Nelson W. Wolff - Bexar BiblioTech: The Evolution of the Countrys First All-digital Public Library

Published by The Hidalgo Foundation of BexarCounty

San Antonio, Texas 78205

Copyright 2015 by Nelson W. Wolff

Smashwords edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may bereproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means,including information storage and retrieval systems, withoutpermission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN 978-0-692-35765-1

This book is dedicated to my two newestgrandchildren, Gideon Matthew Wolff and Benjamin Hays Wendland,children of the mobile digital revolution.

This small information-packed book would nothave been possible without the help of our BiblioTech team. LauraCole, Cathy Maras, Catarina Velasquez, Ashley Eklof, ThomasGuevara, Marcie Trevino Ripper, David Smith, Alicia Hays, BettyBuech, and Dan Curry provided valuable insight.

My wife Tracy, my greatest critic, helped methroughout writing this book. By the way, she really likes it. Shealso likes the fact that all proceeds will go to the Hidalgo

Foundation for the support of BiblioTech.

A special thanks goes to Laura Jesse, whoworked into the late night hours editing this book as well asproviding valuable advice.

In this small, compact book I take you on a20-year journey from my involvement in the building of a240,000-square-foot public central library that opened in 1995 tothe creation of a 4,000-square-foot digital public library in 2013and its aftermath. It is a fast paced journey, much like the speedof the mobile digital revolution. In its wake, BiblioTech wouldbecome the nations first all digital public library, opening inSeptember of 2013.

The rapid advances in technology continue tochallenge private business as well as the public sector. I havespent about half of my adult life in entrepreneurial pursuits andhalf in the public sector.

At the age of 21 in 1961, along with myfather and two brothers, George and Gary, we started AlamoEnterprises, a building material store that grew to nine locationsthroughout South Texas. We sold it to a national chain in 1977 at atime when technology was in diapers. In 1979 my two brothers andour friends, Don and Ron Hermann, started a natural foodssupermarket that grew to nine stores and sold it in 1999. Theremust be something magical about nine. By 1999 technology hadprogressed in quantum leaps, but still had not reached the mobilestage.

Over my years in public service, I have seenthe public sector progress with the technology age but not respondas effectively as the private sector. There is something verycomfortable about tax dollars instead of having to create profitsto survive.

In my some 13 years as County Judge (CountyJudge is the chief executive officer of the county and chair of theCommissioners Court) we have worked hard to move Bexar County intothe digital age.

The mobile digital revolution took off in2007 with the advent of Apples iPhone and Amazons Kindle e-bookreader, leading to an upheaval of how we all interact through theInternet. By 2012 e-books were everywhere. We had to run fast tocatch up with the mobile digital revolution, and I believe we havedone that with BiblioTech.

My first memories of a public library werewhen Mom would take my brother and me to the San Antonio Library onher weekend shopping trips. We boarded a bus at the corner of Presaand McKinley Streets on the near south side and made our way toDowntown. It was quite a venture to arrive Downtown during the1940s and 50s as it was a thriving area full of people hurryingalong the sidewalks of Commerce and Houston Streets shopping atnumerous retail stores.

On each trip we stopped by San Antoniosgrand Art Deco/Neo classical, three-story library building locatedon the corner of Presa and Market Streets. Built of cut Indianalimestone in 1930, the 38,000-square-foot library was the pride ofSan Antonio, exhibiting our commitment to learning.

Architect Herbert Green designed relieffeatures on the front of the building, including the icons offreedom, culture, and the rule of law; the Parthenon; the Alamo;Mission Concepcion; the U.S. Capitol; Kings College in London; andthe Lincoln Memorial. Portraits of Shakespeare and Miguel deCervantes also appear on the front representing the English andSpanish languages of San Antonio. Inscriptions on the east and westsides of the building included a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:Books are the home of the American people.

A two-story high ceiling with floors ofZenitherm, terrazzo and soapstone greeted us as we entered thelibrary. Included in the library were a childrens area, readingrooms, a rare book collection, and a circus collection donated byHarry Hertzberg. We were fascinated by the circus collection andenjoyed playing on the banks of the river behind the library. Butnot to forget the reason we came, Mother always made sure wechecked out books to take home to read.

The public library was important to my familybecause my parents were working class folks striving to enter themiddle class. Mom worked scooping ice cream for Better Home IceCream and Dad stacked lumber for Campbell Lumber Company. Mygrandparents on my fathers side lived with us. Grandpa worked asjanitor at the McKinley Avenue Methodist Church and my grandma tookin laundry. Living and working together they were able to stretchtheir earned dimes to enter the fringes of the middle class.

Prior to the building of our 1930 library aCarnegie library had been located on the same site. In 1899, WomenReading Clubs created an organization that successfully attracted$50,000 from industrialist Andrew Carnegie for the building. Theyalso received a donation of the site from Mrs. Caroline Kampmann.The City provided operational funds. The library was opened in 1903and continued to operate until a flood in 1921 irreparably damagedit, giving rise to the 1930 building.

The public library offered me my first tasteof the enjoyment of reading and it stuck. Reading became a lifelongpassion that enabled me to progress in my professional andpolitical life. Each night before going to sleep, I like to prop abook up on my pillow, lie on my chest and prepare to exit thepresent, get lost in the whole new world that is opened to me andenvision myself living in the story. Stepping into another time andplace frees me from the problems that I face each day. I experienceand learn more than I could in a lifetime of talking andlistening.

Research has found that fiction novelscultivate our mental and moral development and help mold us intopositive, sympathetic individuals who have a deep concern for eachother and society at large. Literary novels have certainly impactedmy beliefs about mankind and how we should treat each other and, inmy specific case, how government should relate to them.

I like to read novels written by authors thathave an ability to express themselves in an artistic way that isimaginative, sensitive, and discerning. They have a way with theirprose, almost poetic like. The poetic flow of their sentenceshelped me to better articulate my points of view in the thousandsof political speeches I have made.

Reading has also enabled me to develop abroader and deeper vocabulary as well as improve the structure ofmy sentences expressed both in writing and speaking. It has helpedme to organize my thoughts, putting them in a logical sequence thatconveys the message I want to deliver.