Remembering Mrs Scruggs

Her daughter Jan, herself a retired librarian her in Massachusetts, kindly shared memories of the library here, with the Citizen.

When you have a 'librarian' in your life, you have a 'library' in your life. In your home, there are books around, periodicals, especially titles like Library Journal or Booklist. Stacks of publisher or supply catalogs lie in wait to cascade across the floor if nudged by a careless passage. You may find yourself in the library at any time of the day or night, depending upon the needs of the facility or the workload or maybe the emergency need of a library user.

My earliest memories are from before my mother was Head Librarian (aka only librarian except for occasional help and substitutes.) I remember Miss (Mrs?) Callahan peering over the oak desk. She was a rather stem and intimidating figure (I was told she had health issues relating to her stomach, and I must be polite even if she seemed a bit cranky. She intimidated me). My mother worked as a substitute and then assistant to 'The Callahan.' We visited the library often and had lots of library books at home. When my mother became the library director, the nature of our visits changed. At that time, the library occupied the top floor of the Carnegie building. As you entered the vestibule after climbing the two exterior flights of steps, you pushed on interior oak and glass doors to enter the large one room library.

The children's books were to the right, the reference books dead ahead, adult materials to the left. The librarian's circulation desk was at about 2 o'clock, a separation from the work area in the Northwest corner where materials processing happened and the back issues of periodicals lived. The black telephone, once we got one, was on the librarian's desk next to the imposing black typewriter.

There was a private stairway inside the work area. It provided access to the toilet downstairs, the furnace room, and a back entrance to the auditorium. The public entrance to the auditorium opened to a walkway facing the bank. You could take a left as you were leaving and access Main Street. If you went right, you climbed a few steps to get to the alley before the lot back there became a parking lot for the bank. The auditorium was leased to a church on Sundays, and perhaps a few other days of the week.

The library was 'just the library' as I was growing up. A place to find books that would entertain and inform. Books that would take you to wonderful places. We had active summer reading programs. After I won the prize for most books read during the summer a couple of times, the process was changed so that a winner was selected by lottery or everyone got a prize. My family made maps or game boards so that summer readers could move their game pieces along a pathway to a finish line.

My family was coopted in other ways as well. Dad delivered boxes of new books to the library. We arried books that had been returned to us (at the grocery or the drug store or our home), when people didn't have time to go to the library or didn't want to climb the steps. When we finally got a book drop, Dad lugged and installed it at the top of those fine Carnegie steps. Kittens were found in that book drop at least once. We helped unload the book drop every morning before the library opened. I learned letters and numbers by filing returned books in order on the wooden book truck. I also was 'allowed' to file circ cards and - eventually to write - borrower numbers on the cards and stamp the books as they went out.

We had some excitement from time to time as Mom found precious letters, photos, or cash from a paycheck in returned library books and was able to restore those treasures to their owners.

I started to learn to type, typing overdue postcards. We learned to inspect 16 mm films by using white gloves and a hand reel clamped to an old oak desk in the ante room to the furnace area in the basement. I learned to compile data by gathering circulation statistics used to request supporting funding from Union Township.

When the church no longer needed the space, we helped moved the adult collection down to the auditorium when Mom determined that the exterior steps were just too much of an impediment to older users. The trustees agreed and found the money for more shelving.

My mom was 'just mom,' and the library was 'just the library,' until I went to college and library school. Mom would never bring me books when I had a paper to do, but she did help me find appropriate ones and taught me how to use the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature. I had no idea how ahead of other libraries of its size Culver was until I went to library school.

Under Mom's direction, the library cooperated with the Indiana State Library. Culver participated in the film circuit and interlibrary loan. The library circulated paintings/prints long before other libraries. She installed a public use copier. All of these services are routine for libraries now, but not then.

She took training from the state library and from library school extension classes. She read constantly about improvements in library services. She cooperated with the library at the Academy. She raised funds, selected and recommended library materials, and was an active readers' advisor.

My mother suggested library school as I. was finishing college, to which I returned a prompt, "No way." I went to library school and started my career at the Free Library of Philadelphia. After he completed dental school, my huband and I moved to Massachusetts, and I joined the staff of the Western Regional Public Library System WRPLS). In a few years, we became the Western Massachusetts Regional Library System (WMRLS). I worked there until I retired.

WRPLS and WMRLS provided services to the four western counties of Massachusetts, 110 libraries in 101 cities and towns. 77 of those towns had fewer than 2,000 residents and are very similar to Culver. We provided lots of support for our member libraries from onsite consulting, group training, delivery to other libraries and supplementary book collections and reference services.

I learned how lucky Culver was during my growing years and my mom's tenure. Small libraries work under all the same pressures as larger libraries, but they work in isolation. It takes a lot of effort to make a small library blend into the larger library community and to stay on top of new developments in practice and materials while having only one or two people to assist and meet all the needs of users.

I have an even broader view of libraries now that I have been appointed to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, a 9 member board that serves the wider library community in the Commonwealth. We see every day how important libraries are to their communities and to their parent institutions.

Congratulations to the Culver Union Township Public Library on 100 years of service to your community. You have been the heart of downtown for a long time and will continue to be a critical part of Culver and its future. Mar 12, 2015 - Norma Jean (Scruggs) Resnick

Rosemary Jane Taber Scruggs Birth 14 Aug 1919 Culver, Marshall County, Indiana Death 21 Jul 1994 Culver, Marshall County, Indiana Burial Masonic Cemetery Culver, Marshall County, Indiana

Lifetime Culver resident Rosemary Jane Taber Scruggs, 74, 311 S. Main St., Culver, died in her home at 1 a.m. July 21, from an apparent heart attack.

Until 1979 Mrs. Scruggs had been head librarian at the Culver-Union Township Public Library. She served in that position for more than 30 years. She was a 1937 graduate of Culver High School.

The daughter of Frank and Hulda Wiseman Taber, she was born Aug. 14, 1919, in Culver. On Aug. 29, 1938, in Culver, she married Norman M. Scruggs. He survives.

Other survivors include a daughter, Norma Jean Resnick of South Hadley, Mass.; a son, Phillip D. Scruggs of Rochester, Minn.; five grandchildren, and a sister, Frances Geiselman of Culver.

She was preceded in death by her brother, William W. Taber.

Mrs. Scruggs was a member of Wesley United Methodist Church, where she participated in the Chancel Choir for many years. She was also a member of Plymouth Chapter 26, Order of Eastern Star.

Funeral services took place July 25 at Bonine Funeral Home with Rev. Daniel J. Berger, pastor of Wesley Church, officiating.

Burial took place in the Culver Masonic Cemetery.

Memorial contributions can be made to the Marshall County Historical Society or the Marshall County Humane Society. -- 27 Jul 1994, The Culver Citizen