people can bear with us, we’re doing the best job that we can,” he said, “Just so people know, we are the first library to reopen in the Tri-County system. We’re taking the steps to serve everybody but we want to do it as safely as possible.”

“I can’t thank Peg Mauer the outgoing director enough. She was a fantastic mentor and she did a lot to bring the Tupper Lake public library into the 21st Century. We all miss her dearly,” he added. “The staff that we have on hand are just incredible and they’ve worked uncomplainingly during a very trying time to get the library up and running again and they’re just fantastic and I love having them all on staff.”

“I love this library,” he said. “And the proof is in the pudding.”