Brave Little State is Vermont Public’s listener-driven journalism show. In each episode, we answer a question about Vermont that’s been asked — and voted on — by you, our audience. Today, a question from Diane Church of Fairlee:
“How do our public libraries manage to stay alive and vibrant in this age of technology?”
To answer Diane’s question, we spent multiple days at the libraries in Waterbury and Jeffersonville — libraries with different funding models, and vastly different budgets — and got to know the community members and staff who spend time there.
Note: Our show is made for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript. Transcripts are generated using a combination of robots and human transcribers, and they may contain errors.
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Sabine Poux: This is Brave Little State. I’m Sabine Poux.
Andrea Laurion: And I’m Andrea Laurion.
Sabine Poux: Andrea, the last time we had you on here was for our road names episode last summer.
Andrea Laurion: That’s right. I investigated the origin of the name Hateful Hill Road, with former BLS intern Mae Nagusky. It was a good time.
Sabine Poux: Well, it’s so nice to have you back on the mic. You’re usually behind the scenes producing Vermont Edition.
Andrea Laurion: It’s true, yeah. I’m usually the one in the producer booth, you know, making things happen.
Sabine Poux: Well, welcome back to the show, Andrea.
And welcome back to all of you. Brave Little State is Vermont Public’s listener-powered journalism show. In this episode, Andrea and I answer a question from Diane Church, of Fairlee.
Diane Church: And my question is: How do our public libraries manage to stay alive and vibrant in this age of technology?
Andrea Laurion: Diane is on the board of trustees at the public library in Fairlee. Which means she cares about libraries maybe more than your average question-asker.
And she’s amazed by the work that libraries do to cater to all corners of their communities.
Diane Church: How do you keep bringing in younger people, and address all the different needs from children up through, you know, early young adults and then on to our adults? How do you, how do you do that?
Sabine Poux: There are almost 200 libraries in Vermont, ranging from the large Fletcher Free Library in downtown Burlington, to the tiny, bedroom-sized Charles D. Brainerd library in West Danville, which clocks in at just 11-by-17 feet.
Andrea Laurion: They also vary widely in terms of their budgets. Vermont is one of a handful of states that doesn't provide annual aid to public libraries, aside from occasional grants. So, it’s kind of every library for itself.
Sabine Poux: And there are two main ways that typically goes for public libraries. Some get the vast majority of their funding from local taxpayers. Those are called municipal libraries, and they’re essentially their own town departments.
Andrea Laurion: The second kind of public library is an incorporated library. These libraries get a bit of their funding from their towns, and the rest from fundraising.
That often means funding is more irregular. And, according to a recent report prepared for the legislature, librarians describe quote “gross inequities” in library services statewide.
Sabine Poux: By the way, there are also school and academic libraries. Including one that had a controversial response to Diane’s question, about adapting to changing technology. Last year, Vermont State University proposed moving to a mostly digital library system to cut costs. That plan received a lot of pushback, and was later reversed.
Andrea Laurion: For this episode, to answer Diane’s question, we each spent time at a different public library.
And we had a pretty great time.
(Montage):
Andrea Laurion: Yay!
Aurora River: Ahh! Yes, you made it!
Adeline Lavallee: It’s probably going to end in disaster, but—
Jean Jenkauskas: Books, books, books, books.
Hazel Deane: And sometimes we play board games.
Robin Weigand: Almost everyone in here is my friend.
Sabine Poux: Brave Little State is a proud member of the NPR Network. Welcome.
Waterbury Public Library
Sabine Poux: Washington County, in Central Vermont, is home to one of the most well-funded libraries in the state: the Waterbury Public Library. It’s a municipal library — remember, that means it gets nearly all of its funding from the town of Waterbury. And while a lot of Vermont’s libraries are old and desperately in need of repairs, that’s not the case here. The library’s housed in a beautiful, two-story building that’s just a few years old.
When I visit in January, my time is divided into two very separate periods: The time before the kids arrive, and the time after.
The “before” time is quiet. A by-the-book library. Two people work at desks. A volunteer puts books back on the shelves.
That’s until 3 p.m., when the first school busload of kids arrives.
(Inaudible chatter)
Sabine Poux: They just finished the school day. The school bus has a stop right in front of the library — or, really, the library complex. It’s a big, modern building attached to the town offices and set right off the roundabout in town.
And immediately, these kids have a lot of questions for me.
(Montage):
Ooh, are we on the news?
Are you going to take pictures?
Are you a reporter?
I like your earrings. They’re so cool.
What’s this all about?
Sabine Poux: A handful of kids dump their coats on the ground and beeline for the rows of computers on the first floor. Annika Hackett watches over Adeline Lavallee’s shoulder as she clicks through some games online.
Annika Hackett: And then you try to get up to here. That’s an axe.
Adeline Lavallee: Today there’s Cooking Club, from 4 to 5. Never done it before, but apparently, this week it’s literally just putting a bunch of random stuff into a waffle iron.
Sabine Poux: Sounds fun.
Adeline Lavallee: (laughter) It’s probably going to end in disasters, but—
Sabine Poux: Adeline and Annika are in the third and fourth grades. In the winter, this is where they come most days after school.
Sabine Poux: Can you guys show me around the library?
Adeline and Annika: Yeah!
Adeline Lavallee: Umm, towards the back is the picture books, kids section.
Sabine Poux: The kids section is the whole back area of the library, with big windows facing the snowy soccer field and cross-country ski track. They host storytime back here for toddlers and their parents.
Next, the young adult section. This is where Adeline and Annika’s favorite books are: the graphic novels.
Adeline Lavallee: One of the books that I'm reading is “Amal Unbound.” it's a really good book about, uhh — 12-year-old Amal’s dreams of becoming a teacher are crushed in an instant when she talks back to the richest man in town.
Sabine Poux: There’s also a whole floor of the library upstairs, where the adult section is.
Adeline Lavallee: Upstairs is so quiet.
Annika Hackett: Yeah.
Sabine Poux: How quiet?
Adeline Lavallee: Enough that you could hear a mouse walking around.
Sabine Poux: We hop on the elevator to take a peek.
Sabine Poux: Do you guys ever spend time in the adult section?
Annika Hackett: There’s like coloring books there, so yeah.
Adeline Lavallee: Yeah. The chairs up there are pretty cool. And there's actually like a little — it's pretty peaceful up there. There's like a little waterfall out of the wall. Like, super tiny. But it's nice.
Sabine Poux: That’s very peaceful.
Annika Hackett: Yeah.
Adeline Lavallee: Nice view of the soccer fields.
Sabine Poux: You can spy on people who are playing soccer.
Adeline Lavallee: (whispered) Umm, DVDs.
Sabine Poux: It is very quiet up here. There’s someone working at a table near one of the windows.
Annika Hackett: The lights are pretty cool in my opinion.
Sabine Poux: Yeah, those are cool.
Adeline Lavallee: I love the lights.
Will it Waffle?
Sandra Schweikert: OK. This is the inaugural “Will it Waffle?” class at Waterbury Public Library. Thank you for coming. I’m so excited.
Sabine Poux: At 4 p.m., it’s time for cooking club, led by Sandra Schweikert.
Sandra Schweikert: We took a poll. And the winners for our menu for today were pizza and brownies.
Sabine Poux: Yes, they’re making pizza and brownies in waffle irons. Sandra is the youth librarian at Waterbury. Which means she wears many hats — teacher, social worker, babysitter and now, waffle iron chef. She and another volunteer are pressing bread and sauce and chocolate batter into irons as a bunch of kids hungrily stand around.
Kid: Gimme the cheese! Gimme the cheese!
Sandra Schweikert: Butter side down.
Sabine Poux: Sandra thought it would be fun to have a cooking club at the library. But there’s no kitchen in the space. So, the waffle irons are her workaround.
Sandra Schweikert: These are borrowed and, like, some parents donated the waffle irons. … We’ve cobbled together every, like, measuring thing, cutting thing, bowl, (laughter) spatula.
I mean, it's not extravagant.
Sabine Poux: Yeah.
Sandra Schweikert: We’re, we’re pretty resourceful.
Sabine Poux: Resourceful. That’s a word that comes up a lot. That’s because libraries are always thinking of ways to use every penny. Even really well-funded libraries, like this one.
Rachel Muse: We're very lucky, I think, to be, to get the support that we do from the town of Waterbury.
Sabine Poux: This is Rachel Muse, the library’s director.
Rachel Muse: And we're a municipal library, which means that we're a town department. The vast majority of our budget comes from the taxpayers of Waterbury. Huge, huge thanks to the taxpayers for all the sorts of support that they give us.
Sabine Poux: Residents last year agreed to a property tax increase to cover growing staff costs there, bringing the annual budget of the library to almost $560,000. The library has three full-time and four part-time staff, and is open six days a week.
Rachel Muse: So, this building was built in 2016. So we're still pretty new, by Vermont library standards. Very, very new.
_
‘At the library, you just get to pick’
Sabine Poux: The kids who use the library most — they say it’s different from spending time at home or at school.
Annika Hackett: You can do more things, and it’s not like you're getting bossed around.
Sabine Poux: Annika Hackett and Adeline Lavallee — the kids who showed me around earlier.
Annika Hackett: At school. It's like, “OK, so you're gonna do this, and then you're gonna do that.” But at the library, you just get to pick.
Adeline Lavallee: Yeah, like — you get to pick your own books, you get to pick if you want to go on a computer. You have a bit of freedom and your own way of picking what you want to do.
Hazel Deane: Normally, I come once a week on Mondays.
Sabine Poux: Back at cooking club, nine-year-old Hazel Deane is waiting for her pizza waffle to cool.
Hazel Deane: Well, sometimes — I normally go to my friend, and sometimes we play board games, like Battleship and stuff. And sometimes, it's really calm, so it's a good place to work on writing the book we're writing together.
Sabine Poux: The book she’s writing is called “Dragons,” based on a game she and her friends play at recess. It’s a chapter book with some pictures in it. She’s on the second chapter.
And her friend, Lillian, is editing the story. They meet at the library to work on it together.
Sabine Poux: Why did you choose her to be the editor for your book?
Hazel Deane: Because she's the highest speller in our class. And, she writes a lot of books, so she knows, like, if it should have less excitement, or more excitement, or it should have, like, romance or, like, what twists it should have. And she's helped me a lot.
Sabine Poux: It’s not just kids like Hazel, Adeline and Annika who use the library. There’s chair yoga for older residents. Help with taxes and baby storytime.
And for the most part, these are things visitors do together. I’ll admit, that’s something that surprised me. No one at the library was “shushing” each other. It was all very social.
Sandra Schweikert: You see how other people are doing, you see what other people are struggling with. And you say, “Oh, I’m not alone.”
Sabine Poux: Youth librarian Sandra Schweikert, again.
Sandra Schweikert: As we saw in the pandemic, when people maybe had access to online school, but not the community or the social learning together, I think many people really struggled with being isolated and not having access to a social learning environment. And I think that's part of what public libraries do for all walks of life, in this day and age, still. And it’s critical. And it’s not something you can do, or replace with just technology, in many cases.
More from Vermont Public: "The future of Vermont's town libraries in an increasingly digital world"
Sabine Poux: Sandra thinks this is especially important for a demographic that is notoriously missing from many libraries: teenagers.
Sandra Schweikert: I’ve heard over and over a struggle for many libraries is to get teens to come in. And so, we’re very lucky on that level.
Sabine Poux: Yeah.
Sandra Schweikert: Like, they like being here.
Sabine Poux: The evening I visit, there’s a group of teenagers hanging out in the conference room.
Sandra Schweikert: Hi.
Hunter Barone: Hello.
Sandra Schweikert: How are you guys? What’s going on?
Hunter Barone: Do you have hot glue, and cardboard cutters?
Art club
Sabine Poux: This group has been meeting at the library every month for two years, for “Queer Reads,” a book club for LGBTQ+ kids. Or, as 14-year-old Michelle Shenk calls it:
Michelle Shenk: Technically it’s Queer Reads.
Sabine Poux: You call it gay book club?
Michelle Shenk: Everybody calls it gay book club.
Sabine Poux: The book club was the invention of the previous youth librarian, who noticed there were a lot of teenagers coming in and asking for books with queer characters. At the peak, there were about a dozen kids in the club. Each month, they read a book and talk about whether there was good representation or not.
Michelle Shenk: For the most part we are usually in relative agreement. I will say, a lot of times we get very, very heated discussions about which characters are good or not.
Sabine Poux: Eventually, Queer Reads spawned other clubs — like art club.
Michelle Shenk: We converted it into gay book club, the sequel.
Sabine Poux: When I come into the multipurpose room for art club, Michelle’s quietly playing an unplugged electric bass. Two other teenagers with brightly dyed hair are cutting up a bunch of cardboard for a project.
Fourteen-year-old Robin Weigand is cropping a pink Gorillaz t-shirt and clicking around on a laptop.
Robin Weigand: Almost everyone in here is my friend. And we just get along easily, and it’s fun, and we eat food and we talk about our experiences, and we don’t judge, and we don’t really share them with other people outside of the space.
Sabine Poux: They seem like conversations they could be having anywhere. So, why here?
Michelle Shenk: Well, my school bus, actually, the one I usually ride, just dumps, like, a ton of people off here every day. And it’s really easy to just go here and have the resources of the library, and not be bothered by small siblings and whatnot. I mean, kind of, we can be as relatively loud and outspoken about whatever we want to be.
This room, it like — it has become sort of a, sort of a brain response, where it’s like, “OK, I’m in this room, we’re good. Stress is let go of.” It’s just kind of like, sort of a happy place. And we have decorated it with our us-ness throughout the years.
Varnum Memorial Library
Sabine Poux: In the first part of the episode, we visited the library in Waterbury: a well-funded municipal library with rich programming for kids and young adults.
Now, we head to Lamoille County to visit an incorporated library — meaning it’s governed by a board of directors, and supported more through fundraising than through town or city dollars.
My colleague Andrea Laurion takes it from here.
Andrea Laurion: About 37 miles north of Waterbury sits the Varnum Memorial Library, in Jeffersonville. It’s a cute but modest two-room building right on Main Street, painted white with yellow trim.
When I visit in January, it’s a typical, dreary day outside. But inside?
Aurora River: Good morning.
Andrea Laurion: Good morning.
Aurora River: How are you?
Andrea Laurion: Good, how are you? Hello, yes I’m Andrea.
Aurora River: Ahh! Yes, you made it!
Andrea Laurion: It's warm. And cheerful. And welcoming.
Andrea Laurion: Are you Aurora?
Aurora River: I am.
Andrea Laurion: Aurora, so good to meet you.
Aurora River: I’m so pleased to meet you! Thank you so much.
Andrea Laurion: I’m so excited to be here, this is so cute.
Andrea Laurion: From the moment I walk in, I’m enveloped by Aurora River, director of the Varnum Library. She has long, red hair, and a bright smile. Calm music plays on speakers overhead as Aurora shows me around the two rooms that make up the space.
The first is the original library.
Aurora River: But you can see we have a beautiful fireplace.
Andrea Laurion: Yeah.
Aurora River: That adds some lovely ambiance. That's actually one of our next big tasks is we've got to shore up the chimney because it's currently leaking.
Andrea Laurion: Ooh.
Andrea Laurion: She also points out a few computers, workstations — everything is carefully organized around this one room.
Aurora River: We try and, and just be creative and fluid in how we rearrange as what the space is needing to be used for. So, a lot of times, tables will be pushed apart, will be put together. We have plastic tables that we’re able to erect in the other side of the room, other side of the building, so that we can use that space as well.
Andrea Laurion: Above the fireplace, the one with the leaking chimney, are the words, “Why we heart our library.” All along the wall are colorful hearts that read, “Great people!!,” and “Fabulous programs.”
I approach one patron as she secures her heart to the wall.
Jean Jenkauskas: Um, I’m Jean Jenkauskas and I’m from three doors down from this door, in Jeffersonville.
A couple of days ago, they asked if I had anything to share about what I like about our little local library. And, umm, I wanted to think about it a little bit and — didn't take much though — and I put down two things: books, books, books, books (laughter). And the staff.
Andrea Laurion: Yeah?
Jean Jenkauskas: Yeah. Our local library has always, always meant a lot to me. It's had its ups and downs, will probably continue to do so. But it’s just (pounds chest) is and always will be an institution close to my heart.
_
A community space
Andrea Laurion: Back in the ’80s, a big fundraising effort led to an expansion in the form of the library’s second room.
Andrea Laurion: Yeah, let’s move into here.
Aurora River: Mmhm.
Aurora River: So you can see, this is a little more modern. We have matching bookshelves, that line the walls.
Andrea Laurion: Colorful paintings hang on one side of the new space. On the other, there’s a giant paper tree with cut-out apples, acorns and outlines of childrens’ hands to symbolize leaves.
Aurora River: When you walk into this room, you are kind of just overwhelmed with color, and with art and creativity. And that's kind of our intention, because this is more of our community space, that, that younger people use.
Andrea Laurion: I was going to say — we have the children’s books right here in front of us that add to that color, too.
Aurora River: Again, as it's just one room, we try and make noticeable divisions, so that our young adults have a dedicated space in that corner.
Andrea Laurion: Aurora says, she’s still trying to figure out how to get more teens into the library. One Saturday a month, the library holds a Teens Teaching Technology program, where high schoolers help older patrons with their devices. The group met just before I arrived.
Aurora River: That was, that was nice to have that energy in here this morning.
Andrea Laurion: The Varnum also holds Teen Advisory Board meetings. It’s an opportunity for local teenagers to guide programming and have a dedicated time and space to hang out. Aurora lays out cold cuts, cheese slices and veggies, but she’s otherwise hands off.
When I stop by, there are just two teenagers in attendance. There ends up being plenty of extra lunch materials for the mothers and toddlers playing nearby.
Andrea Laurion: Aurora continues showing me around the library, and opens a door to reveal a closet-sized space known as the Vermont Room. It’s currently crammed full of local odds and ends, but Aurora thinks it would better serve the community as a quiet work space for students to do their homework.
Aurora River: Hopefully, at some point, we'll be in a place where people can do some type of study or research, and have a little bit of privacy, a little bit more quiet, because we do lack that here.
Andrea Laurion: With a budget that changes year to year, Aurora says it’s hard to dedicate funds to these sorts of improvements — especially when the Varnum has such a key role to play in addressing day-to-day needs.
Andrea Laurion: Oh, wow, wait, what’s — oh, what’s this? This—
Andrea Laurion: It’s around this point of the tour that I can’t help but notice this stuffed animal, an orangutan. It’s sitting on a shelf with a knitted hat on its head and surrounded by knitting books. On the wall, there’s a sign: “Mr. Orangutan is willing to share his winter hats with anyone in need.”
Aurora River: So this is one of our beloved mascots of the library, Mr. Orangutan. Most children call him monkey, but he is an orangutan. And one of our patrons intentionally crochets and knits hats, year round, and then they donate these hats to us. So these hats go out the door like you wouldn't believe. We just, we have people in the community who have a need, and they take the hats.
Andrea Laurion: The Varnum helps address other community needs as well. Like reliable internet.
Frank Davis: My name is Frank Davis. I'm a grumpy old curmudgeon who lives in the woods. So, if I didn't come here, I probably wouldn't get any socialization at all.
Andrea Laurion: Do you live locally, Frank?
Frank Davis: I live in Underhill. I do not have internet access at home, so I come here for internet.
Andrea Laurion: That's—
Aurora River: At least once a day.
Frank Davis: Yeah, (laughter) at least once a day. It's sort of become vital, these days.
Andrea Laurion: Local families also need reliable internet, especially if children are learning from home.
Ioanna Mina: So, my kids are homeschooled, we’re homeschoolers, and so we spend a lot of time in the library, everything from getting information to connecting with other people.
Andrea Laurion: This is Ioanna Mina, and she’s here with her two kids, ages 10 and 12.
Gabrielle Girroir: I’m Gabrielle Girroir.
Miriam Girroir: I’m Miriam Girroir.
Andrea Laurion: What do you like about the library?
Miriam Girroir: Well, honestly, there is a lot of books and, as a homeschooler, I go through books, like, really easily. The library, when it’s really close, that always really, really helps.
Andrea Laurion: What books do you like?
Gabrielle Girroir: I've been liking poetry. I just kind of wanted to read more of that. I mean, right now I'm reading classical poetry. So I thought, if I read more, I can make more. So.
‘All people need those points of connection’
Andrea Laurion: I return to the Varnum the following afternoon. There’s been some intense wind and rain overnight, and power outages. Aurora says it’s shaping up to be a busy day.
Aurora River: We had people coming in to charge their devices, to check their email. We had a couple of people that just wanted to come in and sit in heat and with lights on.
Andrea Laurion: Increasingly, Aurora sees this as the role of libraries. Not so much a place for cutting-edge digital resources and technology; Moreso, it’s about serving as a haven for locals to come and have their needs met, whatever they may be.
Aurora River: We have Narcan, we have harm-reduction supplies, we have feminine hygiene supplies. We keep snacks here. We have coffee, hot tea and hot chocolate for anyone and everyone that wants it. And I think that that's kind of indicative of what libraries are now, right? It's not just about academics and diversions. It's about points of connection. And all people need those points of connection.
I have people that come in that sit, that are in crisis — physically, mentally, emotionally — and they just sit here and they need the space. Even if we don't talk, they just need a space to be and to know that they are welcomed here and they belong here. And that, that is my experience working in libraries. Trying to meet the needs of the community, with the resources that we have — always knowing that there's more we could do.
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Credits
This episode was reported by Sabine Poux and Andrea Laurion, and it was produced by Burgess Brown. Editing and additional production from Josh Crane. Angela Evancie is our Executive Producer. Theme music is by Ty Gibbons; other music by Blue Dot Sessions.
Special thanks to Sophie Stephens, Catherine Delneo, Oceana Wilson, DeAnna Romstad, Max Maylin, Carol Plante, Sarah Lloyd and Paul Dunn.
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Brave Little State is a production of Vermont Public and a proud member of the NPR Network.
