Variety of voices needed on library board

Perhaps some local history will inform the East Bonner County Library District Board trustee contest. In 1932, according to an article in the April 29 edition of a local newspaper, the public library asked the “citizens of Sandpoint and vicinity to come to their aid by contributing good books.” The library had been used so much during the previous winter that much of its collection had worn out! To refill the shelves, the board reached out to the community.

Educator and scoutmaster Charles Stidwell (of Farmin-Stidwell fame) facilitated the book drive in which members of the “Boy Scouts, Camp Fire and 4-H clubs” participated. The board, the article adds, stressed that the library was seeking “books of real value, not trash which is considered unworthy of a place on the shelves” of the citizens’ own homes. While “books of all kinds” were wanted, books for children and men were particularly needed. Men, as it turns out, had “been using the library very considerably this winter.”

I offer this historical anecdote not as a nostalgic nod to the “good old days” but in the hope that it will inspire a new approach to the supervision of the library and the development of its collection. In the absence of a consensus on what constitutes “trash,” perhaps the only way to find common ground is by widening the decision-making process to include a variety of voices.

JULIE MONROE

Sandpoint