From digging through house blueprints to the practice of Tai Chi and book discussion, meet some of the Shaker Library super users who make possible many of the Library’s community services.
By Lyndsey Brennan
The heart of any institution is its people. Not just those on payroll, but the people who show up with kindness. The people who contribute in their own small ways. We wanted to take a moment to spotlight three library power users who, after years of visiting the library, found a way to give back. Each of these women lends a particular set of skills to helping the library (and their neighbors who use it) thrive. These are their stories.
The Map Maker
Patrice Moore, Shaker resident for 24 years
Each week, the requests come rolling in.
Someone is seeking the original blueprints for their house so they can add on a room. Another person wants to restore a design element, like a door or an archway, to its former glory. A third researched their home’s architect – and now wants to frame the blueprints. A fourth wants to find where the leak in their walls is coming from. A fifth is reaching out on behalf of a client, who wants to renovate the kitchen.
If a blueprint exists in Shaker Library’s Local History Collection, volunteer Patrice Moore will find it.
Every week, when Moore clocks in for her volunteer shift, she looks through her requests and fetches the corresponding rolls of microfilm. Then, seated at the microfilm reader, she hunts through the hundreds of blueprints, locates the right ones, and tinkers with the equipment until she’s got the best scans, then sends them off for delivery.
“Not just any volunteer can do this job,” says Meghan Hays, local history librarian. “You have to know the language of architecture, to know what you’re looking at and how to decipher these plans. There’s a lot of detective work involved.”
If a blueprint exists in Shaker Library’s Local History Collection, volunteer Patrice Moore will find it.
Moore’s career in computer aided drafting (CAD) began in the Cuyahoga County auditor’s office, where she was hired to take the tax maps scattered across books in the office, draw them up, and organize them digitally. Later, she moved into the private sector, digitizing plans for malls, work she found fascinating.
After retiring in 2008, Moore answered an ad for volunteers at Shaker Library, scanning building cards into the database on shakerbuildings.com. When that project ended, Hays had another: Scanning 12,000 blueprints from microfilm to PDF, a task that would daunt most people.
“It’s a good fit for my personality,” says Moore. “I love looking at the building plans, and I love doing detail work. Put me in front of the computer, and I’m happy.”
At five volunteer hours a week, it can take even a quick worker like Moore months to digitize one roll. So far, she has completed 20 of the library’s 100 rolls.
What’s the best part of the job? “Delivering the blueprints. People get so excited. They really love to see them.”
One such person is Paul Sequeira, a self-described history buff who had never lived in an old home before recently purchasing one in Shaker Heights with his wife.
After a friend told Sequeira about the archive, he reached out to Hays for any information about his house and was blown away by what the library had preserved.
Even though the original blueprints for the house weren’t saved, there was information about the builder, the architect (who had been directly hired by the Van Sweringen brothers), and renovations to the house made after 1945.
“We were really excited about the house when we purchased it – but not because of its history,” he says. “Having this information has given me a renewed appreciation for the history in old homes, especially ours.”
As for Moore, she’s grateful that this project has given her “a place to be. And a purpose.”
“A lot of my hobbies are things I do solitary. I cross stitch. I do puzzles. So I enjoy coming here and being with people,” Moore says, adding that she loves interacting with students who stop into the Moreland Local History Room to work on research projects.
“Where I live, I don’t get to see kids much. The kids that come up – they’re hysterical.”
The Dance Instructor
Pamela Corbin, Shaker resident for 63 years
Pam Corbin knows what it takes to heal.
Almost 30 years ago, she was working as a dance instructor, choreographer, and studio owner, when she was hit by a bus walking across the street.
“Not only did I have to learn how to walk again – I had to figure out how to dance,” says Corbin. “It took a long, long time to get my facility back, and it didn’t come back the way I knew. In order to feel like myself again, I had to change the way I moved.”
Now, Corbin is helping others find healing as a Tai Chi instructor at Main Library.
Tai Chi is a form of martial arts characterized by smooth, continuous movement. It is also an exercise proven to help lower blood pressure and improve balance, cardiovascular fitness, and mental health – something Corbin has witnessed firsthand.
“One of my attendees had the beginnings of osteoporosis and was bent over,” Corbin recalls. “Over the course of the months, I saw him actually straighten up. For some, their moods improve. Their gait improves. Some people just feel stronger.”
One Tai Chi regular, Shaker resident David Crampton, says attending Tai Chi with Corbin taught him a tool for relaxation.
“About 10 years ago, I had a stroke, and in recovery, I was looking for an activity that would encourage neuroplasticity” – the brain’s ability to repair itself post-stroke – “and also help me relax.
Corbin is helping others find healing as a Tai Chi instructor at Main Library.
For Crampton, “it [Tai Chi] really works. It does relax you. Pam is great at creating a calming environment. And she builds community. I’ve gotten to know people because of this class.”
Stories like Crampton’s are why Corbin finds teaching Tai Chi fulfilling. “It’s so inspiring to me to watch people get better, and know I played some small role in it.”
Corbin came to Tai Chi late in life, only becoming a certified instructor five years ago.
“Because my background is in modern dance, I was aware of Tai Chi. We would often incorporate meditative movements or martial arts into choreography to help tell a story.”
When Corbin walked into Tai Chi class at Shaker Library in 2019, she was looking for something that could help her maintain the “balance between mind, body, and spirit.” Corbin felt a connection with the instructor, Sandy Frazier, and returned week after week, curious to know the rationale behind the movements.
Soon, Frazier encouraged Corbin to get certified as an instructor herself. She was awarded a grant through the Ohio Department of Health, which covered tuition for her certification classes.
Then, months later, when a conflict came up and Frazier could no longer lead the class, “they called me,” Corbin says, laughing. “We didn’t plan it that way! It’s just how it happened. So I stepped in.”
Corbin’s hope for the people who attend her class is that the peace she finds practicing Tai Chi rubs off on them. “That’s what I do every day – seek peace and pursue it. And when you keep yourself peaceful, it helps calm others around you. I believe that wholeheartedly.”
The Discussion Leader
Lynda Thomas, Shaker resident for 32 years
Lynda Thomas has a superpower: She can predict when a book will be a hit.
“I remember, years ago, reading the advance copy for Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, and I thought, ‘This is going to be huge.’ Because it was so important, very discussable, and it had all these fantastic historical elements.”
Thomas’ group has read some of the most important books published in recent years – The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, and Percival Everett’s James.
Thomas’s talent for selecting titles has made her Book Buzz discussion group – which she’s been leading for 25 years – one the longest-running and best attended groups at Shaker Library.
“Lynda is phenomenal. She does such a good job of choosing books,” says Shaker resident Stephanie Jonas, who has attended Book Buzz for five years
“A lot of the books she’s picked, I would never have read them if not for this group – but I’m so glad I did. She’s opened my eyes to a lot of genres and writers I’ve never heard of before.”
For their discussions, Thomas selects a variety of books, alternating between fiction and nonfiction, and mixing in lighter reads with stories about heavy topics.
What Jonas loves about the group is how it helps her appreciate the strengths of the book. “Sometimes I’ll go into the discussion and say, ‘Eh, that was a 5 out of 10.’ But during the discussion, I say, ‘Wow, that’s a good point. I never thought of that,’ and I get up to an eight.”
Thomas received her Master of Library Science in the ‘70s and worked in libraries in Connecticut until her family relocated to Ohio in the ‘90s, when she was hired at Shaker Library as an adult services librarian.
The group draws people for whom reading and discussing are priorities.
In 2015, she retired to spend time with her newborn granddaughter – but that didn’t stop Book Buzz. She continued leading the group as a volunteer, even through the pandemic and library remodel, when the group met at the Van Aken District.
“My experience with the group has been wonderful. The people are very open – to new ideas, and to people’s backgrounds and lived experiences, which I think is so important these days. The word I want to use is more than ‘acceptance,’” Thomas says.
The group draws people for whom reading and discussing are priorities, says Thomas.
“With some groups, it can be very hard to steer conversations back to the book. We don’t have any trouble with that, because everybody is there to discuss the book – we’re pretty serious about it in that way.”
Does Thomas find it difficult to lead discussions about race, gender, and class?
“Well, I try to bring up all the issues the author has chosen to explore and present opportunities to discuss them, even if they weren’t part of my experience,” says Thomas.
“I tell them [the attendees] that this is a safe place to discuss and admit that there were things we didn’t know,” she adds. “This is a growing experience for me too. The whole point is to open up the world and expose yourself to new things.”
Lyndsey Brennan is the communications and marketing manager at Shaker Library
