Abraham Korah is the executive director of the Garfield County Public Library District.
One of the odd bits that most of us don’t pick up on until we are adults is that there are conferences and conventions for almost everything. Whether it is the International Astronautical Conference or the North American Saxophone Alliance (the other NASA), people in various industries gather to celebrate, learn and solve problems in their field. This is no different for libraries and library workers. In addition to national gatherings, Colorado brings library staff from across the state together annually for professional development. The state library conference, CALCON, originates from the Colorado Association of Libraries.
Along with several of our board members and staff, I had the opportunity to attend and present at the annual conference in Aurora. The theme of this year’s conference, “Courageous Libraries, Resilient Communities,” felt particularly poignant to me. I think many of us across Garfield County are having to find courage and resilience to navigate a variety of stresses in our personal lives and to support our neighbors.
Public libraries support community resilience and our six libraries dotted across Garfield County are no different. Three of our staff members from our Silt branch were met with an enthusiastic response to their CALCON presentation about creating connections for Silt residents through programs and events. Shylo Harlan, Paul Stanley, and Natasha Wolburg described how they brought the community together through “Shake Your Sillies Out,” a movement program for children and caregivers, the “Golden Hours Ice Cream Social” for older adults and Lotería for Spanish speakers. They also described a Community Friendsgiving that brought Silt residents together regardless of age, socioeconomic status or ideology, to build a sense of community instead of isolation.
One of our neighbors, Breeze Richardson, the executive director of Aspen Public Radio (APR), was one of the keynote speakers. Richardson shared her observations about the challenges that public radio has faced in the past few years and parallels she saw with public libraries. She described the challenges to funding, intellectual freedom and the impact of outside entities on the work of journalists. She also described the importance of collaboration and partnership with community partners to create resilience.
An example of this collaboration that Richardson described to the several hundred attendees was the Nonprofit Volunteer Fair that our Glenwood Library has been hosting in collaboration with APR. This annual August event, where close to 30 nonprofit organizations could promote volunteer opportunities in a festive environment, was a collaboration that APR developed and invited the library to join two years ago. I was surprised and elated by the acknowledgment. More so, I felt motivated to identify ways to further cultivate the many partnerships that we have built with community partners.
In addition to attending many informative sessions, I also had the opportunity to lead a presentation with my colleague and Human Resources Director Kim Owens. We led a session on how libraries can capture the wisdom and guidance of their longest tenured staff. Along with our colleague Nancy Barnes, the library district completed a survey and focus group with a set of colleagues with seven or more years of longevity in the library district.
We wanted to understand how our staff maintained their resilience through challenging times (e.g., layoffs, COVID, contentious national political discourse) for the organization. Factors such as career opportunities and benefits were common among the responses.
More surprisingly, staff described the importance of intangible factors that brought a great deal of meaning to their work. Staff were motivated by doing meaningful work that positively impacted their communities, while collaborating with colleagues with the same mindset. The long tenured staff members also described the feeling of community they felt in the workplace as a factor in providing resilience through the challenging days.
The conference also provided me with the opportunity to listen and learn from colleagues across the state. I especially appreciated the opportunity to meet with colleagues in director roles across Colorado, especially those serving rural communities. Unsurprisingly, many shared common challenges such as budget pressures and retaining strong staff.
The pleasant surprise to me was to be reminded of the rare structure that our library district has in how we are able to serve the residents of Garfield County. Many library districts have one or two physical locations to serve a geographical area of a similar size to our county. What a privilege it is for our staff to be able to tailor our services and supports to meet the unique needs of each of our six towns, while centralizing some functions to reduce costs.
I wrapped up the conference feeling energized and optimistic. If you don’t leave the trees, you can’t see the forest. I left Aurora reminded that our library district contributes to unity and resilience for our community.