 All right, welcome back everybody. It is the top of the hour. It is 1 p.m. Central time here in Lincoln, Nebraska And this is big talk for small libraries 2014 our third annual conference Where we hear from lots of small libraries from across the country and the amazing things that they are doing Our next presenter is Rachel Reynolds Lester the librarian at the Murrow Library in Missouri She's here to speak about the people's library Rebuilding the collection of one rural library in the Ozarks and just to tell you a little bit about Rachel She is a folklorist fiddler librarian and community organizer and her work focuses Addressing the holistic health of her own community through land-based cultural and economic initiatives Rachel. Go ahead Thanks, Michael I'd like to say hi to everyone and as Michael said my name is Rachel Reynolds Lester And I'm the librarian at the public my library in Murdoin, Missouri It's a small town in the Ozarks along the Missouri and Arkansas line and I'm just gonna share some images here kind of randomly but most of them were taken by Journalists who came to visit the library and contributed To what our library has become so I will click through those as I as I talk about the library I'm actually sort of an accidental librarian as Michael mentioned my academic training is in folklore and also history and The majority of my professional life has been spent documenting and interpreting and presenting vernacular culture Which are the things that we learn from one another ironically It's really those things that we don't learn from books but always have had a love of books and From my earliest childhood memories some of my most vivid memories are especially with bookmobiles as a kid I Created a position as an undergraduate working at the University of Arkansas Library with a folksong collection of one of my heroes and when I began graduate school because of that experience I was asked to work in the library's special collections department to fulfill my graduate assistant The next thing I knew I found myself with ten years of library experience under my belt and My graduate school and the library I was working at is two hours away from my home But it was it's the nearest program So when the position became available in Myrtle I jumped I jumped at the opportunity to become the library in here And we'll say that I have approached this position as an extension of other community oriented rural cultural Sustainability issues that I work on I feel that it is the responsibility of community members to lend whatever talents and abilities they have to Contributing to the strength of their community Not only for themselves and their neighbors, but also for the for generations to come Libraries in my opinion play one of the most pivotal roles in community life, especially in small communities The story that follows is one of work love and a whole lot of luck. I Would like to share with you my adventures here at the Myrtle library since I began my work eight months ago And share with you how local patrons people from across the country and across the pond And my fellow librarians rule and urban have contributed to making the Myrtle library the people's library I've been asked In addition to journalists coming here to interview me about the library and that airing I was asked to write a piece last week about this conference and why I thought it was important and why Rule or small libraries are important in general for It's a online news service for rural America called the Daily Yonder So I thought I would share it was really gave me an opportunity to Concisely think about What's happened here in the last few months and so I thought I would just share a piece of that Story here. I didn't even hear the story when it aired I always listened to national public radio in the morning But for some reason I had the radio off on my 15 mile commute from home to my little library in Myrtle, Missouri When I opened the door the phone was ringing and it continued to ring for the next two months It still rings every once in a while. I think you probably just heard it The calls were the result of a story by Jennifer Davidson a regional reporter for the NPR station out of West Plains, Missouri She produced a piece on my library for the national series on libraries in the 21st century Jennifer found me two weeks after I started working at the Myrtle library She had seen a post that I made on Facebook Saying that we needed a variety of materials. I really thought when I Put this post up. I have lots of friends and they they all almost all of them love to read and a lot of them are in Academic fields or writers themselves and I thought that people might share some of their books that they'd either written or Classics for a great need here So I thought if I put this on Facebook that my friends would send me books I didn't have any idea that Jennifer was going to call and It was just minutes after I put that post up that she Called me here at the library and I had just been here two weeks and She said that she wanted to do a radio piece for the local NPR station about my quest for books and materials I guess and I agreed and she said I will be there in an hour and She showed up at the library and we had a really great visit And the story was up that night So the time frame on all of this is a very quick turnaround But her initial story aired in several towns and cities in Missouri Shortly after books started rolling in hundreds of books and lots of letters and phone calls And that was just from the regionally distributed story just to give you kind of a perspective of What I'm talking about I guess out for Quite some time at least a month. I would receive about four Boxes of books a day at the post office, which is right next door to us of books from all over the story aired in Some smaller towns in southern Missouri, but it also aired outside of Kansas City and Columbia, Missouri, which is the big college town and so lots of people were very generous and The donations started coming in real frequently When I took the position of librarian, I realized we needed a broader collection About one third of our holdings were Harlequin paperback romance serials. We had 15 years worth and Now refer to this period of culling and processing as training for the marathon I would not have had the wherewithal to handle what would come after the national story aired Had it not been for this first regional run and the last eight months of process nearly 4,000 new library holdings the overwhelming majority of those came from donations from locals urbanites and other libraries Along the way there have been many interesting conversations with folks from around the world Not only about our little library in a sleepy town of a hundred or so But about the larger issue of the importance of rural libraries in our cultural landscape We've had people so moved by the stories that aired that they drove across the country in their RV to visit and bring Us books or checks. I found myself setting up lodging and meal arrangements for those who wanted to visit Along with recreational activities. I would plan trips. I even joked at one point that I was gonna Start up a bibliotourism business. I didn't know The first story had highlighted the fact that I was really bothered that our library In fact, none of the libraries in our county system had a copy of Homer's the Odyssey I can't tell you how many copies of the Odyssey and the Iliad I received Along with boxes of books in Greek and Latin Unfortunately, we didn't have room for all the Greek and Latin books because our library is only 632 square feet. I had a wonderful conversation with an attorney in New Jersey He had grown up in a small town where he spent hours dreaming and reading in the library as a child Over the phone he called out all the titles on his bookshelf that he thought I might need or want for our library Willing to ship them to us Some wonderful ladies in Kansas City, Missouri Organized a book drive on our behalf The Dallas Public Library sent us literally a truckload of brand new books We've been able to use most of the donations Extras are distributed to other libraries in our system The local school library are sold in book sales to help increase our budget Public libraries are important anywhere, but in places like ours. They are critical to community life Along with books. We also have a selection of films and music however limited and just to offer some perspective Myrtle Is about 25 miles from the nearest red box And there are no other movie stores around and two hours away from the nearest Barnes and Noble and We're probably About 55 miles from the nearest used bookstore. So We have public access computers with broadband available in our library We're the only publicly accessible broadband within about 25 miles Many places in our county either do not have broadband access at all or the options available cost too much for our population And I will just say and I think that this is common too that there are a number of socioeconomic issues that make the library critically important in small communities for instance Over a quarter of the people in our county live below the national poverty line and There is an issue with broadband access The options here in Myrtle for broadband access range around 80 to a hundred dollars a month so that makes it near impossible for a lot of the population to have that access other than our public library and This is a story that's too common all too common in rural America We live near a beautiful wild river the 11 point but otherwise there are few businesses or public spaces for recreation or gathering The library along with the post office and gas station are where people come together to talk about everything from the weather to local election News and where to get hay We're lucky to share building with the post office So we're a community hub and are able to offer activities for our young people Totally forgot about the pictures. So This is this is our library this is our half and as you'll notice on It is Flagstone it's a native stone and it's really a duplex where this line is over here. The post office is connected Since we're connected to the post office We're really kind of a sort of community hub and we have activities for young people here to participate in We serve several unincorporated communities in Oregon County Plus communities across the state line in Arkansas We do all this with one employee, which is me in 20 hours a week with about $200 a month allowance for acquisitions, that's Books and periodicals that sort of thing and then hourly pay scales slightly above minimum wage Still we're crafty My patrons work with me to think about free programming activities We do a variety of things and tried to since I've started Get more Meetings held here. So for instance the parent teacher organization at the local school Held meetings here. We've had the Boy Scout troop And then we have community information pamphlets from different community organizations here as well And luckily for me I have a network of friends across the country who dream with me about what we can achieve through Strengthening this library as a hub of community and culture Got a shop window that I love to create displays in here. I'll fast forward because oh Here we go. This is the whole library Over here and then the post office connected to it Up there was one This is one of my windows displays For fall this is the fall one But for Christmas, I did a tree made out of books A tree made out of books and Lit reindeer with some quilt bedding for snow and a disco ball and laser light show Which is one of the other pictures, but we have no street lights or anything So as you can imagine this became a great source of local conversation. It's fun Most recently I added a puppet theater for kids and we're working with our regional office of the Missouri Department of Conservation to start a fishing pole and tackle loaner program next month and that is where the Department of Conservation provides fishing poles We process them as we would have booked so they'll have a barcode on them and children five to fifteen which Allows access without having to have a fishing license Those those children can check out or their parents can check out these fishing poles for up to two weeks at a time just as they could have booked and all first time Checker routers are provided with a terminal tackle box with all the materials that they would need to fish and they get to keep fat and as part of the program the Department of Conservation Organizes a fishing day with the kids and their parents to kick off the program at a local Stocked pond teaches the kids how to fish in an environment where they're pretty ensured that they will catch a fish So that'll encourage them, but just one more way that we can Provide a service to our community The patrons are instrumental in helping to shape the library and how it is used It's a pleasure to work in a library so small that I know all my patrons by name and what they like to read for the most part Our library board has also been very supportive and enthusiastic about all the energy and changes And they've given me money to paint and get new furniture and Create a welcoming environment for all that use the library I'm going to go through some of these other pictures now We have a Facebook page which For the Friends of the Myrtle Library and so I try to do fun pictures that Engage people and wanting to come to the library. This was one kind of everybody in town knew my situation with the books We don't have really storage, but they're Behind the post office that we're connected to there's an abandoned barber shop and I have in our restroom and I had the books From all the donations stored back there as I process them as quickly as I possibly could And there are mountains of books Down to two boxes. So that's good But this this picture was kind of poking fun I took my elf on the shelf and had him helping me process books around Christmas time This was a story time that we did we did polar express and had silver bells for the kids and some Christmas cookies and hot cocoa and I Started there wasn't a story time when I began the library here at the library and I've been doing those every Saturday and They've they've been pretty good attendance varies, but I've been pretty satisfied with how those are going This is one of the images we have another story coming out in rural, Missouri, which is a Publication a magazine that comes out to all the electric cooperative members in our state And and this is a photograph from that upcoming story and this is one of my my patrons Courtney and She has a slight learning disability and her mother and Siblings are frequent. They're all frequent patrons at the library, but her mother kind of has worked with me to find books that interest Peak Courtney's curiosity and interest So that she will read more the family all reads a whole lot and We've been able to get some of the books that were donations into Courtney's hands and Especially the Aragon series. She really loved that. She read Those books are very large and she read all four of them in about two weeks This is also from the rural, Missouri shoot and This has one of our newest additions. I got a little puppet theater with about 40 puppets And so I've been alternating story times and trying to do Stories with the puppets which the kids really love I think we were doing Jack the beanstalk this day and I Don't know if you can see this was our beanstalk over here, which Owen My oldest son had the idea. He said mom. You you forgot your beanstalk And I said I just didn't get around to getting that together and he pointed to one of the plants Which this is a fig tree. I think that was donated by one of the patrons. He said that could be our beanstalk. So The kids really enjoyed it another Clip from this week and this book was sent by the author we have many books that were sent by authors and autographed with Dedications to the library and to the patrons the young patrons especially These are some of our movies as I mentioned in the daily yonderpiece Access a lot of people including myself don't have Satellite is our only option. We don't have a cable company Then satellite is is too expensive. So a lot of people and we have no reception really to Broadcast television so movies are kind of our only option and we're 25 miles away from a Redbuzz so movies played a really important role the librarian before me was here 36 years and She as I mentioned referenced to in that early article. She loved paperback romance novels. There were a lot of those but she also was really attentive to The need for movies especially kids movies. So This is one of our Young youngest patrons Caitlyn looking at the movies Here's the kid after I did the story time with the puppets I always move them in the back and let the kids play and they generally Re-enact the story that I've done here. They're re-enacting the story. I did the week before they're doing Billy Goats growth It's more the kids playing And that's what the disc. This is the window display with the disco ball laser light show I Tell you I had to work on putting this together after hours and I think that The local residents of Myrtle had as much fun watching me try to build this tree and fail and try again as they did With the finished product. These are just some more all pretty much all of these are new books that have been added This is Jennifer the day she came to Do the first story and this is the picture she ran with the story Again, all of these are new books Some donations from patrons these are all gently used Well, some of them are new some of the poetry books are new and lots of Really interesting I'll I'll get into Why the patron donation why the donations that came in were so interesting but we got we didn't have any local regional history books at all and We got quite a few of those and those are kind of rare books But I went ahead and put them in circulation But some of those are in here as well some more of those and as Eric writers anthology You can really kind of see the variety and I think that this Kind of I'm gonna kind of go deeper into it, but I think that The way that people found out about our library Kind of Dictates the collection here. It's really contributions from all over and for different types of reasons This is Blake he and his family are also really frequent Patrons they live right down the road from the library and sometimes the kids get off the school bus here and Frequently walk down together the siblings do but the first The will know this the yeah the first story that was done on MPR kind of featured Blake and he's a really avid reader and I had ordered the copy of the Hobbit with him in mind and He happened to be there and and I got to get let him check that book out that day It's him looking through it And this is the rest of his family I've started a bin. You can see it down here. This was you know right after I started it's a rather large bin now and I actually have to rotate out but Another thing about donations is they allow for You know, I can give these books away. I'm not giving away resources necessarily that our County library board is invested in so every kid that comes to the library every young person gets to pick out a book from our Tub there and taking home with them every time they come These kids probably have a whole bookshelf at this point full of books that they've picked up here on their visits Okay, I think that's all the images Let's find a good one to Hold on Okay So I wanted to Share some of the letters as I mentioned and as a folklorist It I really was interested in the phone calls that I received. I got so many phone calls from All over literally all over the world from people who had heard the story about our small library and We are only open 20 hours a week. So there were a great number of Messages left on our answering machine of people and they felt compelled to tell me their personal connection with Rule libraries or small libraries and how meaningful they had been in their lives and some of the stories were so touching but you know what I took away from it was that These are life-changing environments for young people in particular and Whether a young person moves to an urban area where there's you know state-of-the-art large libraries That these small libraries hold a special place in their part in their heart and really shape who they are as human beings and and these people carry that with them and also how much people love their books had a lot of stories and a lot of letters of people sending me books and You know pouring out on the page how important these books were to them, but that they felt it really important that they Be available to our patrons, which was really moving But I thought I would read you Just a snippet of some of the letters that I got I have saved them all and Regrettably have been so busy processing that haven't had a chance to respond to them all yet But I plan on taking especially the cards and all of that and creating some sort of visual piece to hang in the library to remind us all of this great time that we've had but This letter is from Joan Acety and she's One of the late it was she's the lady from Kansas City that Organized the book drive for us It says hi Rachel. I hope these books are useful make them part of your collection or sell them to raise money Whatever you need. I'm really excited to be supporting your library Libraries have always been a big part of my life when I was a little girl We lived just two blocks from the library and I was allowed to walk there on my own feeling so grown up I've just joined a book club and I intend to invite the members to help support your library as well We just read Big Stone Gap by Adriana Tragiani It's set in a very small mountain town and the bookmobile is very important to the heroine We had a long discussion of small-town life and the importance of the library. I Suggested we do a book exchange for December But I would like to further ask if each member will bring a book to donate to Myrtle I'll let them know about your Amazon wish list also Finally, I was wondering if you have any interest in e-readers such as Kendall. We got my dad at Kendall and Basically, she's offering to give me a Kindle for the library which I hadn't figured out how we would use but those ladies Let's see She set it up where they would through a Mobius bus go to a library in West Plains which is kind of the closest larger town and Then I picked them up and brought them here But in the librarians, they were so good to let me store the books there until I could come get them Because there were a lot of books. I think I ended up with probably 25 large boxes from those ladies Here's another one from Susan Campbell I'm from Web City, Missouri, and I'd be nothing without my local library Please take this and use it as you see fit We had a lot of donation financial donations some of them Larger and some of them smaller and all are really meaningful and then people also Small ways in which we could Extend our services to help our local patrons and had suggestions and Collaborative ideas, so here's one from oh, I'm not gonna be able to pronounce this last name but Kathleen Butch at grocery I think Dear Rachel, thank you for talking with me yesterday. I was very impressed by your story on NPR morning edition The interview indicated that the library is a rare spot in town connected to the internet It made me think of how the people in town would access health care information and get online to find out about the insurance exchange I appreciate the time you took to discuss health care with me And then she offered some links that I could use and I actually did that and also reached out to local kind of political groups and also insurance exchanges and have Information available for people that are needing to sign up for the health care website government health care website and This one from Lisa Goodman I was listening to morning edition on NPR the other day and heard the story turning a page inside one rural library I was quite moved by it as I'm sure many were Running to say I'm running you to say hooray for the work you're doing and also to ask if you might be willing to offer me your advice I'm interested in finding ways to improve education for those without a lot of means or access Seems to me that supporting libraries such as yours would be a great way to do so. Would you be willing to offer your input on this? So I'm still in contact with a lot of these people In fact one one of the authors Nominated me for I think it what is it called? It's really funny the Lemony Snicket Award for honorable librarians under adverse conditions something really funny, but also Have offered to do online programs for our young patrons and different activities In one last one and this is from a library science student I love I loved it. She sent a small donation and Asked it says hi Rachel. I just read the story about you on the NPR website. Keep up the good work I grew up in a small town with a great library and it made such a huge difference in my life It's not much, but if you could use then clothes to get some good sci-fi Enders game or the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy maybe yours in library science cadence atchison And I did I got the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy with her donation So that's just kind of an excerpt of some of the letters that came in and As I mentioned my background isn't actually in library science. It's more in the humanities and so I Took the position knowing that the library was important and that it was a way that I could use my skills that I had gotten to Help contribute to having this place stay open for the community to use and When I got in here There were some parts of the collection that needed a lot a lot of love and so I began to think about How I wanted to approach this activity and I really kind of took a Curator curatorial approach to what I wanted to do so I began thinking about and making lists and the first thing Immediately that came to my mind was books every library should have and so I made a running list of those That we didn't have and we didn't we didn't have a lot of books that you would kind of expect to see in a library like the Odyssey or Tom Sawyer or to kill a mockingbird or any of these kind of great books and So I started making a list of those and then very shortly after I started doing that really the Children section became my highest priority In part because I have I have two little boys three and five And my oldest son is just learning to read and I'm also the PTO president at the local school and Again thinking about What resources are available to the young people in our communities? They're very limited and the holdings and our children's collection From board books to 18 year olds really Were all on Three shelves that are about Three feet high and And that wasn't full so I thought we should really kind of make that the first focus and Then also our nonfiction section adult nonfiction section The offerings there were were really limited and as a folklorist historian, I thought it was really important to Especially have local and regional history and cultural materials which people are very interested in the patrons have really responded and To those coming in the library, but also to offer a broader context. I think it's You know really good to have historical and cultural context so that We can learn from the past and build on our future. So I wanted to really grow those sections And so that was kind of what I asked for and then initial Facebook post And I had no idea how well people would respond I Also Work with patrons to develop what materials we add to the library One of the kind of first exercises for me when I took the job was along with learning everybody's name and Just kind of paying attention was asking Patrons or telling patrons, you know, I have a little bit of money in my book budget If there's ever any Book or type of book that you'd like to see in the library, please let me know and I'll try to give that for you and that really gave me a good sense of who my patrons were and The types of materials that they like to read as well as you know following circulation After the first story Aired I got all of these phone calls asking or emails asking What books we had or didn't have or All this so I decided that a good way to create it rather than individually answering these questions that I would Create an Amazon wishlist That worked for me not Only could people purchase books off of that wish list and send them to us But it was a good way for me to have a list that I could direct people to Even as a sorted guide of the material kinds of materials that we needed or were looking for And I would tell people that you know, don't feel like You have to but if someone called me and they were thinking about donating some of their own books or They could kind of get a sense of the materials that we were looking for but a lot of people did purchase books off of that site and send them to us as well and The patrons helped me develop that list. So it's not just me putting items on the list but The patrons were aware that we have this ongoing list and they could add to it So they just make a request and I I add it to the list and The donations that came in I'm going to try to touch on this briefly because it's been the most fascinating part to me and it's what has really shaped Our collection I think it's pretty unique but We had a combination of things we had You know kind of a changing of the guard and local Community members finding out that I was at the library and hearing the story and Coming and bringing books that they that meant something to them that they wanted to see in this library for this area, you know, they have a Intimate knowledge of Who who the other patrons are and what people might want or find useful and It was really nice to see those donations come in and they were different from the other donations and Then from the story you get a combination of People in rule places Sending books that they think that we might need and a combination of people in urban places Sending books that they Think that our little library might need and those are very different things from one another and Also, as I mentioned people buying off the list, which is a tailored thing that the patrons and I have worked on and Then also authors Sending in their books And people just sending in books that are meaningful to them. We have We have had a lot of nonfiction donated and Our nonfiction section is Completely different than it was when I began when I started the majority of the nonfiction section were cookbooks and many of them You know, not necessarily classic cookbooks like the joy of cooking or but more Really time-dated microwave desserts or Totally Southern oriented casserole cookbooks that sort of thing and now we have quite a collection of biographies we have Presidential biographies from almost all of the presidents We have a lot of how-to materials do it yourself materials materials dealing with animal husbandry and gardening and crafts such as knitting and Those have been added and are getting really good circulation But and then the kids books The Dallas Public Library sent us. I was actually planning on applying for a Libri Foundation grant to expand our children's Collection and was kind of on the waiting list in our county system to do that But we had so many donations of brand new Everything from board books to young adult books donated by the Dallas Public Library Free of charge with no shipping and brand new books I can't tell you how much it is meant to me and to the young people Here and we shared those that we couldn't use or Were duplicates with our local school library, which also faces many of the budget issues that we have so They're really spreading around I think I will open it up for questions if anyone has questions for me Great Rachel that was wonderful and love love the photos. That's that's great They were a great illustration of what you were talking about. I do believe we've gotten some comments and questions in from the audience Yes, we hit we have Our first question is have you encountered any issues from community members concerning Which books and movies should be in or should not be in the library? That's a really good question Not really not really as many as I expected given the expansion of materials Especially with the movies and most of the films I did kind of Start labeling the films by their rating So that people Were able to be more aware because there are some materials that are more offensive to some people than others But I really have had really great response from the patrons in the expansion of materials Someone suggesting if you haven't tried at TechSoup Offers donations of a popular software to public libraries or for small fees and she said she had a similar situation in her town in Connecticut And they've got some help from TechSoup, that's really good. I'll have to check that out the plan for This winter our county library system is set up where there are two larger libraries that Are open 40 hours a week and And then there are three rule outposts Although we're all very full but there are three rule outposts Libraries and the three smaller libraries are actually doing technology upgrades So we're hoping to be able to add Wi-Fi which would be a really great addition and then to software updates and Equipment updates here How do you plan to sustain your collection? Is is there Are there funds in the future? Has has the budget increased at all or anything? The budget for My library has increased because of the donations We get to those donations get to be earmarked for our library. They don't go into our general book fund we do have Monthly, you know kind of stipend to add new materials But as I mentioned the library is 632 square feet and at this point with 4,000 new Holdings the library and I've deleted some of the out-of-date materials or materials in bad shape that sort of thing But we're getting we're getting pretty pretty full. So I think I'm just Weeding and the small And then we can always, you know look for grants and things but right now I feel like we're in pretty good shape All right One more comment Just one question so much know if you guys have a website or if you're on Facebook where they can follow you I'm sorry. I couldn't hear that You have a website or something on Facebook. Was that mentioned? We do I can pull that up here. Can I? Yeah well, I Could get out of this gallery It would be the the X in the upper right corner. I don't want to do that Don't want to do that. Oh, I can't seem to air Sorry We have a friends of the Myrtle library page Which should be up right now. Yep, we can see it and Sorry, my internet connection is very slow There we go. Yeah, and so yeah, we post Different things this is from one of the authors that's been really great at supporting us sending us books and and Also offering to do online Programming with the with the kids and activities on here and We post different little things fun things Announcements like when we're gonna be closed or reminders about story time and what's coming up on the Facebook page And we'd love for everybody to kind of follow us and as I said to we've got the It was on wishlist page as well that that just kind of as I use as a guide for people that are wanting to make donations All right, well Rachel, thank you very much for that presentation I'm glad we were able to find you and and get you to submit something to present for us today. It's it's Inspirational to say the least and it looks like one of our co-workers just liked your page So there you go. All right Emily works here at the Commission So again Rachel, thank you very much and that is going to end this our this presentation from Big talk for small libraries We are gonna take about a ten minute break here and we will be back with you at the top of the hour. Thanks a lot