New Library Trustee President Wants To Make Facility 'Heart of Community'

Candace Braun

After making the Princeton Public Library her own living room when she and her family lived in an apartment on Hulfish Street 11 years ago, Nancy Ukai Russell wants the rest of the community to call the library their home now, too.

"Every night we would come to the library after we finished dinner... We just lived there," said Ms. Russell.

The new president of the library's Board of Trustees, Ms. Russell said she hopes that during the next year she and the Board will be able to bring together the community's ideas to find the best uses for the library's new facility on Witherspoon Street.

A member of the Board for the past six years, Ms. Russell moved from vice president to president this summer after Harry Levine stepped down from his nine-year position.

A native of Berkeley, Calif., Ms. Russell graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with degrees in anthropology and East Asian Studies. She then lived in Japan for 14 years, where she was a journalist for Newsweek in Tokyo.

After returning to the United States and having a son, who now attends Bates College, and a daughter, who attends Princeton Day School, Ms. Russell earned a master's degree at Rutgers University in the sociological and philosophical foundations of education. She is now a freelance writer and researcher on Japanese education.

In the last five years she has published chapters in three books on public education policy and methods of teaching and learning in Japan and East Asia. Last year she presented her research at a National Academy of Sciences conference in Washington, D.C.

However, if you ask Ms. Russell what her main priority is today, she'll tell you it's the library.

"Libraries are not just boxes for books anymore," she said. "I think that we are now a true community center, and our job is to talk about how we can fulfill the potential of this building."

The new president said that coming up with a strategic plan for the library is at the top of the Board's agenda for this year. But creating the plan won't preclude using any suggestions that come to the library staff, she said: "We want new ideas, and we want people to feel that they can [contribute], and are welcome to do so."

With a new community room that Library Director Leslie Burger has referred to as a "community living room," and the anticipation of a new plaza scheduled to open in late October, both the library staff and community have suggested ideas that Ms. Russell intends to make use of, she said. Lectures, panel discussions, and performances are all ideas the library hopes to make happen in the near future.

A Community Role

Ms. Russell took on her first leadership role with the Board soon after becoming a member, when Mr. Levine asked her to serve on a search committee for a library director to replace Jacqueline Thresher.

"As a new trustee it was a good experience," she said, adding that she was surprised at how many people nationally were familiar with Princeton's library. "That taught me how admired the Princeton Public Library is across the country."

Most recently, Ms. Russell headed the art committee which was given the task of "enhancing the atmosphere of the library," she said: "We started with a blank slate, but through the community and generosity of donors we came up with this really great project which people are really enthusiastic about."

The committee commissioned nine artists, two of whom were local, to contribute some kind of artwork to the new library. Many people in the community also stepped forward to donate funds to make the artwork possible, she said: "There are so many people who support the library and are very generous with their ideas, their time, and their money; that's a really important thing for the community to see."

Now Ms. Russell wants to find a way to make the library appealing to all parts of the community, including seniors, toddlers, and teens.

"We have a physical space to accommodate lots of different groups. We're going to figure out how to best use this space so that everyone feels like this is their home," she said.

Ms. Russell said her main mission as president will be to make the library "the heart of community."

"I think we're waiting for things to be born. It's a very exciting period, and I'm thrilled to be part of that," she said.