Boots on the Ground

After a career in the corporate world, Dianne Connery moved to Pottsboro, TX, to enjoy the lake views. Months later she attended a meeting about the library’s impending shuttering. “I could see the dramatic changes that needed to be made—not just to allow the library to survive, but to thrive. Within six months, I was the board president,” she says; later, she became Pottsboro Library’s director, before taking on her current role.

Rather than focusing on traditional programs and services, she concentrated on the community’s needs, including starting a high school eSports team so that teens could get together after school. “Now we are expanding it to younger ages and organizing tournaments at the schools. We are believers in interest-based learning to help young people learn 21st-century skills they need to succeed,” she notes.

Connery also opened a virtual health room where people connect with health care providers twice a week to help manage such chronic conditions as asthma, high blood pressure, and diabetes. To help fight food insecurity, the library offered classes in cooking on a budget, as well as canning and food preservation. Connery also created an organic community garden with 100 beds.

The community has given back, raising $18,000 in four days when the library needed a new HVAC system. A local family donated $10,000, which Connery used to create the Library of Things, which includes canning equipment and cargo bikes that patrons can ride to the grocery store.

“Rural libraries are the public-facing organizations that understand the real needs in our community. Large organizations need us to be the boots on the ground to implement higher-level decisions. We are the conduit,” she says.