Angela Craig and Empowering Entrepreneurs: Libraries at the Heart of Community Development

What if libraries could revolutionize your business strategy and community involvement? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Angela Craig, Executive Director of Charleston County Public Libraries, Kathleen Herrmann, Marketing Director for the Mount Pleasant Towne Centre, and Tammy Becker, co-owner of Elements Massage in West Ashley and Summerville. Angela shares her incredible journey and vision for libraries as essential community assets, from her beginnings at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library to her transformative work in Charleston. Uncover the diverse resources libraries offer, not just to residents, but also to businesses, from grant application assistance to networking opportunities, and even media presence enhancement.

Libraries have long been sanctuaries of knowledge, but their role is rapidly expanding beyond books. Discover how Charleston County's libraries are leading the charge in literacy, workforce development, and community engagement. Angela and Tammy delve into the logistical challenges libraries face, including book acquisitions and digital licensing, while highlighting the innovative solutions being implemented. We also explore how libraries are responding to technological advancements, particularly AI, by offering workshops to help both individuals and businesses harness its potential effectively and ethically.

In a world of evolving reading habits and technological shifts, libraries stand as pivotal institutions bridging gaps in accessibility and community support. Angela, Kathi and Tammy discuss the critical importance of addressing equity, ADA compliance, and the modernization of library spaces to better serve all patrons. As learning hubs for homeschoolers and virtual learners, libraries offer a safe environment and a valuable "third space" for business collaboration. Tune in to learn how local businesses can collaborate with library branches to enrich community resources and support workforce development, ensuring that libraries remain at the heart of community growth and innovation.

Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce

Studio Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions

Production Sponsor: RMBO.co

Design Sponsor: DK Design

Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC Immediate Past President | Mount Pleasant Towne Centre
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair | RMBO.co
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Executive Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Ben Nesvold | Co-host | In-coming President | Edward Jones

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello and welcome to the Building Business Podcast
powered by the Mount PleasantChamber of Commerce.
We are in the recording studioswith our friends Charleston
Radio Group, brian Cleary.
Thank you guys so much forbeing such a huge supporter of
the Mount Pleasant Chamber.
Kathy Herman, here I am yourcurrent president and I am also
the marketing director at MountPleasant Town Center.

(00:24):
I'd like to thank you all forjoining in to listen to us today
, and I am joined by my guestco-host today, tammy Becker.
Tammy is the COO of Pigtailsand Crew Cuts in Mount Pleasant
and also the co-owner ofElements Massage in West Ashley
and Somerville and the currentpresident-elect of the Mount
Pleasant Chamber.

(00:44):
So, tammy, welcome.
Thank you, and please telleveryone a little bit about
yourself.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
I've been in Mount Pleasant for about six years.
As Kathy said, I stay very busy.
I'm looking forward to thispodcast today.
I have a couple businesses herein the Lowcountry and that's
about it.
No, there's so much more, butwe don't have time for that
today.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Well, the best part about Tammy being here today is
we're both book nerds.
That's going to give you anidea of who we're talking to
today.
So hold on.
I am so excited about ourspecial guest today.
In her current role, she iscommitted to providing literacy,
workforce development,educational success, community
engagement and equityopportunities through library

(01:26):
services to the CharlestonCounty residents.
She's a mother of two.
She's a huge fan of reading toher children, which I love, and
is an avid reader of all genresand we're going to talk about
that later and loves to talk topeople about their favorite book
, which I do hope we'll be ableto get in by the end of this
podcast.
Favorite book, which I do hopewe'll be able to get in by the

(01:46):
end of this podcast.
And I also saw this and I lovethis tagline we engage, empower
and inspire our patrons onelibrary card at a time.
It's the first thing I got whenI moved here, by the way.
I am so excited.
Please welcome Angela Craig,executive director of Charleston
County Public Libraries.
Thank you so much for comingtoday, thank you.
Thank you for having me.

(02:07):
Are you kidding?
I mean.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Tammy and I.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
I'm excited.
We love books.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
All we talk about is books, and then when we heard
that you were going to be ourspecial guest, we were so
excited, because not only do welove books, but the services
that the Charleston CountyLibrary System offers, not even
just to residents but tobusinesses, which of course the
Chamber is interested in.
I mean, I don't know ifeveryone knows about them,
Angela, but we're going to gointo that, but tell us a little

(02:32):
bit about yourself first.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Oh, thank you.
Well, hello everyone.
My name is Angela Craig.
I'm the Executive Director ofCharleston County Public Library
and it has been my pleasure tobe your Executive Director for
five years now.
I celebrated my five-year workanniversary here just a few days
ago.
Previously, I worked with theCharlotte Mecklenburg Library.
I was with them for about 14years in progressive roles, and

(02:55):
when the Charleston job opened Ijust knew that I had to give it
a shot.
My husband and kids and I, wealways came to Folly Beach and
we would always, you know wewere the annoying tourist.
I'm sorry, not anymore.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Not anymore, no.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
But what I loved is there was, you know, there's the
Folly Beach Library on FollyBeach and reading is a very
important part of my family.
We read all the time.
I read to my kids when I waspregnant and we keep reading now
, and we would actually go tothe Folly Beach Library and buy
books from the Friends of theLibrary and we would read books
on the beach and then, when thejob was open, I knew I just had

(03:30):
to give it a shot.
And here we are and it's justbeen.
It's been a dream job.
I live in Mount Pleasant, mykids go to the local schools
there and we just really reallylove being part of the community
as well.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
That's absolutely amazing.
I mean we were talking beforewe went live about all the new
branches and all theredevelopments and all of the I
see almost everyone's getting anuplift.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Is that correct?

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yes, that is correct and I know that I mean Wando's
brand new, the Mount Pleasantone just had.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yes, it was just renovated and reopened.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
And then the old village.
That's amazing.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
It's amazing.
That's something that really isa gift.
That is because of thereferendum that happened in 2014
that was passed by, I think,79% of the community voted for
public libraries, so we got fivenew libraries out of that, and
we're renovating the other 13.
And so we have a total of 18library locations throughout
Charleston County, three ofwhich are in Mount Pleasant.

(04:22):
Wow, go ahead, tommy.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
No, that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
I didn't even realize that I was going to you know
I'm not saying this in aderogatory way, because you'll
know what I mean when I say this.
I am so happy to see that we'respending all this money and
land on libraries because peoplealways say nobody reads a book
anymore, they can get everythingonline.

(04:50):
But you know what I'm trying tosay.
Right, and especially comingfrom a book nerd like myself,
the library is the first choiceI always go to.
I'm so impressed by, I'massuming, you and what you guys
do to keep reading alive and tobuild these things that our
families and our businesses need.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Absolutely, and I think that if you're a library
user then you know.
But what we're always reachingfor are for those folks that
don't know that the library isabsolutely space for them.
The business community is aprime example where we have so
many resources and things forsmall business owners, large
business owners, people with aside hustle, you know that can
come in and test out things or,you know, just see what

(05:22):
expertise we have to offer andit's a safe space for that, to
explore that, and then we canalso connect people to resources
that are free and they can trythem out at home.
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Can you tell me a little more about that,
especially a business owner?

Speaker 3 (05:46):
no-transcript.
So our traditional services area wonderful resource for
business owners because, youknow, we do have books.
We have lots and lots of booksthat deal with any sort of
business thing that you need tohave, from putting together a
business plan or resumes orthings like that.
But then we also have all thesewonderful databases and
research databases that I thinka lot of people don't realize.

(06:08):
Come with your library card.
Your library card is a verypowerful tool.
If you go to our website atccplorg, there is the tab that
says research and underneaththat there are all these
databases, and some of thedatabases are things like for
hobbies or foreign languages orthings like that, but there is a
lot of great things forworkforce development.
That's one of our five focusareas.
Linkedin Learning helps peoplekeep up to date with current

(06:31):
technology.
They can look at careerboosting trends and things like
that.
It is tied into LinkedIn aswell, and so it helps you boost
your social media presence.
And again, it is free with thepower of your library card,
which is so the researchdatabases that we have, which
are on our webpage, and, if youknow, one of the wonderful
things is you can go into thelibrary and say I am a small

(06:51):
business owner or I'm looking tostart a small business, could
you help me look at some of thebest practices?
What are some resources and anylibrary staff can help you with
that.
And if they don't know theanswer then they will hand off
to someone else who does and you.
You know we're verycollaborative at CCPL.
We definitely want to help youfind the answer to your question
.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
So every single small business in Mount Pleasant
needs to make sure they can geta library card.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Absolutely yes.
Yes, if you are a resident,then you already can apply for a
library card.
You can come to any one of thelocations in Mount Pleasant.
That's the Village, that'sMount Pleasant Regional, that's
also Wando.
We will happily get you abusiness card I'm sorry, library
card for you and you can use itto explore options for your
business and also fun readingopportunities.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
That's amazing, and you could do that online or
inside the library, correct?

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yes, yes, you can apply online, and then you just
have to show up at the libraryand they will give you a
physical card and get you active.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Like I said, I've had mine since like two days after
I moved here.
Fantastic, the first thing Ihad to do was find a library.
Yes, but it was the MountPleasant library that I went to
at that time, because Wando wasnot built yet, right?

Speaker 3 (07:50):
And Mount Pleasant is a super reader branch.
We have some very highcirculation stats there and if
you ever want to know what istrending, if you go to where the
hold pickup is, you can seewhat people are reading.
It's interesting to see what'strending, what people are
checking out.
It's like the Mount Pleasantgroup is a super reader.
I really love seeing whatthey're checking out.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
One thing I do love too, on a personal level, is the
fact that I can put it on hold.
Not because I.
The problem is, angela.
If I had to go find a book inthe library, I'd be there for
six hours because I want to beRight, right All and I can't.
So the option of going onlineand putting a book on hold and
they text me as soon as it'sready.
I walk in, it's reserved, Itake it, I scan it out, I'm done

(08:29):
.
Oh yeah, it is superb.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
And self-checkout.
You can say hi if you want, butif you're busy.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
I like to say hello to whoever's there.
We like when people say hi.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
Self-checkout, but it is nice to, you know, chat with
folks Now, with everythinggoing online these days.
What are some of the challengesthat the library system is
facing?
There is a lot of infrastructureinequities around Charleston
County, where you know we wework really hard to make sure
that our resources areaccessible anywhere in the
county, but there are somethings from an infrastructure
standpoint that we just don'thave control over.
We do have a lot of wonderfulresources we have Wi-Fi devices
and laptops and other thingsthat people can check out and

(09:08):
take home, which we encouragethem to but in certain areas of
Charleston County the Wi-Fidevices don't work, and so we
are actually part of the.
We were a founding member ofthe Low Country Digital Equity
Coalition, which is regional forthe three counties here
Berkeley and Dorchester also andso we are helping establish
best practices and also advocacyto make sure that those areas

(09:29):
get covered.
There's a lot of work beingdone by a lot of entities, and
the public library definitelyhas a voice in helping to make
sure that digital equity isthere for everyone.
You'd be surprised that even inMount Pleasant, there are a lot
of spots where theaccessibility isn't as
consistent, and so that's goodto know, and so we can actually
take that back to the DigitalEquity Coalition and then help

(09:50):
put that on the radar foradvocacy.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Wow, that's interesting.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
So many different things that we didn't even know
that the library was involvedwith.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
And it's interesting.
We are definitely about books.
We have five focus areas.
You talked about them earlier.
We on literacy, workforcedevelopment, educational success
, community engagement andequity, and what we mean by
those is those are our pillars.
That's what the community hasasked us to do, basically, and
people are asking forinformation, and the information
could come from books, it cancome from databases, it can come

(10:20):
from the programs that we have,but libraries have always been
about information, and the waywe get it to our patrons depends
on what platform that they wantto access it by Usually books
or computers or whatever else wecan offer.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Wow that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
It really is.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
So I have I don't know a couple of odd questions.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
I love odd questions.
Where do?

Speaker 2 (10:41):
these books come from .
And the question about the holdlist for me because I don't use
that system currently is that Ifind it amazing that she's like
there's 67 people in front ofher for the same book.
Like how could everybody bereading the same book?
Is that because there is atrend and people are wanting to

(11:01):
read that book, or how do youget the book?
So I know that's two kinds ofquestions.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
Yeah, yeah, but that's amazing.
Well, first, tammy, we've gotto get you on the collection
train, because that's the way togo 67 books in front of me now.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
I'd have to.
I couldn't.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
If you know.
I'm going to go hold and wait.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Exactly, I'm going to no, you can put your name on
there while it's in pre-orderingand then you're actually first
in the queue.
So I've done that before, whichis good.
We can't reorder the queue, butif you are watching you can put
your name on there, which isgood.
We have a wonderful collectiondevelopment department and we
order for the big fivepublishers.
The publishing industry keepsshrinking.
Other publishers keep absorbingeach other, so that kind of

(11:51):
changes, you know.
We also order from independentpublishers too.
We love local authors.
We will definitely purchasefrom local authors.
We love to have ebooks as well,because we know that there is
an entire patron demographicwhere they may or may not
actually come into our librariesphysically, but they're always
downloading books, which isgreat.
I personally love having aebook, a physical book and book
and an audio book that I'mlistening to.
I'm always listening andreading different things For
your holds.
That is how we measure what ispopular and oftentimes we can

(12:14):
tell through bestseller listsand things like that award
winners and things.
But the public will also tellus when there is a hold list of
like 300 books, we will scrambleto purchase more books and
sometimes we're at the mercy ofum our publishers.
They maybe not have publishedas many books, and so we can
only get what we can get.
And so you know, that's why youmight see a large wait list for

(12:35):
some titles that you know.
Perhaps the publisher didn'trealize how, you know, uh,
popular topic was going to be,and then they just don't have
enough books.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
So we, we have to wait so it seems organized too,
because if you actually open itup and you'll see it'll be, like
transferring from one toanother it's a whole list of
where all those books are.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
I just find it fascinating and our delivery
department are the unsung heroes.
They are the ones that you know.
They get there early at supportservices and they get these
bins and they're driving allover the county and they're
delivering your holds to you andif they weren't delivering
those books, then your bookswould not arrive at your library
.
So it is amazing, and they'revery, very efficient at it.
It is a science that's amazingand do you?

Speaker 2 (13:11):
I know I've dropped boxes of books off there when
I've moved here so people canstill continue.
Is there anything that youdon't take?

Speaker 3 (13:18):
we well, the friends of the library is our 501c3 and
they are the ones that takedonations.
They love books, books of alltypes.
I think that they are nottaking audiovisual anymore.
Might want to check on that but, as I understand, their
predominant donation is, andalways has been, books, and they
also take rare things too andthey'll have specialty book

(13:38):
sales.
But, yeah, the Friends of theLibrary you can drop at the Main
Library and at the WandoLibrary is our two big donation
spots, because we actually havelocations there where we can
store the books and then theysort them and they have book
sales throughout the year, whichis great, yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
And how come there's a wait for online?

Speaker 2 (13:56):
Why can't they just be oh, yes, Now there's that too
.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yes, oh yeah, so it's so funny.
So you're like okay, well, it'sonline, or a digital book, I
should say, and you can downloadit free from the library.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
On the library app.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
It's Libby.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Libby yes.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Libby.
Which I have of course, butthen I could start reading it
and I lose it in two weeks, justlike I would when I take it.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
So if it's a digital copy.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
How come I can't just read it?

Speaker 3 (14:25):
So it's amazing that public libraries are able to get
ebooks at all.
That's a licensing thing withthe publishers and I will say
well and the publishers don'treally like it.
If there's publishers listening, they're probably not gonna
like me saying this, but it'strue.
They publishers would probablyprefer that we not have that.
So they actually charge us morefor the digital license and
sometimes they put restrictionson how many digital license that

(14:45):
we can purchase.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
And also a time limit too.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
So for a very popular title, a publisher and it
varies by publisher Somepublishers are very generous,
other publishers are morerestrictive, and so they might
say, for a very popular title,public libraries can only have X
number of titles for this timeperiod, and then we have to
renew, and we don't have theoption to renew until that time
period has passed, becausethey're trying to sell the
actual ebooks to patrons.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
So yeah, so for all my book club friends that are
listening, because I have manyof you that are in the chamber
that is the reason.
That is the reason we weretalking about it just recently
with uh, with a download, and afriend was reading it and she
said all of a sudden it was gone.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
Yep, oh yeah, Just like.
You have to return the book andyou can't renew it.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
You have to get back in the queue.
You have to get back in thequeue.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Is there still late fees on books?
I remember no.
Isn't that nice of them.
See, that's how long it is.
I still feel guilty if I don't.
I know right.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Do you?
I just had one out that Iwaited about a month to get and
I was to make sure that.
I was buying back by that datebecause I knew I wasn't going to
have to pay the five cents aday like I used to.
But somebody else was waitingfor the book.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
So what do you do in that case?

Speaker 3 (15:56):
I read fast, you can keep it longer, and then we
actually.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
No, no, no.
$50 to your credit card.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
Well, we don't actually charge like 25 cents.
We will give you a longeropportunity to hang on to your
book and if you lose it whichhas happened I have lost a book
and I've had to pay for the book.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
So even the library director has to pay for that.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
But we actually don't charge late fees.
We will actually after acertain amount of time I think
it's like nine weeks.
If we don't receive the book,then we'll charge you for the
price of the book.
But then if you bring the bookback, then we remove the charge.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
So yeah, Nine weeks is a long time.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
If they held on for nine weeks, then they should
just pay for the book.
It's something like that.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
And that's something we noticed, a trend.
I mean, people are busy, a lotof us are working and we're
caregivers, or you might havemultiple jobs, or you're just
tired, and so you check outbooks with the best intention to
bring them back, or you losethem because your kid says that
they return them, but they'reactually under your seat in the
car the whole time and so, yeah,then you end up bringing it
back and it's okay.
So we don't judge at the publiclibrary, don't worry well,

(16:58):
that's good to know everybodyreturn your books, though,
because that's not fair the next

Speaker 1 (17:03):
person yes, yes, and they can return it and then wait
and you can return a bookanytime you want to, it's okay
okay, right, I just don't wantto get in trouble you won't get
in trouble.
Okay, good, uh, let's go backto mount pleasant businesses for
a minute um, do you have anyspecific stories or any kind of
examples or things of some ofour local businesses that might
have benefited from theresources from the library?

Speaker 3 (17:25):
yes, um, I actually reached out to some of the
library teams.
Um, you know, at wando, atmount pleasant, and the village
and um, the wando mount pleasantlibrary has some wonderful
resources.
So for the business community,if I might plug those, we have,
um a media room where you canrecord a podcast, you can record
screen, you can do all kinds ofstuff.

(17:46):
We've had a variety ofdifferent types of users.
We have a staff member who'sdedicated who can help you with
the technology, which is great.
We've had seniors record theirsenior project for that.
We've had small businessesrecord media clips and things
like that.
We've had local churches comein and they've recorded
historical stories.
I mean, it's just fantastic Ihad no idea yes yes, and it's

(18:08):
all free to the public.
You have to make an appointment,but, yes, we absolutely can
help you out.
We also have the Makerspace,and the Makerspace has anything
from 3D printers where you canprint out, you know, cups and
all kinds of stuff, or hassewing machines or knitting and
things like that.
So we have plugged andunplugged technology there and
again, we have library staffthat can help you with that,

(18:30):
which is great.
One of our recent successstories with local business is
that a Wando branch was able toprovide media and workforce
development support for a patron.
This patron was using Wando'sTV studio that I just talked
about and she was able to designa media proposal that won her a
business grant for $30,000.
Wow, and this business is aretrofitted school bus that will

(18:53):
provide fresh produce tounderserved communities in and
around Charleston, which isgreat.
So this patron was able to cometo the Wando Public Library with
a business idea and so thestaff were able to help her with
her business proposal, with hergrant proposal, to articulate
and tease out, you know, as aresult of this, we were able to
do this for the community andthen also, using the TV studio,

(19:14):
was able to record a mediaproposal to submit to enhance
that, which is great.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Do you see what you can get with your library card,
all for free?

Speaker 2 (19:20):
I mean seriously all for free card.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
All for free.
I mean seriously all for free.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Just go get your library card.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Well, and we love working.
I have one.
Oh, I know you do.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
I do have one we love working with local business
communities.
We love answering theirquestions, but then we love
having local businesscommunities as a resource.
It's wonderful to hear what istrending in the workforce.
How can we help when a patroncomes in and says how can I make
my resume more attractive?
It's nice to hear from thebusiness community what skills
are they looking for, what aresome emerging technologies that

(19:49):
we should be helping them focuson, and things like that.
And so it's twofold.
We love answering questions,but we learn every time we are
interfacing with the businesscommunity, because it's shifting
.
It's changing so much.
As you all know, the businessworld is changing, not even
annually, like every couple ofmonths.
Something new is coming, somenew skill is needed, and so it's
nice for the public library toknow, so that we can help our
patrons prepare for that whenthey're looking to go into the

(20:11):
workforce.
That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Oh, I was actually going to ask that, sorry.
No yeah, oh, I'm so sorry.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
I'm going to move this a little closer.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Sit on my hands If you were tapping before Sorry.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
My hands are on my lap.
I'm like sitting on my lap.
I was going to ask that if Ican do that, you've been perfect
.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
Thank you, she is perfect.
Tammy can do more.
I know I'm sitting on my handsAre you supposed to?

Speaker 2 (20:42):
keep my hands folded.
Yeah, my hands are like.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
What was that the meeting space?
I was going to ask about thattoo.
That was one of my guests,actually.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
I have a need of a meeting space.
All right, that's why I wasgoing to ask All right, I'm
sorry, I'm sorry, brian.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
So where do we start again?
You make sure, Get it out getit out.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
There we go.
Now you've ruined your perfecttime.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Nope, nope.
You see, I'm like this, I'mlike squeezing my hands, and I
usually talk with my hands.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
Where were we?
Yes, how did we do that?

Speaker 3 (21:09):
I was on a roll.
Meeting space yeah, I reallylike the neat little intake
system you guys have.
Oh, yes, the automated handlingyes, yeah, yeah, automated
handling, yes, yeah, yeah,that's really great.
We have it at Wanto Meetingspace.
Yeah.
So, tammy, you were saying thatyou have a need for meeting

(21:29):
space.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
I do I do so?
I do a lot of networking herein the area and I'm actually
starting a female women's groupcalled she Leads and I'm going
to be the president of the onein West Ashley and I'm looking
for space and somebody told meto reach out to the library and
I went on your website actuallyand it said not.
If not, if you know you have tobe a non-profit or some kind of

(21:50):
government.
Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (21:52):
or can anybody run a space or anyone can you have to
have a library card.
We like to make sure that we'reserving the community.
It is first come, first serveand we have a variety of meeting
rooms.
Mount Pleasant is wonderfulbecause we have the Wando Mount
Pleasant Library.
That has a very largeauditorium that can seat like
hundreds of people.
Then it has smaller spaces.

(22:12):
Right right, and we can alsosubdivide it, and it has a
kitchen on both sides.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
So maybe I do have to do more than run in and get the
book.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
Right right, just walk around, walk around.
You need to spend those sixhours?
I do, I sure do.
And then Wando also has smallersort of midsize meeting rooms
that have dry erase boards andwe have Wi-Fi so you can project
.
And we also have at the MountPleasant Regional.
We have an auditorium thatseats probably 50 people and we

(22:42):
also have technology availablethere.
The Village Library does nothave a meeting space.
It's little, it's a littlehouse, but you can still sit at
a table there and meet if youwanted to.
But yes, for your group thatyou were just talking about,
that actually is perfect for us.
So you would just go online atccplorg and there is a tab where
you can reserve a room, or youcan always just call your

(23:03):
library and then they can helpyou with that reservation,
that's amazing To anybody else.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
a hundred people, if you need to do a seminar or
whatnot?

Speaker 1 (23:10):
it'd be perfect, and I know now.
I have not been to the MountPleasant location in a while
because I started going to theWando location but that just
reopened with renovation.
So, those that have not beenthere in a while.
What changed at that location?
What's been added to help thecommunity and help our business?

Speaker 3 (23:27):
We enclosed a teen area for teen patrons, so now
there's a dedicated teen space,which is great, so we can lock
them in that room.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yes, we can close that door.
There's probably no locks onthe other locks.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
That's not actually up to code, so we can't do that.
But we have an enclosed teenspace, which is great and that.
But, um you, we have anenclosed teen space, which is
great, and in the teen space wehave a dedicated teen collection
and computers and a gamingsystem and there's also a staff
desk there.
Um, adults can go into the teenspace.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
They just can't hang out in the teen space.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah, because that that's for the teens and it's
glass and clothes so people cansee, and so it's fine.
We also have a enclosedchildren's area so we can close
the door.
There.
It gets a little noisysometimes.
And then we also increased thenumber of books at the Mount
Pleasant Regional because that,as I said, is a super reader
branch.
So we decreased the number ofcomputers there, because it

(24:17):
seems like people either bringtheir device or the numbers of
computers that we had worked andwe have more books at Mount
Pleasant, which is great.
And then we also have ourauditorium.
We refreshed the auditorium andwe have more books at Mount
Pleasant, which is great, andthen we also have our auditorium
.
We refreshed the auditorium andwe also refreshed our
collection there as well.
So we got a new collection atthe Mount Pleasant Library and
you can probably tell becausethere are a lot of new books
there, which is great.
We just reopened that branchlast year.

(24:37):
I think.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, it's been fairly recent.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
That's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, no, I think it's great and, like I said, I
have not I've, I've just started.
It's easier for me now.
I just go on my way home,because I live um in that area
of Mount Pleasant and um are you.
Did you just say, though, thatthere's more books at the at the
at an app location than the um.

Speaker 3 (24:58):
Oh, no, no, no, there's.
There's definitely more booksat Wando, but, yeah, we ended up
putting more shelves.
Yeah, we put more shelving atMount Pleasant because, when we
were talking to the communityand we were looking at the stats
, that is a branch that has alot of checkouts and, just you
know, more more readers thantechnology users, it seems, and
so we still.
We do have computers there, wehave desktops, we also have

(25:19):
laptops that can be checked out,but it seems that a lot of
folks bring their own technology, which is great.
We have just regular desk.
They can, just, you know, plugin there and, um, you know, we
just wanted to make sure we weremeeting the community needs
when we calibrated that branch Iunderstand, I understand um, so
we talked.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
So if you had a mascot for the library system,
what would it be?

Speaker 3 (25:39):
we do, we do, yeah his name is albert and he is an
owl.
And we actually got a newcostume for him.
I was going to say I hope youhave a costume, oh yes, and
there's a wonderful staff memberand the staff member is usually
Albert and they will wear thecostume whenever we need them to

(26:00):
and the costume is hot and bigand you can actually request to
have Albert come out tocommunity events.
We love to come out tocommunity events.
There is, you know, requestform for it, but we love to have
Albert there.
So Albert will come to libraryfor library events, but as a
community partner, you canrequest for Albert to come out
and if we have the availability,albert will come out and visit.
So we're all just great You'vebeen at our expo.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Oh yeah, nice, yes, oh, that's right.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
Kids love him we need to make sure he's at our expo
that's right.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
Excellent, that's so awesome.
Well, you know, we do kidsevents at Town Center too, all
the time.
Yes, yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
I'm sure Albert has been there.
I'm sure seen Albert.
Then we'll have to get Albertthere.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
You and I need to work on that.
We'll get Albert there.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
That is fantastic, though, and an owl so cute.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
I mean, what a?

Speaker 3 (26:48):
great the wise owl.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Yeah, that's so awesome, earlier, we were
talking about how much we readUh-huh.
Okay, do you mind sharing witheveryone your goal for the year?

Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yes, my goal is 110 books this year no-transcript.

(27:23):
Oh, my daughter says, it doesit.
You know, she's like you'relistening to your weird
storybooks and I'm like listen,you're reading graphic novels,
so whatever you're readingcounts.
However, you're reading counts,but you know they're not
reading You're listening Well,but what does a blind person do?
I know?

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, I joke because I actually am not an audible.
I can't pay attention I need to.
I I'm very much like Tammy, andup until this past Christmas,
when my husband finally got me aKindle, I had never read a book
digitally ever, so it's onlybeen a few months.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
But do you?

Speaker 1 (27:56):
love it Not as much as the book, that's okay.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
That's okay.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
Not as much as the book.
The one thing I do love and Iwant to go back to my question
but what I do love is atnighttime.
It's very, uh, soothing.
Yes, because I love to readbefore I go to sleep and so it's
very soothing with that screenand the way it's designed to
help me read easier.
When I'm reading a regular book, I have to have the big light
on because I'm blind.
Big light or a flashlight orglasses on um so, but um back,

(28:24):
so wait.
So back to your goal, is it all?
Different genres is it.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
It's anything and everything.
All fair game.
I have a pretty.
I believe in reading for fun.
I don't believe in forcing it.
I have like a 50-page rule.
If a book isn't doing it for me, then I'll just pass after 50
pages.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
I can't do that either I have to finish it, no,
I can let it go.
I can let it go.
Listen the boss of theCharleston Public.
Library system is now tellingme that I do not have to finish
the book just because I startedit.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
Well, life is too short for books that don't bring
you enjoyment.
Damn it.
You know what?

Speaker 1 (28:54):
maybe you and I need to work on that together and
after 50 pages, if I go, I hateit, you'll say it.

Speaker 3 (28:59):
Or whatever, like I've ditched books after the
first chapter.
I'm like this is not for me andyeah it's okay, it's okay.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
That's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Sorry, I still have a question about the 113 books.
Now I thought I read a lot andI just started getting back into
it because I've been super busy.
But, like I said, I readprobably about five or six a
month.
But I know I'm busy and you'resuper busy with the work that
you do and your children.
I know you're listening to some, so is that cheating?

Speaker 3 (29:26):
No, no.
According to my daughter, yes.
How do you find?

Speaker 2 (29:29):
all that, where do you find that extra time?
You're reading at bedtime, butwhat other time do you save for
yourself to do that reading?

Speaker 3 (29:36):
I'm listening in my commute because I drive around
Charleston County.
So we have 18 library locations, and so I'm driving around a
lot, and so I'm usuallylistening to an audio book when
I'm doing that.
I love to jog or walk in themorning, and so I'll usually
listen to an audio book.
Sometimes I jog faster,depending on how fast the
narrator is talking, which isgreat, and then I really feel

(29:58):
that reading is something for methat helps me unplug from
things.
And you know I don't dononfiction for a reason because
I read a lot, read a lot ofinformation.
I read a lot of articles andprofessional things and
newspaper articles to keepcurrent, and so for me that's a
lot of nonfiction reading and Ilike to read anything that's
fiction or listen to fiction.
I will do some nonfictionbiographies and things like that

(30:20):
.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
But that person has to be of interest to you.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
Right, right, right, or the subject, but I really
find that reading is somethingthat helps me.
Like you were saying, unwind, Iread a lot before bed.
I want to make sure that I reada chapter of something a day
just to make sure that I'm doingsomething just for me, which I
think is important.
I think it's important to dosomething for yourself, and
reading is just that thing forme.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
That's awesome Do you read or listen to several books
at a time.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
Yes, I usually have about five at a time Not
necessarily, but I'll have alittle bit of everything and if
I get bored I think I have ashorter attention span and I'll
just rotate and finish.
I could do one Good for you.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
I had one time where I actually had to put a book
down because I had to pick upanother one, because it was
either due or the book club wascoming up, and I literally was
like this it was like goingthrough withdrawal, like I
couldn't put the book downwithout finishing it and I had
to pick up this new one.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
Maybe you can teach me how to do that well, I was on
a book award committee yearsago and that was really, really
fun, um, and I ended up.
We we tracked our reading and Iended up reading 300 books over
300 books a year for this bookaward committee, because the
publishers send you books andyou have to read the books and
the entire committee there wasnine of us on there and we had
to vote for the books.

(31:39):
We all read these books and weall were nominating and so you
had to read the books thatpeople nominated along with
whatever books you were assigned.
And I was assigned about 300books and I think I'm a speed
reader not officially, but I canread very, very fast.
Wow, and that helps a lot.
Sure, yeah, wow.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
I can read fast.
I just wouldn't remember halfof what I was reading.
Yeah, retention is a problem.

Speaker 3 (31:59):
I will say retention is a problem and no, I can't
remember author names.
I know I'm a library, I knowI'm the library director.
I should remember author names,but I can't.
I remember like the book coverand I'll say oh, it was that
blue book with that thing on it,and then that makes total sense
to me.
That's what you remember,that's what I remember.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
But just not not the author.
I realized like like threemonths is my retention because I
did um again.
I one of my book clubs.
I had read the the book inDecember for a book club in May
and do you remember I was okay.
Another time it was almost likeeight months and I didn't even

(32:36):
remember the lead character'sname.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
I went down to that.
That's okay, that's okay.
We only have so much memory.
It's okay, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
I do know a lot of our members have kids in Mount
Pleasant and so I know they'realways looking for things to do
with their children, which isawesome, and I know you offer
again with a library card,amazing things.
So would you talk about some ofyour children's programs that
our listeners would be able toput on their event calendar?

Speaker 3 (33:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, annually we always haveour summer reading program, and
to attend any one of our libraryprograms you actually don't
have to have a library card, youcan just show up.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
Oh, no, tell them no, no, oh, you have to have a
library card.
Sorry, you have to have alibrary card.
It's free, it's free, it isfree.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
But yes, we love library cards.
But yeah, our summer forchildren, teens and adults and
the adults have become anemerging market for summer
reading, which is really fun.
Some of the adults have kids,some of them don't, but they
have been a growing demographic.
We also have the Thousand BooksBefore Kindergarten program,
which is wonderful for kids.

(33:39):
We've had a lot of completersat the Wando Library and in
Mount Pleasant too, and it'sreally really fun.
So you just go to one of yourlibrary branches and to the
children's department and sayI'd love to do the 1,000 books
for kindergarten.
Obviously your child has to benot only kindergarten yet and
you can read to your child, sothat also counts.
And then they start reading,and so the goal is to read 1,000

(34:00):
books with your child, or yourchild start reading, and so they
would have read a thousandbooks.
Do you provide a list of bookswe can, but it's really anything
and we help with the trackingand then we have I'm sorry, what
an amazing program it is.
It is, and I actually did notdo that my kids we were in a
different library system when mykids were in kindergarten so we
didn't do that.
But it was a really, reallygreat program and it doesn't

(34:22):
really matter if you finish it.
It really doesn't.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
It's fun.
To me, it's just even signingup for it and thinking about it
that counts.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
I think it helps parents, because all parents are
so busy and reading can feellike a chore.
But you know we want kids torealize that books are fun, that
books are toys, that books aresomething that you know, help
with your imagination and youknow books can take you anywhere
.
And so it's not a chore, it'snot an assignment, it is just,
you know, for the fun of it.
And you know, if you hit 1,000books, that's fantastic, but if

(34:52):
it's just like 10 books, that'sstill fantastic.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
It's 10 books that they might not have read the day
before.
Right, Exactly.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
We have a comparable program.
This is new for high schoolstudents.
I think it's 100 books beforesenior year.
I might be getting the numberwrong, but it's the same thing,
where you start as a freshmanand your goal is to read 100
books, I think throughout highschool.
It might be a little more, butit's the same thing.
You know, you go to the teendepartment this time and you
sign up and you track your booksand there's prizes, usually

(35:20):
like a big stack of books at theend.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
So more books for you , which is really great.
It's exciting to have volunteeropportunities for people to
come read.
Do you have?

Speaker 3 (35:28):
reading programs.
We partner with differentnot-for-profits.
There's a lot of really greatnot-for-profits like Reading
Buddies and things like that.
Our 501c3 Friends of theLibrary is our primary volunteer
opportunity.
They are wonderful.
They do book sorting, they dothe intake, they're the ones
that are setting up for the booksales.

(35:48):
That's all volunteer.
They have one employee, theexecutive director, and then the
rest of it is volunteer.
Their board is volunteer.
All the volunteers come in andit's fantastic what they do.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
There's a lot of need there for always, for more
volunteers.
I know a lot of the girls in myneighborhood bring their kids
to the library for certainthings.
So what are some of theprograms?
Like you have arts and crafts.
Oh yeah, yeah, we have any.
And everything.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
We have unofficial after-school activities, like
you know, and like we havehomeschool kids and we have all
different types of things.
So we do have activities forkids all throughout the day.
We have science-based,stem-based activities.
We have art programs, you know.
We have technology-basedprograms.
We have special guests thatwill come in.

(36:34):
We might have the CharlestonRaptor Center come in or the
Aquarium and show yeah, they'llbring in animals and all kinds
of stuff.
We've partnered with localtheater groups.
You know, spoleto PiccoloSpoleto has come in and they've
done like little miniperformances and things like
that.
Local authors and then we'vehad author visits come and those

(36:54):
are fantastic and even if it'san adult author, I think it's
really great for kids just tomeet an author and to hear about
their writing process, which is, you know, really individual
depending on the author.
And if a kid is trying to writea book, it's always inspiring
to hear how authors do it.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
And I'm not saying you're not doing a good job of
letting people know about theseprograms, but this is just a new
way for our listeners to knowall of these free things, and
not just for kids, I havenoticed, and maybe it's just
because of the explosion indigital and all that, but there
are some amazing local authors.

(37:32):
Oh, yes, I mean they just seemto be getting better and better
and better and better and better, and I just love the
relationship that the libraryhas with these local authors and
it's a business too.
It's just amazing we do.
Um, I, I was joking that one ofmy favorite authors now is from
the charleston area and I washoping she'd come to my book

(37:54):
club, but uh, you never know,that's all another story.
I'm gonna work with angela onthat on the side we will try um,
but really I mean some amazingauthors and great events and
things.
Um, you know, and I love thatthey're writing about the
Lowcountry- too, they're noteven just from the Lowcountry.
They're writing about theLowcountry.
I just read Kristen Ness atLoggerheads.

(38:15):
Highly highly, highly recommendthat book.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
It's on my list.
It's really great.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
And she doesn't say it's Mount Pleasant and Isle of
Palms, but you know it's MountPleasant and Isle of Palms, but
what a great read.
And, like I said so, do youever do book signings with them
or are they just?

Speaker 3 (38:31):
doing little reads.
Local authors are so generouswith their time and we
definitely want to make surethat we're supporting them as an
author, as an artist, and theylove doing book signings.
I have yet to encounter anauthor that doesn't want to do
some form of book signing and Ithink it's really fun for them
to interact with their readersand a lot of them will become

(38:53):
lifelong readers because theymet the author and, like I'm a
lifelong reader for severalauthors because I met them at
book signings, at libraries orbookstores or, you know,
conferences, and it's justreally fun to meet them as a
person.
And then you know, you're like,oh, what's their next book?

Speaker 1 (39:08):
And then you end up reading all their books.
So yeah, absolutely, that'samazing.
And then I want to talk aboutinclusion for a minute.
Inclusion and diversity.
It's just such an importantinitiative for everybody in
business.
How is the library adjusting?
I'm sure you took into accountsome things when you did the
remodels and the building of thenew.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
Wanda.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
Library.
Of course it's open for fiveyears.
Special programs do you havethose.
Would you like to tell ouraudience a little bit about that
?

Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yeah, our five focus areas again, and one of them is
equity, and that is the way wedefine.
Equity is making sure thatevery patron of Charleston
County can access our services,no matter where they are or what
their ability is or how theyidentify, and so we want to make
sure that you know we're ADAcompliant.
We want to make sure that wehave large print books.
We want to make sure that wehave audio books.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
I need large print soon.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
You know, I have to have reading glasses, so I
understand A lot of thebuildings that were built.
The building codes obviously hadchanged and so it was nice to
update the bathrooms.
For example, the Mount Pleasantlibrary we were able to update
the bathroom there, and then,you know, the village library is
small but we were able to, youknow, update that space as well

(40:17):
to have more floor space forpeople with mobility challenges,
and that that could be anything.
That could be a person in awheelchair, or it could be, you
know, a woman who is pregnantwith a stroller, and you know,
just the mobility can be anysort of challenge.
So we want to make sure thatour libraries are accessible.
We also were very mindful aboutmaking the spaces flexible, so

(40:38):
a lot of our shelving has wheelson it, so we can move the
shelving around and we can openup the floor space if we needed
to, for not just an event, butif there was a patron that
needed an accommodation.
We haven't had that happen, butif we needed to, we could do it
if we needed to.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
That's amazing.
I love my library.
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
And we love our patrons.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
We love them I feel like I'm talking to a rock star.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
Oh wow, just so you know.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
That's how I'll be, but it's changed.
It's like I'm sitting herethinking about like when I used
to go to the library as a childand then my kids growing up and
do the schools even havelibraries in high school.
I mean, my kids are grown so Iwouldn't know that.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
But yeah, there are media centers um, not all,
because my kids are with ccsd.
Not all public schools have amedia specialist um or if they
do, they might be part-time.
I mean it's a struggle to findfunding for that.
That's a national struggle, andso we work really closely with
CCSD.
We want to make sure we'resupporting the students and so

(41:39):
sometimes we are their publiclibrary and then you know
there's a growing homeschoolcommunity.
We are their library, we aretheir classroom oftentimes, and
we're perfectly fine with thatrole.
We are their library, we aretheir classroom oftentimes and
we're perfectly fine with thatrole.
We want those students there.
There's also this students havechanged a lot because of
virtual learning.
So we will have students comeinto the library and use our
computers as their classroom,because maybe they don't want to

(42:00):
do it at home or maybe theirschool's given them permission.
So we have seen a different andtheir public school students.
It's just.
It's a different way to learnnow, so we've had to adapt and
just make sure that we aremeeting the need of the student
however they come to us.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
I could see how it would be somewhat positive to
get out of the house, oh sure.
Absolutely.
If you have to be home, do youronline learning to be in a safe
environment with everythingthat you would need.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
Well, and the business community?
I'm going to once again plug usas a third space for you.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
Well, that's what you're here for.
Yes, yes, plug yourself intothe business community.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
So I've heard anecdotally from business owners
that you know they have awonderful office, but they just
need to get out of the office,and so they will come to the
library, they will bring theirlaptop and they will come to the
library, they will bring theirlaptop and they will just, you
know, find a nice corner andthey will sit there and it is so
nice to get away and they're,you know, checking email or you
know whatever it is, or justworking on a proposal, and they

(42:55):
might ask for help.
They might not, but they saidthat we are just such a nice
third space for them.
That's awesome and we welcomethat, and that's also part of
our literacy ecosystem, like Iwas saying, where we learn from
the questions that y'all areasking.
When it comes to the businesscommunity for workforce
development, what are theprojects, what are the things
that Mount Pleasant is workingon?
What is the workforce needsthat are needed?

(43:17):
And we want to make sure thatwe can help develop the
workforce of Mount Pleasant withthe resources.
So if you are working on aproject, we're learning from you
too, so please come to us.
We're happy to be your betatest.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
That's amazing.
Now, is there a certain way toget in touch with the?
I'm sorry when you go?
I know you mentioned before youwent online you could go to the
resources and stuff, butsharing these ideas.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
What's the best way for our businesses to do that?

Speaker 3 (43:42):
If a business has an idea or would like to be part of
a panel or host a program orthings, just go to your local
branch Mount Pleasant and Wando.
You know Village because it'ssmall.
They do host some programs butyou know the logical choice
would be Wando or Mount Pleasantand that's where we get a lot
of our best programs.
They come directly from thecommunity.

(44:03):
We get our local authors there.
We will get wonderful panelsthere for you.
People come and talk aboutemerging trends or just topics
of mind and usually if oneperson is interested we can find
several people interested.
And you know we're happy tofacilitate, we're happy to, um,
you know, help set it up and wewe love having that sort of

(44:24):
resource locally.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Do you have?
Do you send out, e-newsletters?
Can somebody get on thatmailing list, like for me?
That would be interesting forme to know if something popped
up in my inbox to say, okay,you're having a book signing or
you're looking for a panelist,we do have an e-newsletter and
you can subscribe through ourwebsite.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
We're really careful with that because, you know
right, lots of times email gets,like you know, noisy and I I
delete so much email whenever Iget it from a company.
So we're really strategic withhow we do that.
But we can do it um bypreferred audience and also by
preferred branch.
So if you said you know mypreferred branch is wando, we
can send out, you know, eblastto the people that said the

(45:07):
wando is their home library.
We don't do that often often,but like if we have an author
coming or if we have, you know,a high profile, something we
want to make sure people arecoming to that Somewhere to keep
in touch if somebody wants toget that update.
Yes, and whenever you sign upfor a library card, you can
leave, opt out at any time.
We're not, we're not going tospam you if you don't want us?

Speaker 1 (45:27):
are you guys on social media?

Speaker 3 (45:29):
yes, yes, we are that .
We have facebook, we haveinstagram and we um have a
wonderful podcast with dr nickbutler, um, who is a local
historian, and it's called thecharleston time machine, and so
we also have a podcast for that,so maybe we need to have him on
too, you should have dr nickbutler.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
He is a wonderful mike, write, write that down.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
Yeah, Nick Butler, local historian.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
There's a lot of history about Pleasant too.
I'm learning so much.
This is awesome.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
I like the books too.
I have a question.
Question from the audience.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yeah, you're publishing adjacent as I get
right now.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
I thought the other day with I really want you to
talk about the future.
Sure, that was my next questionGo ahead, I'm catching up.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
Sure, now looking ahead, ai yeah, I hear a lot of
authors all of a sudden.
Oh, I could talk a lot about AI, you might have to bring me in.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
So if you could ask a , question Tammy, you ask about
AI, and then I'm going to askthe last one.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
The Poe Library is my favorite library.
Oh, I love library yeah, thewhat?
The poe library?
Yeah, my little bunker branch.
I love that branch.
It's great, yeah, but it'sstill fun to go to, so, yeah,
how is ai affecting writers?

Speaker 2 (46:41):
I asked my daughter.
You know she's out of collegeand you know, getting back to
writing and whatnot.
Um, these kids in college orhigh school, are they going to
AI to do their papers?
And how does one find that out?
But how does that also forsomebody that wants to write a
book.
Are they taking?
How's that tracked?
Or can they pinpoint that?
Oh, this is coming from AI.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
So AI?
From a business communitystandpoint, ai is an emerging
technology and we just have toembrace it.
It's here, it's actually beenhere for a long time and it's so
funny.
Every time there's an emergingtechnology, someone says well,
that's the death of libraries,like that happened with Google
and Amazon and Wikipedia.
And you know, it's AI.
It's like libraries are goingto be obsolete?

(47:24):
It's like no, because peoplestill need people.
Ai is interesting.
We already have an AI committeewhere we asked our library team
you know we have over 300 staffmembers who out there on our
team is working with AI and whatare you doing with it?
And we had about 40 people say,hey, I'm working with AI in

(47:45):
some capacity.
And then we narrowed down theteam to about 15 people and they
are a think tank and we'reasking them how does AI
translate to public libraryservices?
Authors and writers and writingpapers for school or business
proposals or things like that.
You have to be very carefulwhere you are getting your
sources, just like anything else.

(48:06):
So we are working with folks.
If you want to create abusiness plan, for example, yes,
you can go to chat GPT and typein design a business plan for a
fledgling business, blah, blah,blah.
But it's up to you to gothrough and tweak it and to give
it life.
It is just a framework from anauthor standpoint.
Amazon actually came outrecently where they had to put a

(48:28):
limit for how many people canself-publish books.
You could only self-publishthree a day.
They put a limit on it because,people can churn out.
People were churning out, Ithink, a ridiculous number of AI
books.
It was picture books, it wasfiction books, it was anything.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
They were poorly written and Amazon tamped down
pretty quickly, so they put thelimit on you can self-publish
and upload to ourself-publishing portal, three
books a day, and that's it,which is also absurd when you
think about it.
It weighs still too many.
It is.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
It is the publishing industry has pushed back, and so
have authors, and I thinkthat's good.
Where AI is getting their datais everything on the internet,
and what people are doing andhave done is they will upload
entire books and poems andhistorical documents and things
online.
That's where we get ourdatabases.
There are databases out there,and so AI will aggregate
whatever is out there, and so ifyou put a prompt for a book I

(49:20):
want to write a children's bookabout Mount Pleasant at the
ocean with an octopus as a maincharacter it will generate that
for you.
And you can say make know, makeit rhyme, make it funny, make it
sad, make it have a message.
You know it will literallycalibrate to whatever it is that
you want, and the ethics ofthat is that this isn't really
anything new.

(49:40):
It is taking and what I like tocall Frankensteining whatever's
on the internet and making itinto something else.
But it's not original, only theoriginal is the original.
And, yeah, I think it's a goodway for fledgling authors to
work with a prompt.
I think if you are starting outin you know writing, or if

(50:02):
you're in the business community, you don't have anywhere or any
idea how to start writing abusiness plan.
And we you, you know thelibrarians we will use AI to
create things like resumes, likeyou know.
It's a great starting point.
Instead of having to findsomething on Microsoft Office,
we can put into chat, gtp,create a resume for an
entry-level position in weldingor something like that.
It will do that for you.
But then you need to go backand you need to add what your

(50:25):
experience is and things likethat, and it will pull up.
It's helpful because it pullsup trends.
It pulls up you know howresumes are structured and
things like that it's very, veryhelpful.
It's very real time, which isgood, but then, beyond that,
like you can't just print outwhat it gives you because it's
not going to actually reflectyou, it's going to be whatever
the snapshot is, that it pulledfrom the internet, which is not
an accurate snapshot.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
There's so much going on.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
There's so much going on.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
I mean, I can't even.
Isn't it great that a librarianis embracing AI?
Oh yeah, Well, we have to.
Like she said yeah, no, no,yeah.
Can you say something?

Speaker 3 (50:57):
about that fact, and then that's great.
And then what does the futurelook like for?
Yeah, for the businesscommunity?
One thing that we have talkedabout is the equity of AI.
You can pay for services.
There's chat, gpt, and thenthere's like the paid version of
it.
So here's how they're going tohook you.
It's how they do it.
With anything, any technology,they're always going to have a

(51:17):
free version, and so the freeversion is the one the general
public will use.
But then they will have asubscription service where the
AI can do more modifications foryou and maybe they have
exclusive content that'sgenerated by whatever the
company is, so there's nocopyright issue and things like
that.
What libraries are doing andwhat we're doing here locally is
we're seeing.
You know what is the value.
We will buy the subscriptionsourselves and we will beta test

(51:41):
it to see is this subscriptionworth it?
Will we recommend it to apatron?
Because we don't want to tell apatron, hey, you should buy
this and we haven't actuallyused it.
So you know you can.
I recommend using the freestuff all day long and see what
they have.
I would be very dubious aboutbuying a subscription for any AI
service right now, because it'sjust so new and they're just
kind of throwing.
It's like spaghetti.
They're throwing whatever theycan at the wall to see what

(52:02):
sticks.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
I get an email every other day about buying a
subscription.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And then what about the peoplethat can't afford that?
There are no institutionalmemberships for AI yet, but
there will be, because they'regoing to want our money too, and
so they will have thoseavailable for us, and then at
some point, we'll buy them andthen we'll have them for the
general public.
That's what I predict From thebusiness community.
I suggest you just embrace it,get out there, play with it.

(52:26):
Get out there, play with it.
Don't be afraid of it.
I think it's great for fledglingbusinesses, but also for
established businesses, becausethis is where your patron base,
where your people are going tocome with the skill set and also
your customers are going to askabout it.
I think it's important to havestandards for yourself.
We have industry standards, andso I think businesses need to

(52:46):
have standards that are ethical,that you know.
If they use AI, they need tosay you know, we have a
generator, we beta tested this,but we actually created the
content ourselves.
Or you know, no, we don't useAI.
Here's the reason why you knowthings like that.
But I think that businessesneed to take a very proactive
stance on it and becomeknowledgeable with it.
And yes, come to the libraryand we will absolutely workshop

(53:06):
with you.
We're workshopping now andwe're very interested to see how
businesses are using it and howwe can help translate that to
the public space.
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
That's absolutely amazing.
I mean seriously, it is scary.
It is scary On one hand right,but then, coming from someone
who has to write a lot,sometimes it.
You know I don't like to usethe word cheating because it's
not really cheating, because Iwill never just copy and paste
something, yeah, yeah, I alwayshave to make it, but I mean I've
used it.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
Absolutely, I've used it.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
But I don't want to read a book written from it
either Right and you can tell.

Speaker 3 (53:42):
Here's the thing that you can tell.
Now I have a feeling AI isgoing to get more sophisticated
and it will probably get harderand harder.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
That's when I might get scared.

Speaker 3 (53:51):
But there are programs, and I, of course,
cannot think of any right now,but there are authenticator
programs and that's how schoolshandle it and, from a school
standpoint, we are taking theproactive stance where we're
teaching kids about research,that AI is another tool for
authentic research.
Yes, you can use AI to generateyour research paper.
However, you need to go backand do the work, like maybe it

(54:13):
helps you rework a paragraphthat you're struggling with and
maybe it helps you sound morecoherent and succinct, because a
lot of people are very wordy,and perhaps it helps with
editing.
I think that that can be a verygood service with AI, but it
shouldn't be generating yourpapers, seniors, or anything
else.
I've had library teammates tellme that they use it for emails

(54:36):
because they will write an emailand they think you know, like
how can I make this shorter?
How can I sound?

Speaker 1 (54:41):
more professional, Right, and I agree with that.
Yes, I totally.
Sometimes I'm like I said, youknow this, this email is
definitely way too long, oh yeah, yeah, and with AI, AI will do
whatever you tell it to do.

Speaker 3 (54:52):
So if you tell it to make yourself sound funny or
warm, or you know, say, have awarm tone or professional tone
or stern tone or things likethat, AI will do that for you.
So I think it's, you know, partof the business world.
Now I think you shouldn't makeit forbidden.
If you're a business owner, youshouldn't say you know well, no
, my employees cannot use AI towrite emails.
We actually have internalstandards that we're working on

(55:14):
to give our staff parameters.
Hey, you can use AI to writeemails, but you have to
proofread.
You have to make sure it'saccurate, please do not send out
anything, and if you're notsure, have a manager or someone
check it before you send out.
So that's and I.
I have my marketing departmentread everything before I send it
out to the general public.
It's the same thing.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
I am.
I honestly, I've learned somuch more about the library
system.
I mean seriously.
I guess that you know I, I loveit.
I've had.
The first thing I did was mylibrary card.
I love to read.
I had.
I knew you offered things.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
I mean, I'm not.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
I don't live in a closet but the I did not know to
the extent of the things thatmy friends and their kids can do
, my friends with their teensand the babies what these are.
Local businesses.
Again, you know this is achamber podcast.
We support business east of theCooper.
Listen to all these things thatAngela just told you that you

(56:08):
could do with a library card andso unbelievably helpful.
Before we leave, I do want to dosomething kind of personal
because I need some suggestionsfor our listeners oh boy, I'm
going to start, but I'd love tohear from the two of you what's
the best book you've read in thelast couple years, or what your
favorite book is.
I could go on forever, but whatI've read recently that made

(56:30):
the biggest impact I reread theending chapter, I think, six
times, and cried still everytime was, uh, remarkably bright
creatures by shelby vanelt Ibelieve her name is One of the
best books I have ever read inmy entire lifetime.
Don't, if you pick it up andread the back of it, do not say
I'm not reading a book about anoctopus.

(56:51):
I am telling you it's one ofthe best books I've ever read.
Tammy, I want to hear yoursnext.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
Oh God, and I read so many, so I'm like you that I
may not remember the author.
There's one that stood out toyou Flick in the Dark.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
That's a good one.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
That would be Stacey Willingham where I need to come
to my book club.
I know, you know, and then youforget because you read so many
right, so I wish you had methink about that before we did
this today.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
I didn't want you to think I know why.
Did you want to see what poppedinto your head?
That one just stays with me forsome reason.
Um, it's okay, you only need todo one, that's it.
That's good.
Okay, angela, I'm I'm dying tohear yours.
Well, I write this down for mewell, it's, it's.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
It's one of my favorites in many waters by
madeline lingle anything bymadeline lingle.
You know she wrote um A Wrinklein Time, so everyone knows that
book.
But Minnie Waters is one of herlater books and I've read all
of her books.
But yeah, that's one that Iread as a kid and I read it over
and over again.
I read to my children.
Recently my daughter is 12, myson is 10 and we read it and, um

(57:58):
, they haven't made it into amovie yet.
I'm so happy.
I hope they never do but, yeah,it is one of my all-time
favorites.
And then I have listened to theaudiobook of Remarkably Bright
Creatures and they had amulticast recording and so the
voice of the octopus wasfantastic.
So, if you want to listen to areally, really quirky book about
an octopus, it's amazing, butit's very, very heartfelt.

(58:20):
I highly recommend that book.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
I cried six times.
I read the ending six times andI cried each time.
I did.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
Yeah, well, maybe I will listen to that you should.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
Yeah, I've got to listen to that one, we've got it
, we've got angela, go ahead andgive our listeners um the
website again, um who to followon instagram, facebook and any
last uh bits of recommendationsto our mount pleasant businesses
well, our website is ccplorg.

Speaker 3 (58:42):
You can find us on Facebook at the Charleston
County Public Library, and thenour Instagram handle is
chascolibrary C-H-A-S-C-Olibrary, and we're also on
Twitter, which is now X.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
It will always be Twitter.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
Yes, I think so.
But yeah, please come to thepublic library.
You know we have threebeautiful libraries at Mount
Pleasant, but you know we havelots of other libraries too
around Charleston County and allare welcome.
We're just so happy to be here.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
Angela, really I cannot thank you enough for
being here.
Tammy and I had so much fun,we're probably going to talk
about this for weeks to comeabout all these books that we
need to read.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
And it's free, it's all free.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
Your taxpayers are working, thank you so very much
for leading this amazinginstitution.
Before we leave, I'd also liketo thank my friend Brian and
Charleston Radio Group and, ofcourse, everyone at the Mount
Pleasant Chamber of Commerce.
If you'd like to be a sponsorof our podcast or be a guest on
our show, just feel free toreach out to us and we'll get

(59:41):
back to you and make sure thatyou like and subscribe and
download all of our podcasts.
We'll be on Spotify, itunes,youtube, instagram, facebook and
LinkedIn.
Thank you for being with ustoday and until next time, mount
Pleasant.
Until next time, listenerslisteners.