Dawn in Delta County

I definitely think there are more similarities than differences…," said Janine Reid, district librarian of Colorado's Delta County Public Library District (DCPLD), comparing rural and urban libraries. "There is one big difference. In a rural library we can be closer and more personal, and that's an improvement over an urban setting. Because we know everyone involved, we can get to them faster. We see results much more quickly. The work that I've done here was visible in two or three months. In one of my other jobs it would have taken two or three years."

Reid is one of the key reasons the rural DCPLD is the first in LJ's new "A Day in the Life" series. Her career has taken her to urban and suburban public and special libraries plus stints in private, profit-making firms like Faxon.

Our day at DCPLD shows that, in fact, every library and library system is unique and has unique problems but that there are as many similarities among all types of libraries as there are differences. The experience taught us that small libraries have much to teach big ones and vice versa.

"Everybody knows everybody here—there's no anonymity!" Reid continued, as we drove through the sparsely populated county. "That close, personal contact makes things work better, but it has a downside. You have to be more careful about how you express your opinions and what kind of attitude you project. You could be talking to the mayor's cousin."

The small, rural public libraries like those in DCPLD are the most common type of public library in America. Of the 8,968 public libraries identified by the Public Library Data Service of the Public Library Association in 2001, 5,462 were in communities with populations of 9,999 or less. Some 3,991 were in towns with fewer than 5000 people.

Delta (population 6400) is the largest town with a library in DCPLD. Counted among the 366 inhabitants of Crawford, the smallest town with a library in DCPLD, is rock star Joe Cocker. Cedaredge (pop. 1,854), Paonia (1,497), and Hotchkiss (968) are the other three towns with libraries. The system serves a number of other small towns plus 13,869 people who live in the vast unincorporated areas of the district.

To achieve financial stability, these five totally separate libraries formed a library district in 1993. Many local observers noted that they didn't really want to cooperate at first. They were fiercely independent and wanted to maintain their own identities and be governed by their own citizen boards. They would compete with each other for the relatively meager resources of the district.

The district the voters created, DCPLD, is an autonomous library district with authority to levy taxes for library service to the 27,934 people in 1,157 square miles. The current property tax rate for library service in DCPLD is three mills per $1000 evaluation.

The move to a district resulted in a massive budget increase for DCPLD and its five libraries. Since Reid arrived in 1999, the DCPLD budget has nearly doubled and now totals $756,720. That means that in Delta County they tax themselves a very respectable $27 per capita for library service.

In rural America, the state library agency is more of an operating presence and leader in libraries. That difference is crucial in Colorado. The library districts are allowed under Colorado's library law, and the Colorado State Library favors them and pushes for them.

"We encourage local libraries to become districts, because that gives them some financial security and autonomy in making decisions," Colorado State Librarian Nancy Bolt told LJ.

"They get dedicated money directly from the taxpayers. Their autonomous board hires the library director, and the library has an enormous freedom to develop and fund services that meet the needs of the people without any other government intermediary like a city or a county. It is a great option," Bolt said with conviction.

She also pointed out that it doesn't always go as well as it has at DCPLD. A couple of other counties became library districts, but they haven't found a Reid to lead and pull the libraries into a cooperative system. Towns still compete with each other. They use the district to get the tax money but continue to "pretend" they are totally separate.

Colorado librarians tell the quaint story of a little library in a rural county somewhere in the state. The library had a total annual budget of about $70,000. The County Commissioners informed the librarian that because the county needed a new fire truck, they'd have to severely cut the library budget. The librarian, in a personal act of defiance, was able to get the formation of a library district on the county ballot. The district was approved by some 35 votes in an election with barely 500 voters. That library's budget for this year is $72,000. Such is the power of a library district.

There was a tremendous reservoir of community pride in each of the five libraries in DCPLD. This spirit supported a traditional view of library service. Circulating books dominated the service, and many of the other programs and resources of a modern public library took a back seat, if they existed at all. The post of director was often "inherited," passed along from a local long-term "librarian" who had grown too old to a loyal library worker. There were some computers, but not the kind of digital resources, connectivity, or networking that marks a good, modern public library.

For all their early history, and for nearly six years after the DCPLD was created, the five libraries operated separately and independently, with little or no cooperation. None had a professional, MLS-holding library director, even though the creation of DCPLD brought them under a single governing board. Peggy Batt, whose term as chair of the DCPLD board just ended, put it this way: "We spent our meetings arguing about the libraries."

Local citizen pride in those libraries is still very strong. It is reflected in the buildings in each of the five communities. Cedaredge has the newest structure, a gift from a local contractor on land from another local donor. It is a gem of a library but needs more space. We sat in on a meeting of the Friends group there, gathered to plan programs and activities and to hear the report from their new district librarian.

Local folks love to show the libraries to visitors like LJ. In tiny Crawford, the library shares a fine stone building with the town government, community center, and other municipal offices. Delta is the proud home of a pristine Carnegie building. The classic, mass-produced portrait in oil of Andrew Carnegie still hangs in the entryway. In Hotchkiss, hometown of Batt, a beautiful, brand new brick library—which apparently will double the existing space—nears completion. Paonia's fine brick-and-mortar library stolidly dominates one corner of the busiest intersection on the town's three-block Main Street.

As the local library boards went out of business, the Friends groups got stronger. Every library in DCPLD has an active Friends group that is a very important source of capital funding and general support. At that meeting of the Cedaredge Friends, nearly 50 animated library supporters listened intently as Reid reported on progress. Resistance to change seems to have been converted to intense interest in what the library will do next. Folks are just as proprietary about their library, but now it has five branches and a lot of new ideas. Civic pride is still very strong.

"One of our goals is to get a professional librarian in as many libraries as possible," State Librarian Bolt said, expanding on the state library's goals for Colorado. The results in DCPLD could help convince other districts why the effort to put professionals in charge is worth the cost and the work of recruiting.

"Somebody finally had the vision to hire Janine Reid," said a local observer. When Reid came to DCPLD in 1999, it was a full six years after the founding of the district. There has been huge change in the short time she has been district librarian, as evidenced by the budget reported above.

Batt told us Reid brought cooperation and modernization, and while there was some resistance to the change, the civic pride in each community library was undiminished. Reid's primary goal is simple: "to provide excellent customer service on a consistent level."

"I don't want to be preachy about it," Reid said, "but I wanted us to show people here the full range of what good, modern library service can be.

"I loved the old-fashioned view of what a library is supposed to do," she continued, "but the people deserved library service of greater scope, a vision that would include full reference service, collection depth, full children's services and programs, and, of course, the whole range of online and digital services."

Reid's first big change brought in an automated system, networked the libraries, and increased the library computer capability. The district was aided in its progress toward a networked, automated system. In order to be eligible for money, machines, and training from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which supplied computers to all the libraries, DCPLD had to meet a standard of connectivity. The state library offered grants to Colorado libraries to bring them up to that level.

"It is not good enough now, but it got them connected," Bolt told us. "It won't be long before we'll have to upgrade connectivity again."

The resulting automated network was a huge leap forward for DCPLD. It gives each library its own automated catalog, and it enables communication, interlibrary cooperation, lending, and a host of information sharing. It was an important first step in the professionalization of DCPLD.

Equally important, and also reflecting the influence of a professional librarian, was the development of a policy framework for the new district. DCPLD now subscribes to the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights, Freedom To Read Statement, Code of Ethics for Library Trustees, Statement of Professional Ethics, and Freedom To View Statement. It has a succinct mission statement, by-laws, and a full set of policies for nearly every possible need.

The DCPLD "Collection Development Guidelines" wisely assign responsibility for collection development to each local library, but they provide excellent guidance and criteria for selection, along with a list of useful tools and review sources for librarians. Because they are small, the libraries specialize in certain broad areas: for example, while Cedaredge is strong in business titles, Hotchkiss has a deeper collection in art, and Delta is rich in the social sciences. It is a tribute to Reid that these guidelines preserve that very proud local control while introducing cooperative collection development that will strengthen the depth of the collection for the entire district.

Having built that policy framework, Reid set about expanding library service. Her new long-range plan forecasts physical expansion for every site, and the first, Hotchkiss, opened its new space in February. Two of the library directors retired after long service, and they have been replaced with professionals. While no new buildings are planned, Reid's long-range thinking includes the possibility of bookmobile service and outreach by mail to the many more remote inhabitants of the district.

Because 70 percent of the people in Delta County function at literacy level two or lower (there are five levels), Reid brought in a coordinator to initiate a proactive set of literacy programs.

Only 8,812 of the county's inhabitants are registered for library cards. The long-range plan includes a major drive to make citizens more aware of library service and to register more borrowers. That drive has begun. Reid is compiling a marketing plan for DCPLD, and each library is urged and expected to develop community partnerships with local organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and service clubs.

New children's programs, lecture series, family book clubs, and the whole array of outreach programs are slated to begin almost immediately. A staff education and development program and several new systemwide positions are in the works. The plan also includes more active outreach to ethnic minorities, particularly the county's Hispanic people, who number nearly 20 percent of the population. DCPLD will also reach out to serve senior citizens including homebound elderly, the disabled, and other underserved constituencies. The plan mandates continued upgrading of the system's technology, including a changeover to a new epixtech system. Reid has just contracted with the local telephone company, because DCPLD's former ISP couldn't deliver needed connectivity.

"My goal is to have every person in Delta County use the library for something at least once every year," Reid declared, summing up. "I want the library to have something for everyone."

There is little doubt that that close familiarity with its users is a difference and in most ways an advantage for the small, rural libraries in DCPLD and everywhere in rural America. While it results in a certain lack of privacy for everyone in town, it does mean the librarian knows who to contact for what she needs, and things do get done faster. Clearly, state library leadership is needed, and it is there for DCPLD.

What makes Reid's job different from those of the directors of larger suburban and urban public libraries is the broad mix of tasks it incorporates. All library directors work hard, but few undertake the variety of jobs that Reid and her rural colleagues do. They have no Human Resources or Information Technology staff to which they can delegate. On Monday of the week we visited, Reid worked with others on the web page at Cedaredge. She consulted on problems by telephone with the adult literacy coordinator. She located and delivered data on building specifications for Crawford. She set up catering for upcoming meetings.

Tuesday included sessions with the systems and catalog staff in Delta on acquisitions procedures, a meeting with an insurer on health insurance options for the staff, a planning session to obtain staff computer training, and coaching at Delta on circulation, interlibrary loan, and personnel matters. On Wednesday, when LJ had lunch with her, she squeezed in work on board training, the preparation of extensive fact sheets for us, and the writing of a speech for the Friends meeting at Cedaredge the next day.

Thursday took her to several libraries with LJ and to meetings with the ISP on continuing connectivity problems. After lunch with the DCPLD board, she spoke to that Friends group. The week ended with an all-day training session for substitute librarians and a retirement dinner that night.

DCPLD's problems are not always unique, and the innovations and solutions there are often just like those of other libraries, whether rural or urban, large or small. Some are borrowed from colleagues. As with all modern libraries, DCPLD has a growing appreciation of the value of information technology and networking in providing local information and library services and a clear sense that among the new tasks of the librarian is to protect the library's systems and apparatus from becoming obsolete. Cooperation among formerly separate units of library service doesn't come easily, but Reid's experience and education have given her the tools to bring it off.

Ultimately, DCPLD's similarities to other public libraries are as great as its differences. Sure, library users in rural Colorado have distinct needs, but they have identical needs as well. What Reid has done is to develop plans to serve both the unique library needs of Delta County, while ensuring that DCPLD opens up all the digital and print channels to bring the world of information and the universe of library service to the county's library users.

Library service and libraries are the same everywhere, but every library is as individual as the place and the people it serves. Our day spent with the folks of Delta County proves again how a solid professional and a strong, willing staff can modernize and develop library service so that it integratses local needs and desires with the world's shared, truly universal need to know.