Library forges connections, launches dreams

SANDPOINT — Connections.

At the heart of it, libraries are about connections: books, movies, information, and, increasingly, people.

And those connections have the potential to transform lives and communities.

And, in fact, they already are.

Michele Buck said she had a tough time in high school after her grandmother died. She was working, trying to juggle the demands of school, family and work. After school, she stayed at the fast food restaurant where she was working for several years before recently going to work at a local grocery store.

Buck has always been interested in computers, loved technology, and was fascinated by how they worked. She remembers getting an old computer from a family friend with limited memory and no games. She began exploring what the computer could do, pulling up the command prompt to see what the various commands would do.

"It was really cool, just how everything worked," she said. "It always fascinated me."

She dreamed of a career in technology but put it aside after failing the A+ certification test while a student in Alex Gray's class at Sandpoint High School. Buck focused on her job at a local fast-food restaurant.

But she couldn't put that dream aside completely.

While she had recently completed an internship with the Idaho State Police, she realized that it wasn't the right fit. And while she enjoyed her job at the grocery store, she wanted a career — something with a long-term future.

"I got to thinking, if I didn't want to do that, then what did I want to do?" Buck said. "I was thinking back to before when things crumbled and I really enjoyed his class … I'll see if I can salvage it; see if Mr. Gray has any pointers for me."

So, she sent the email and waited, nervous if her former teacher would remember her or whether he would be willing, or able, to help.

Gray did, indeed, remember his former student.

After getting the email, the Sandpoint High School teacher knew he had to help his former student. After thinking about it, he reached out to the East Bonner County Library, telling Brendan Mooney about Buck, saying she needed a mentor.

The library's IT manager was all in. 

Buck wasn't sure what to expect when she stopped by the library. A previous internship at the library hadn't led anywhere, and she couldn't shake the feeling that she had blown her chance when she failed Gray's class.

"It was kind of funny because at first I thought I was just coming in to talk to them and to see if he had any info for me," she said. "Or maybe just a good way he could point me (to go), and then, all of the sudden, it was a volunteer interview, and I'm like, 'Wait. What?'"

Mooney has a different take. He remembers a bright, inquisitive individual who has a passion for technology. He could, he said, see a spark in her and knew that she was perfect for the "community pipeline" that he and Bobby wanted to create at the library.

"She walks in, and I'm like, excellent blank slate," the library IT director said. "She had good guidance from before … and here's someone who is, some might think, in a dead-end job and is trying to improve themselves."

Buck told him that she'd failed.

Mooney responded that he didn't care.

She had the right attitude; she was humble, and she was willing to work. She wanted to change her life but didn't know how. Mooney told her about the program that he and Bobby were creating, telling her it could change what libraries could be and how they could help their communities.

Did she want to be a part of it?

Libraries have the ability to connect people with resources, Mooney and Bobby, the library's STEM coordinator, said. Job training and networking are growing components of what's possible by utilizing a library's resources. That means, the pair said, that libraries can play a crucial role in facilitating personal growth, job training, and community empowerment.

That's when Mooney and Bobby started matching the library's programs, such as its Lifelong Learning Center, its access to one of the fastest internet services in the state, and its connections in the community, where it could match those who wanted to learn a skill with someone who could teach it.

"So we created this whole idea that the library is a central nucleus for people to come and learn, for business owners or managers to come and find out, for people to go and learn, for people to meet other people that have ways (for) career training," Mooney said.

The library also serves as a hub for connections between those looking for work and employers seeking employees, from those looking to gain new skills to those wanting to learn them.

"There are people who come from a very blue-collar or agrarian background, and their family realizes that to get that breakthrough, they either need a miracle or they need the opportunity to be able to succeed," Mooney said.

Mooney and Bobby took their idea of creating that hub and worked to create a "job pathway." While the library isn't going to get people jobs, what it can do, the pair said, is give people the chance to succeed, which is what happened in Buck's case.

After connecting with Mooney, Buck began visiting the library three to four times a week, staying for hours at a time, taking part in online training, doing tasks assigned by the IT director, and seeing what made the computers tick.

"I would tell her, 'Here's a computer; have fun' ... go learn," Mooney said. "Or, 'Hey, come try and fix this with me. If you break it, just let me know what you did so I can maybe figure out what you did.'"

While the library isn't an education facility, the pair said the library can connect the many varied people who come to the library. It can tap into a wide and diverse range of resources.

"We had been approaching it as in a 'Field of Dreams' — if you build it, they will come," Bobby said. "Yeah, that's not true. So we need business owners and managers to say, 'Hey, this would help us with our business, and we'll  be your champions after that.'"

By coincidence, it wasn't long after this realization, as the pair were working to address how to add in that component, that Damaso Mangabat walked into the Sandpoint Library. The manager of the new T-Mobile store in Ponderay had come into the library as a way to build relationships and explore volunteer opportunities. 

He wanted to get involved and was talking to Mooney about setting up technology workshops and other things the mobile phone store could be a part of when the library IT director told him about Buck. 

"(Mooney) went over all sorts of things; I was not expecting that a library could be … this is going to be a great community hub," Mangabat said. "(EBCL is) trying to build the library as the place where everybody comes."

As he talked to the pair, Mangabat said he could see their vision of how the library can serve as a connection hub — helping both residents and businesses.

"Everything that the library has to offer as far as the meeting rooms, the programs that are going for being able to develop people that already have jobs or people that are looking to go into something else," he said. "That's something for sure businesses want to have if they're looking for people or if they want their people to have more talent. Having things like that in the community is an awesome, awesome resource."

After an interview that went well, Mangabat told Buck she was hired as a full-time sales representative — a position that came with benefits, help with education and the chance to expand her career in any direction she wants at the telecommunications company.

Gray said he's proud of Buck, who recently passed the first of the two tests needed to gain A+ certification.

"I couldn't have been more proud when I got the email … saying she'd got the job," Gray said. "I was just super proud that she stuck with it, knowing how hard it is to, especially where you are working and making money, to diversify your thoughts … to have the grit and the stamina to follow through (to try for something new)."

Buck said she is excited for the future and recently spoke to the EBCLD board to tell them about how the program has transformed her life. 

Her parents always told her she could do anything she wanted and instilled in her a strong work ethic. She is grateful for instilling in her a strong foundation and standing behind her, as she worked to transform her life back to her original vision.

Their support — and being part of the library's "pipeline" — means the future is whatever she wants to make it.

"It means that I'm free, free to do whatever I want. I don't have to be chained down to what I've always known," she said. "My limitations are only what I put on myself."

    Michelle Buck looks over an A+ computer certification video at the East Bonner County Library District's exploration lab. Buck used the lab to study for the computer certification — and to launch her career in technology.
  

    Michelle Buck examines a computer in the East Bonner County Library's exploration lab at the Sandpoint branch.