Dale Porter – library center for ideas and information exchange
Peak to Peak Rotary Club guest speaker
The Peak-to-Peak Rotary Club held its weekly Thursday meeting on July 8 at Farradays’ Restaurant at The Isle Casino Hotel in Black Hawk. Rotary President Michelle Northrup introduced guest speaker Dale Porter of the Nederland Community Library, who spoke on the history of the library and the construction of its future building. The library is run by a board of trustees and Porter, who is still on the board, was its president from 2002 to 2009.
In beginning his speech, Porter spoke about a friend of his who had remarked that books were obsolete and weren’t needed anymore. The implication was that libraries, as places where books were kept, were also obsolete. Porter challenged his friend to sit in Nederland’s current library in Caribou Square and observe what happened during the day. He told his friend that he needed to just go over there and sit for forty-five minutes and see what went on. His friend did.
Through his observation Porter’s friend came to realize that library use started early in the morning with a group of a dozen parents and their children participating in the Reading Readiness activities or program. A short time later job seekers were employing all of the library’s six computers in taking needed on-line classes or utilizing them as Internet job-searching agencies. He also watched visitors at the front desk exchange book club ideas and suggest best-selling books for reading.
Eventually his friend admitted he saw Porter’s point: libraries are not just about books. Libraries are public spaces about literacy, ideas and information exchange, job opportunities, socializing and “a lot of things.”
In the fall of 2000 a group of people in town decided they shouldn’t have to drive 17 miles down a dangerous canyon to access the Boulder library to check out books. A library district was created. It is not connected to a city or a county; it is its own local government, although supervision is provided by the county that collects taxes. “Essentially, it is our own show,” stated Porter.
The library officially serves an area of a five-mile radius around the town of Nederland, although the library will still serve people outside of its district. The district stops at the Gilpin County border as it has its own library.
The library serves a small rural mountain community and has a good collection ranging from how to build your own cabin to how to survive in the wilderness. What they don’t have is a research collection, nor do they collect the classics of literature as they are available elsewhere. They have a fairly large library inter-loan service that connects with libraries all across Colorado. “Every library’s collection is tailored to their community.”
Numerous library programs are offered from summer reading and after-school homework programs for kids, to pre-school and babies programs. New parents get a package of books to read to their baby after coming home from the hospital, along with an invitation to attend the library’s Baby Story Time.
Porter cited an example of the library’s free services. Parents with young children could spend about $8,000 a year on books as children go through an estimated 20 books a week. He remarked, “For $80 a year in taxes you get all those books for free. And you get the company of other children and parents.”
Porter emphasized that one thing libraries have that is becoming obsolete is privacy. When asking for help on the Internet or what book to read, none of that information passes beyond your person. Names and information are absolutely private. Porter said when he was president of the library board he could not even find out what books his own wife was taking out of the library. “Privacy is one of the great American values that is fast disappearing in the electronic age.”
Last year in 2009 the library board asked the voters of the district to tax themselves twice for a bond issue for millage to build a new library and for millage to operate it. Porter commented that “we squeaked by” with five votes over approximately 900 cast in favor of a new library. The foundation is being poured today and by next January there will be a new building of 4,600 square feet, typical for a community of Nederland’s size.
The new library will be three times the size of the present building and will offer a whole new set of programs for the community to enjoy. The library has made a commitment to using local contractors for its construction whenever possible in giving back money to the community when so many people are unemployed.
It will be a “green” building, energy-efficient, equivalent to being certified without undergoing and paying for the internationally recognized “green” building LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. The library will be outfitted with solar-electric. Porter’s hoping the town of Nederland will enter into a commercial contract with a solar-electric provider for all the public buildings in town and that the library will be part of that.
The entryway to the library will be important as it’s where notices will be posted and community information exchanged. Porter commented that they had applied to The Coors Foundation for a grant to help build the entryway. The library has an open floor plan where a single librarian can keep track of everything happening in the immediate floor space.
The main addition to the new library will be a community room, a place where the children’s hour can take place, people can sit and read comfortably during the day, and media programs can be used.
All the areas for different age groups–children, juveniles, teens, and adults–are carefully thought out in considering group dynamics. Porter illustrated this by using an example of how juveniles might want to reread their favorite book that’s in the children’s’ section, while reading books in their section, and then wandering over to the teenagers’ section. He commented that library space should be arranged in a very strategic way to accommodate these dynamics, making each age group comfortable in its section.
Porter spoke about the difficulties of finding a site in Nederland that could accommodate a 4,600 square foot building with adequate parking space and be within walking distance of every place in town. Eventually the town and other neighbors donated their right-of-ways to the library and they were able to buy a 12,000 square foot lot with parking across from the RTD parking lot on Third Street. Porter quipped that since the library will be situated between the Presbyterian and Calvary Chapel churches, “We know we’re in good hands!”
Porter concluded by remarking that the new library is viewed as the center for the community’s culture for the next 25 to 30 years—and it won’t be obsolete.
The library will have its annual used book sale during Nederland’s Old Timers’ and Miners’ Days event this weekend on Saturday and Sunday, July 24 and 25. For the book sale hours and more information on the Nederland Community Library, visit the www.nederlandlibraryfoundation.org website.
The next Peak to Peak meeting is scheduled for Thursday, June 22, from noon to 1:00 p.m. at Farraddays’. Lunch is available for $10 from the restaurant and non-members and guests are always welcome at the meeting. Please visit the Rotary website, www.peaktopeakrotary.org, for more information.