By Daphne Jackson
While many external aspects of the Bitterroot Public Library have changed over the past 100 years, its core purpose has remained consistent, according to Library Director Mark Wetherington.
“The commitment to public service and serving the public is pretty unwavering, and pretty constant,” Wetherington said. “In the forties it would have been maybe helping someone with a typewriter, now it’s helping someone with a computer. Different materials, but the same core mission of just doing whatever we can do to aid and provide people access to lifelong learning.”
Wetherington said although the library is celebrating a century spent in the same building, the library organization started in 1904.
Wetherington said the library staff is planning a birthday party in early July, commemorating when the building was finished. In addition to the party, he said, the library will celebrate its centennial partially by including variations on the theme “100” in some of the programs, and in some of the displays around the library.
One of these programs is a collaboration between the Bitterroot Humane Association and the library, wherein children read to shelter animals. Children’s Services Librarian Sally Blevins, who organizes the monthly program, said it is beneficial to all involved.
“The cool thing is, it really helps children with their reading skills when they do that, and then it helps the animals be more socialized, and so they’re more likely to get a home,” she said. “Our goal with that is to read to 100 cats and dogs this year. So far, we’re at 38 cats and dogs, five guinea pigs and one bunny, so I think we’ll make it.”
Blevins also runs two story time programs for young children, one for babies and toddlers, and the other for young children between the ages of 3 years and 5 years. She said this year she is incorporating 100 early literacy tips into these programs.
“There’s such a huge emphasis on early literacy right now, and also science and math from the state library, and play, so I really embrace all of those,” she said. “If you’ve looked around in our children’s area, there’s blocks, and puzzles, and just stuffed animals, all kinds of play stuff.”
In addition to library-sponsored programs, the library allows outside groups to reserve the meeting room, with the conditions that these groups clean up after themselves, use it for non-commercial purposes and keep the room open to the public, Wetherington said.
He said the library leaves the groups to themselves, as long as they observe library policies, partly because the library highly values patrons’ privacy. Adult Services Librarian Nansu Roddy, who runs the volunteer program and organizes events for adults, said this respect for privacy is the reason for the library’s self-checkout machine.
“An example would be, if I wanted to check out a book on how to date online, and I really did not want a volunteer to know,” she said. “Whatever it might be that might be controversial, you can check your book out and out you go, without having to share that information with anybody. Everything we do at the library is free and confidential, absolutely.”
The self-checkout machine is only one aspect of how libraries adapt to new technology. Roddy said the library has changed significantly over time, even just during her years of working there.
“I have worked at the library for over thirty years, and reaching our centennial during my professional time frame is exciting,” Roddy said. “I have seen a lot of changes occur at this library, beginning with the arrival of the internet, when we provided the first internet services to the public. Reflecting back on how we began, where we’ve come from, what we have provided and what the community has given to us is something to be grateful about.”
Roddy said following the rapidly changing technology has been an interesting experience, though it has also presented its own challenges.
She said the most challenging aspect has been keeping up with the current technology and helping members of the community keep up with the changes.
“What I have noticed specifically is that there’s a great need to bridge the digital divide between the older folks and the younger generation that are technology natives,” Roddy said. “I spend a lot of time providing technology classes, computer classes, whatever it takes to help the older generation…become familiar with technology so they can communicate not only with one another, but their children and their grandchildren, and feel like they’re a part of our world, rather than becoming separated and isolated.”
In addition to technology classes, the library offers programs to help community members relax, such as its cribbage club, and spaces for various types of discussion, such as its Socrates Café and several book clubs. Roddy said the library’s primary focus is on serving the needs of community in any way possible.
“Most libraries don’t have tax forms anymore, because it’s honestly really tedious, but our community has told us that they want them, so we provide them,” she said. “Right now, the IRS is trying to train people to do everything online, but not everybody has the capacity and the locations for online services…there’s a lot of reasons why we should be providing these, and we do.”
Wetherington said the library has more materials available than just those on the shelves. Through the power of interlibrary loan groups, the Bitterroot Public Library has access to materials at several other libraries. According to Wetherington, nearly anything can be found, with the exception of very rare or obscure materials.
“There’s no, ‘oh we can, but we don’t really want to,’ it’s ‘if we can, we will’,” he said. “I think you can just tell, with a library like this, that it’s constantly been staffed by people that have a vision of ‘what more can we do?’ rather than ‘okay, seems like we’re doing this good enough.’ It seems like it’s always been with people that have been trying to strive forward, and I just feel very privileged to have the opportunity to try to continue that legacy of service, legacy of empowering. That’s our phrase: ‘One hundred years of empowering our community.’”
The Bitterroot Public Library is located in Hamilton, at 306 State Street, and is open from 10-6 on Mondays and Thursdays, 10-8 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10-5 on Fridays and Saturdays, and closed on Sundays. More information is available at bitterrootpubliclibrary.org or by calling 363-1670.