At the Glenwood Springs branch library, a couple of a dozen kids and adults are using kid-friendly plastic needles, thick embroidery thread, and safety scissors to assemble little felt stuffed dinosaurs from kits.
In short, it’s a typical Wednesday afternoon with the SPARK program, designed to spark kids' imaginations in a fun, safe, social environment.
7-year-old Graham Aguirre and his mom, Ashley are working on a mini T-rex plush. Ashley is holding the felt pieces together while Graham goes to town with the needle. Graham tells his mom he’s got to go over, then under.
“Or maybe it's under-over instead of over-under,” Ashley replies.
“It’s either one,” Graham says firmly, drawing a laugh from his mom.
Graham is homeschooled, and the SPARK program helps fill in some of the gaps.
Ashley says this month’s theme of “Dino-vember” has tied in perfectly with Graham’s current studies about geology. And over the past year, Graham has enjoyed a variety of library programming.
“Remember when they brought the birds?” Ashley says. “They brought in birds, and it was really cool.
“Yeah,” Graham says excitedly. “Huge ones!”
Ashley and Graham speak over each other as they recount some of the birds they saw, and the things they learned.
“They brought an African raven, which is like a black and white raven —” “With like a tank top.” “—like a tuxedo kind of thing.” “A tank top.” “Yeah.”
As Graham and other kids craft, and adult patrons read, work on computers, or simply warm up by the library’s fireplace, it’s tough to imagine that this and other county libraries have served as the battleground for a fierce culture war for months.
This past summer, Rifle resident Trish O’Grady started a petition to prevent children from accessing a pair of Japanese Manga graphic novels with age warnings, shelved in the adult section. She claims to have gathered over a thousand signatures.
During a September library board of trustees meeting, she read from the petition, asking the library to keep the books in a separate room under lock and key, and for librarians to check IDs before allowing them to be checked out.
“If these requirements are not met, then we request that all materials of the aforementioned warning be removed from the library inventory,” O’Grady said.
The library district’s executive director, Jamie LaRue, responded by asking staff to read the Manga books all the way through. Staff determined that the materials were shelved correctly in the adult section, and that they would not be keeping books under lock and key, or having librarians check ID.
“There is no library in the United States that does that,” LaRue said. “And in fact, as I mentioned, no child has been reading these.”
GCPLD and LaRue hosted a public forum in October, where the vast majority of attendees were against restricting access to books. During his presentation, he pointed out that the library can’t restrict access to these materials anyways.
“Minors also have First Amendment rights,” he told guests during the presentation. “And that you can't just remove books from children or grievously restrict their access to them. It's unconstitutional.”
Even after both library officials and the library’s volunteer board of trustees made their decision to maintain the status quo, O’Grady and her supporters continued to speak out.
One even penned a letter in a local newspaper, calling on librarians to be arrested for “knowingly transferring or attempting to transfer obscene matter” to minors.
Emily Drabinski is the president of the American Library Association. She said in an interview with Aspen Public Radio that this kind of language is demoralizing for library professionals, and misses the point of what libraries are doing for children.
“99% of public libraries offer summer reading programs for children,” she said. “So if you want your children to read during the summer and to have access to all kinds of reading materials of interest, if you care about early childhood literacy, then your library is the place that's making that possible.”
Here in rural Garfield County, Red Millberry is one of the people creating programming for kids. They’re the youth services coordinator at the Glenwood Springs branch, and run the SPARK program.
“Librarians are set up in such a unique way because we have the ability to design our lessons and what we want to provide to the community based on the community's needs,” they said, in between assisting kids with assembling stuffed dinos.
And to address those many needs, the Garfield County Public Library District offers help applying for jobs, free health screenings through community partners, and conversation groups for people to practice both their English and Spanish.
Drabinski said Garfield County is among many rural library districts that fill in the gaps, providing things like broadband internet and even access to clean drinking water in some areas.
“Libraries are meeting food insecurity needs. 30% of public libraries offer some kind of partnership that provides food aid to people in their communities,” she said. “So you've got big projects like that. And then I saw a small project in Ames, Iowa, where the library had a tray of reading glasses that you could borrow if you forgot yours at home.”
It’s this kind of critical work that keeps library staff fighting for their communities.
Millberry says bitter objections to some books and programming is something they’re learning to deal with, and they know it won’t be going away any time soon. But they believe in the work they’re doing.
“Your wealth means nothing here,” they said. “We provide services to all. And I think that's the best thing about libraries is it's the great equalizer. Everybody has the same footing here.”
And Millberry loves being someone that all families, including folks Graham and Ashley Aguirre, can rely on to have fun and learn in a safe space.
As Graham figured out how he wanted to piece his T-rex together, he loops some of his thread over his head.
“Are you trying to be a part of the dinosaur?” Millberry asks.
“He is one with the dino,” Ashley replies. “He was a T-Rex in another life.”
“That’s what we like to hear!” Millberry exclaims. “He’s sewing himself into the dinosaur.” Graham laughs.
The SPARK program takes place on Wednesdays at the Glenwood Springs and Carbondale branches, on Mondays in Parachute, and on Fridays in New Castle and Rifle.
