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W e d n e s d ay, A p r i l 9, 2025
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Jan Risher LONG STORY SHORT
Making the amazing choice
STAFF FILE PHOTO BY MISSY WILKINSON
Shannan Cvitanovic, executive director of Friends of the New Orleans Public Library, and Amy Wander, head of youth programming at the New Orleans Public Library, recently show off Read and Ride passes outside the NOPD’s Mid-City branch at 4140 Canal St.
LIBRARY LIFESTYLE New Orleans library builds ‘Read and Ride’ youth program
BY MISSY WILKINSON Staff writer
When the New Orleans Public Library staff and stakeholders developed their 10-year strategic plan in 2021, the goal was to cultivate a “library lifestyle” for all New Orleanians by redefining the library’s role and offerings. However, residents were still grappling with intermittent pandemic-related closures, along with limited access to transportation — obstacles that impacted those who stood to benefit the most from library services: young people. “Talking with teens inside and outside the library and reading the newspapers, we were hearing from all sides that transportation was a barrier for teens to get to the library, and we wanted to eliminate this,” said Amy Wander, head of youth programming. Inspired by similar programs at other libraries, Wander pitched to the Friends of the New Orleans Public Library a free bus pass program, operated on the honor system, to help kids get to all 15 library branches. “One of the words Amy said was ‘independent,’” recalled Shannan Cvitanovic, executive director of Friends of the NOPL. “When you are young and trying to assert your independence, coming to the library is a safe way to do that.” The “Read and Ride” pilot program launched in summer 2022 with funding from the United Way, Baptist Community Ministries and the Friends of the NOPL. Each youth gets one pass per visit, and passes are good for unlimited RTA bus, ferry or streetcar rides citywide for 24 hours after first use. “I don’t have to ask my mom for a ride, so it lets me be more independent, which I like a lot,” said Read and Ride participant Ocean Hamilton. Nearly three years later, the program is “a well-loved offering,” Wander said. Funded by Friends of the NOPL’s donations, grants and used book sales, passes cost $1 each. Busier branches may distribute 40 passes per month, said Wander, and the library is reviewing data to identify areas of greatest need. “What started as a summer pilot program ended up being a year-round endeavor,” said Cvitanovic. Librarians distributed between 800
PROVIDED PHOTO
Giovanni, a library user who asked not to use his last name, shows off Read and Ride passes.
“I don’t have to ask my mom for a ride, so it lets me be more independent, which I like a lot” OCEAN HAMILTON, Read and Ride participant
and 1,000 passes to youths in 2024. “Once word got out, it got bigger and more popular,” Wander said. “Now it is more popular than it has been. Some branches have their regulars.” Read and Ride passes aren’t attached to users’ library cards or accounts, which makes it difficult to track reading habits or areas of greatest use. However, anecdotally Wander said library
staffers have observed heavy use at library branches located near schools — especially in the Lower 9th Ward, at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology, which is a short walk from the library’s Martin Luther King Branch at 1611 Fats Domino Ave. “We have found that this is very popular at branches near schools. Those kids weren’t able to stay at libraries (before Read and Ride),” Wander said. “They had to get on the school bus and go home.” Now, those students can read, use the computers or do research at their leisure without being tied to a school bus
ä See LIBRARY, page 2G
In the television show “Amazing Race,” contestants compete in teams of two to race around the world, making pitstops at a variety of locales with the last team to arrive usually being eliminated. I was a faithful watcher of the show for years as it was the perfect intersection of my wanderlust and love of games. Years ago, I even sent in an audition tape with my youngest brother. Sadly, we never got the call. Each season, the random cast of characters travels to a variety of foreign cities where they must compete tasks, one being deciding between two so-called “Detours,” that involve different skills or challenges. The decision on which task to do lies solely with the team. The Detours usually have creative, catchy names. Examples include: n Sleds or beds in Sweden: Sleds required athleticism as they had to race down a mountain on TechSleds in less than one minute and 58 seconds. Beds was all about craftsmanship, dexterity and attention to detail. Teams had to build a traditional Sami dwelling, called a goahti, along with furnishing it with furs and a fire pit. n Mix Master or Master Mix in Malaysia: Contestants could either choose to be a DJ and learn to scratch on a DJ table to impress a DJ and his crowd or stack seven cocktail glasses into a two-tier pyramid and carefully pour out different colored cocktails into every glass at the same time to avoid mixing the contents in the SkyBar on the 32nd floor of the Traders Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. n Shake Your Booty or Shake Your Pan in Burkina Faso. Contestants could choose Shake Your Booty to impress three local judges with their dance moves. Or, they could pan for gold using the traditional methods of Burkina Faso. When I used to watch the show regularly, when the teams would stand quietly deciding which of the tasks to tackle, I would often shout instructions at the television. My message was always clear. “Choose the fun one!” I would first yell. Followed by, “Choose the one that calls out to you!” Then I would shake my head and mumble something along the lines of, “Don’t be lured thinking that because the other task seems harder that there’s some righteousness to it that is going to earn you extra points.” When it came time to do this or that to get to the next place, there were never any points for doing the more difficult thing. After watching the show for years, I was convinced that there was no favor in picking the difficult or tedious task, which players seemed to occasionally choose because they were convinced there had to be a catch. I couldn’t help but think of “The Amazing Race” last week as I read contemporary philosopher Laurie Ann Paul’s report, ”When New Experience Leads to New Knowledge: A Computational Framework for Formalizing Epistemically Transformative Experiences.” It may not be a title that rolls off the tongue for nonacademics like myself, but the subject matter fascinates me still. (Paul wrote the report with Joan Ongchoco, Isaac Davis and Julian Jara-Ettinger.) In the simplest of terms, the
ä See RISHER, page 2G