The Landline: John Skrtic on Preserving Cleveland's History
Gabriella Kreuz and Aaron James sit down with John Skrtic, Chief of Collections at the Cleveland Public Library, who has been at the library for over 35 years, starting as a teenager shelving books. John has spent a quarter century documenting the city one person and one building at a time, stopping Clevelanders on the street for mini interviews so their stories are in the archives 50 years from now.
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We get into: Why the best Cleveland stories come from plumbers and neighborhood business owners, not the biggest names
How you can tell who's really from the city by how specific their answer to "where are you from?" gets
How neighborhoods like Detroit-Shoreway have changed, and why he's an optimist about new businesses opening up
His ongoing photo shows with comedian Mike Polk Jr., where old Cleveland photos meet live reactions
How the library serves the next generation, from sewing machines at the Lorain branch to free legal aid clinics every Saturday
Cleveland Public Library firsts, including open stacks and ebooks, and how to get started with Libby
Cleveland's 230th anniversary celebration this year.