It’s Not Just About the Books
My name is Jocelyn Durrance. I was a librarian for 30 years. I joined the Garfield County Public Library Board in March 2020. Things were good. Board meetings ran smoothly.
Library board trustees included an attorney, a single Latina mom with high school aged children, a 30-year retired librarian and a Parachute resident with years of board experience who knew the county history. Things were good until they weren’t. It all happened so suddenly. There was trouble in paradise.
In August of 2022, a gentleman made a public comment at the library board meeting. He stated that there was a book on display at a 6-year-old’s eye level and that the book was pornographic with illustrations you would not want a 6-year-old to see. He asked, “Why would a library do such a thing?” The fact is that the library staff did not place the book in that location where a 6-year-old could see it — someone else did.
As time went on, the same gentleman attended every board meeting. His contingency grew in numbers. In the end, there were, and continue to be, approximately seven hardcore supporters who are sympathetic to this gentleman’s issues. They began to attend library board meetings. At each meeting, they continued to make public comments. The topics of the comments began to vary and broaden. They included the following:
Librarians are groomers and pedophiles
The American Library Association (known as the ALA) is a Marxist organization and the library should cancel its membership to ALA
The executive director makes too much money
The library executive director should be fired
The library board president should be in prison
The library should be defunded
There were, at the same meetings, many supporters, far outnumbering the complainants, who made public comments praising the Garfield County Public Library District (GCPLD). I genuinely thank them.
As all of this was happening, the Garfield Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) passed a resolution stating that they would take over the process of appointing trustees to the library board. This meant that the BOCC would, from that point on, announce upcoming library board vacancies, create the interview questions, interview all applicants and make the final selection and appointment of the new trustee. One member of the library board was invited to create an interview question, participate in the interview process and make a recommendation to the BOCC, but the library trustee had no vote.
Vacancies began to open. Adding insult to injury, as trustees came up for reappointment, they were asked to re-apply for the position, and were ultimately not reappointed. The BOCC was on its way to stacking the library board. The BOCC took up the cause of followers of right-wing agendas. The BOCC’s goal became: one, to remove the library board president and two, to fire the executive director.
Jamie LaRue, GCPLD’s executive director, is a nationally renowned hero of public libraries who has 20 years of experience as the library director of Douglas County Libraries and is known as an impeccable leader. LaRue ran the Office of Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association.
Let’s look at some 2024 data:
Programs for children 1-5 numbered 768 onsite with 15,916 attendees
1,788 children, 350 teens and 898 adults signed up for summer reading programs
376,720 physical items circulated
137,725 electronic items circulated
2,316 people registered for meeting rooms
9,772 people booked study rooms
There were 196 internet connected computers for public use
And let’s look at some awards received by the Garfield County Libraries:
The Colorado Association of Libraries’ (CAL) Library Partnership of the year award won by Gabe Cohen and Amy Tonozzi for the Rifle Branch Library & Discovery Café
CAL Outstanding Trustee of the Year Award won by Garfield County Library Board President Adrian Rippy-Sheehy
CAL Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award for Spanish Services
The Glenwood Springs Post Independent Locals’ Choice award for Top Librarian this year went to LaRue, with New Castle Branch librarian Ana Gaytan as a finalist
The district was also a finalist for Best Customer Service (non-restaurant)
Protect Our GarCo Libraries (POGL) would love your help. We ask that you visit the POGL website at www.protectgarcolibraries.org and add your name to our contact list. Sign the petition on the website calling on the Library Board of Trustees and the BOCC to protect and preserve the nonpartisan values of our public library and ensure that everyone has access to a range of materials that meet the wide variety of interests and needs of Garfield County residents. Attend library board meetings and make a public comment. Attend BOCC meetings and make a public comment. Email the county commissioners.
In conclusion, Garfield County has six libraries from Carbondale to Parachute that provide services at a level equal to a city library district. As a rural library district, Garfield County libraries are the envy of many. So please, believe me when I say that libraries in Garfield County are not broken. What is there to fix?