Where I Was: Week of February 8

One of my favorite libraries to visit in our system is the Norwood Public Library. Library director Rebecca Donnelly is always trying something new, whether it's a pop-up library on the village green, circulating canning supplies, or replacing old public computer towers with Chromeboxes. I had the opportunity to go there on Tuesday, and it was well worth the three hours of round trip travel from my office.*

The latest art at Norwood, created by their teen group.

I think I've mentioned before that the North Country Library System is large. In point of fact, we're bigger than Connecticut.** It's not very often that we get all of our member library staff in the same room; the annual meeting is probably the only time we even come close, and as the name suggests, that's a once-a-year thing. As a result, some of our libraries have formed county-based groups that meet more frequently to coordinate localized initiatives, such as participating in a county fair, advocating for county funding, or standardizing loan policies. Best of all, it gives the attendees a chance to celebrate and commiserate, to share and learn from each other, to ask for help, and to gain perspective.

This is so, so important, and it's something that many of our small libraries don't often get the opportunity to do - it's hard to leave the library to attend a meeting when you're the only one in the building. It's even harder if you have to drive a significant distance to do so and/or you don't get paid for mileage or time worked outside your regular hours at the library.

Which, unfortunately, can be a fact of life in small libraries.

And when the director is the only person on staff (as is the case in some small libraries), they are asked to attend meetings and classes that in a larger library would be divided among other departments. The directors in our system are asked to attend director meetings, tech services meetings, IT trainings, youth services workshops, etc. It's a lot to ask of one person - especially a person who doesn't work full-time, which is also not uncommon in small libraries.

To add a county meeting on top of all the other ones - well, I think it's a testament to the value of the discussion that happens there that the attendees are willing to make time for it.

St. Lawrence County is just getting their county group off the ground, and they held their latest meeting on Tuesday at Norwood. It's not my place to share their discussion here, but I'm so glad they are building this network for themselves. And I'm definitely looking forward to sharing their projects when I can!

*As an added bonus, the library is located within walking distance of a diner that does tasty daily specials, great pie, and perfect hot chocolate. (Trust me. I don't drink coffee. I know from hot chocolate.) 

**Our 6,187 square miles to their 5,018 square miles.***

***I get varying numbers for how big CT actually is when I do a quick Google search, but surely the state itself knows how big it is. I have to believe that.