Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.
To a nine-year-old, a library card may as well have been a passport to the world.
My first card, issued at the Clark County Library, effectively changed the course of my childhood. My summers, like those contained in book volumes, were filled with adventure. I turned the pages on my adolescence at my neighborhood libraries, exploring new authors, acquiring new knowledge and delving into an infinite well of ideas.
Little of that would’ve been possible without the incredible 1990s expansion that saw the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District open eight new branches in quick succession to meet the Valley’s population boom. In author Jewel Guy’s 1991 paper, A History of the Clark County Library District: Its Founding and Growth in Southern Nevada, she recounts an open letter former chairman Clark Daniel “Danny” Lee shared with the district’s board:
“The future is remarkably clear … The growth rate of our sun-belt community indicates that the population will be over one million by the year 2000 … We also know where the growth in our Valley is going to take place and we plan to be there with library buildings, books and staff.”
That commitment still rings true. As an adult, I’ve come to realize that I grew up with the Library District. And for the past 60 years, it has strived to grow with us.
Aubrey Jacobs, a youth services assistant, irons a Perler beads design during a Teen Maker Fair at the Centennial Hills Library.
“We’ve been recognized as the American Library Association’s Library of the Future three years in a row,” says Kelvin Watson, executive director of the Library District. “We’re actually a pretty young library as compared to the New York Cities, the Philadelphias, the LAs ... and we’re now considered, if not the leader, definitely one of the leaders when it comes to libraries, library services and what we’re doing.”
Since its founding in 1965, the Library District has made ambitious leaps to become the cultural institution it is today. From creating book vending machines to reach children in hospitals, to bringing digital library resources to RTC bus riders, to offering free Wi-Fi hotspots, the Library District has met the community where it’s at, across 25 different neighborhood branches. In spite of smartphones putting the whole of the internet in our very pockets, our libraries continue to be relevant.
The Library District’s robust programming runs the gamut from cocktail book clubs for adults to art receptions and Folklórico dance performances. Watson says by also leveraging partnerships with Hope for Prisoners and Workforce Connections, the district has become a crucial “community connector” for the educational pipeline. It’s also doubling down on the future of our youth.
“What we’ve been able to do is we’ve added more teen spaces in our libraries. In the new West Las Vegas Library that we’re building, we’re going to have a tween space. We’re really focused on not just bringing the youth in, but having them want to be engaged in the library, the reading, the STEM programming, the robotics, and of course, the gaming,” he says. “We want to show them that it’s not just a library. When I was a kid, I could imagine that I wanted to be whatever I wanted to be, and it was because of the library that I was able to kind of springboard from that.”
These days, kids can learn how to DJ at the library. They can record their own podcasts, experiment at maker fairs and print 3D objects to their heart’s content.
“These kids can come in and they can get pretty much everything they need from us, and it’s just a safe place,” says Shana Harrington, youth services manager. “My friends call it ‘#Caring Adult’. We are that one caring adult that maybe they don’t have in their life. We’re not a teacher. We’re not somebody who’s going to discipline. We’re that person that they can really lean on.”
East Las Vegas Library
The Library District has worked to provide that support even when faced with disaster. When COVID struck and libraries were forced to shut down, the Library District faced a major hurdle in recapturing its audience.
“We were rendered kind of helpless,” Watson says. “We weren’t providing in-building services. So I came at a time when we were reimagining what libraries could do and what we would be able to do.”
Later in the pandemic, libraries offered curbside pickups and provided 24-hour website access for library cardholders to borrow and stream films, books and music from home.
By applying much of what he learned in his previous role as director of the Broward County Libraries Division in Florida, Watson helped usher the Library District into a technological resurgence.Today, the Library District has surpassed its pre-pandemic visitor levels.
Watson is looking forward to what the future holds. That upcoming West Las Vegas Library is currently under construction in the Historic Westside on Martin Luther King Boulevard and “it’s already changed the landscape of the community,” he says. At a little over 40,000 square feet, the new library will replace the existing branch at West Lake Mead Boulevard, doubling in size to serve the growing community with more heritage celebrations, learning programs, live performances and more.
The challenges continue. Under the threat of cuts by the current federal administration, Watson admits that funding for various programs, such as the book vending machine at Sunrise Children’s Hospital, could be at risk. Funding for rural libraries in Washoe County and Nye County could also be endangered. For the sake of these branches and programs, it’s important to stay the course and not get distracted.
“The aspirations are to continue to evolve,” he says. “I want us to focus on the community, continue to focus on the work, and continue to strive to be the best.”
