THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 2, 1994 TAG: 9407020545
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NASSAWADOX LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
All it took was a sign over the door. No funding. No advertising. Just a hand-painted sign that said ``Northampton Free Library'' on an empty shop by the railroad tracks.
Suddenly it was a library. In the year since Dr. Richard Andrews rented the building and hung the sign, more than 8,000 books have poured through its doors.
Some were left like orphans in boxes on the doorstep. Tourists who pass on nearby Route 13 have mailed books from New York City and Virginia Beach. Published authors and a Library of Congress retiree have volunteered to help, all because Andrews decided to pull $250 from his own pocket each month to rent the building.
``I'm interested in literacy and how it relates to the overall health of the community,'' Andrews said. ``You can't have too many libraries.''
He chose a good spot. Nearby is a neighborhood of shacks where drugs and poverty have a death grip on too many young people. Only blocks from an occasional open-air crack market, the Free Library is a cultural oddity.
Andrews has been known to call to pedestrians from the library porch like a circus barker luring customers into a sideshow tent. Inside, the handmade shelves offer everything from Proust to Nancy Drew. Andrews is proud of the section on African-American literature,but disapproves of the library's booming business in romance novels - an attitude that volunteer librarian Paula Hopper openly ignores.
``Our clients like romance novels,'' she said. Readers check out as many as 30 books on a busy day.
With the help of a laptop computer that Andrews has loaned to the library, Hopper has cataloged all of the general fiction and most of the children's books. She talks of expanding the bookshelves into the attic. Andrews wants the library to be a place where community groups can meet. He would like to build a stage and encourage local kids to write and produce plays.
There are two other public libraries on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, about 20 miles north and south of Nassawadox. Andrews said that the Eastern Shore Public Library in Accomac, and its branch in Cape Charles, both have encouraged their tiny ``cousin.'' The established libraries have donated books, have made interlibrary loans through Northampton, and even have parked a bookmobile out front as a sign of support.
Money is tight, though. In March, Dr. Andrews was fired as medical director of the Delmarva Rural Ministries clinic where he treated migrant workers. The community was outraged. Controversy still is raging about the impact of his loss to the local health care community. But few realize how much it could affect the budding library.
``My getting fired from Delmarva hasn't helped the solidity of the library,'' Andrews said.
Now it's time to roll out plan B.
Today, the Northampton Free Library and the Nassawadox Business Association will hold a ``summerfest'' in Nassawadox. All proceeds will go to the library.
The event will run from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. It will feature ``live chess,'' using people as pieces, and a paper airplane contest. The 18-piece Eastern Shore's Own Orchestra will play from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., and there will be a magic showcase featuring local magicians. Add to that a ``celebrity'' dunking booth, jugglers, clowns and games.
Local movie makers will be showing their flicks, including the underground Willy Washburn trilogy. There will be baked goods and other refreshments for sale, but no alcoholic beverages.
On Friday, the library will sponsor a ``Hell or High Water'' Sixties Dance at the Trawler Restaurant.
Andrews hopes the events will raise more than money. He wants everyone in the community to know that they actually have a library.
``We want them to know that they are enthusiastically welcome here,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: FUND-RAISER FOR NORTHAMPTON FREE LIBRARY
Library founder Dr. Richard Andrews
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by CNB