Beyond Books: Creating and Nourishing Community A Vision for the John Trigg Ester Library by Deirdre Helfferich, board president 2009-2011 From its very humble beginnings in spring of 1999, the John Trigg Ester Library has developed into a community institution and leader. Throughout the twelve years of the library’s existence, certain core values of the Ester area have been reflected in how it has served its membership: a can-do, waste-not, want-not attitude; volunteerism; community spirit and pride; responsiveness to local needs; a propensity to innovation; appreciation of creativity and artistic endeavor; a spirit of sharing and fun; tolerance or acceptance of a wide variety of viewpoints and lifestyles; do-it-yourself independence; a cooperative mindset; and a certain wry sense of humor. I believe that the Ester library will continue to uphold these values and others held dear locally, serving the residents of the Ester area and strengthening Ester’s sense of community. It can do this not only in the way that all libraries can (providing a broad selection of library materials and services), but by creating programs that reach out to residents who don’t have that sense of being part of the Ester community, through a wide variety of focused field of interest programs, welcoming and fun community events, and perhaps some day even branch or sister libraries in various area neighborhoods. In the two years since it has incorporated, the JTEL has undergone an explosion of growth and development, creating goals, policies, and plans for its future; establishing a lecture series; and working toward the funding, design, and construction of a new, dedicated library building. However, in part because of the limits imposed by its size and current lodgings, the JTEL has so far been able to serve only a very few people, even within the village of Ester. This will change dramatically when the new building is finished. The new library is an outlier of sustainable design, and will reach far beyond what most green buildings in the United States manage to achieve, by virtue of its far north location and its extraordinarily strong focus on renewable energy and resource conservation. It has already had a profound effect on the thinking of architects at one of the largest design firms in the state, USKH, and influenced how buildings across Alaska are being designed—even before a single shovelful of earth has been removed from the building site. Our design process has midwifed a collaboration between the Alaska Energy & Housing Program of the Cooperative Extension Service, the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, USKH, and Passiv Haus builder Thorsten Chlupp. The library has attracted the attention of the UAF Interior-Aleutians campus Construction Trades and Technology Program, and its construction will be a means of providing practical experience for student carpenters, who can then draw on the skills they gain with the JTEL and go on to build other sustainable structures across the state. The building itself when complete will become a bellweather in Alaska, a turning point at which institutions in this state begin to take (literally) concrete steps toward long-term and oil-free thinking for the economic self-suffiency and health of their communities. It will serve as an example of what can be accomplished, and be an inspirational teaching tool in its own right. The JTEL is part of a broader sustainability movement in Alaska, and of a worldwide Green Library Movement. This is important not only to our building construction, but of the direction in which the library can take the community of Ester. It is the practicality and economy of the building design that are among its most striking aspects. A building’s cost is overwhelmingly in upkeep and operation throughout its lifespan. For every year our library building stands, it will save money. The Green Library Movement is about more than the physical structure of libraries, however; it is expressed also in their day-to-day operations and even the programs that libraries offer: natural daylighting, use of nontoxic cleaners, recycling, sales items made with environmentally friendly and local materials, programs and services that improve community resilience (on-site community gardens, seed or tool lending, for example) or that provide topical education on sustainable or environmentally friendly practices. While “environmental sustainability” is not a specific goal* of the JTEL, these kinds of programs and practices have already been proposed by many community members as things that the JTEL should do—because they are practical, interesting, and contribute to our village’s self-reliance and self-determination. The Ester library, in the best tradition of truly great small-town libraries, can serve as the community’s front porch. I imagine the Ester library to be small throughout its institutional life, never becoming large and centralized the way most libraries and library systems have over the last decades in the United States. I see instead a form of decentralized, small-library outreach, inspiring the creation of many small libraries throughout the Ester area and the west end of town, offering an alternative model for creating neighborhood libraries in nearby communities such as Fox, Two Rivers, or Goldstream. The JTEL is off to a roaring start: we are building a small but solid and trend-setting institution. We have been immensely fortunate to have many capable, energetic, and creative volunteers who have stuck with us through what is likely the most difficult period of our history. Getting a major capital project done, creating our organizational structure, and establishing major programs and partnerships are not simple or easy matters, and doing them all at the same time is an incredible amount of work—yet we are doing them all and doing them well. People around us are impressed, and taking notice. What we do now will bear fruit for the life of the library and for the entire community of Ester. We, and the village, have a right to be proud of what we are becoming. October 11, 2011 *Many libraries offer missions, vision statements, mandates, core values, principles, and goals. Below are a few worthy of note (particularly the Red Deer Public Library): California State University Library, Los Angeles: www.calstatela.edu/library/mission.htm Daniel Boone Regional Library: www.dbrl.org/about/vision-mission-values-goals Monroe County Public Library: www.monroe.lib.in.us/general_info/mission_statement.html Red Deer Public Library: www.rdpl.org/vision University of Chicago Library: www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/about/mvv.html | |||
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