Size matters, when it comes to your library

Creed Kidd
Red Feather Lakes Community Library

Size matters. We were recently reminded of this in discussion with other Larimer County public libraries regarding occasional meetings to discuss issues of mutual interest. In many ways we don’t have a lot in common with the big boys – that’s not a negative – and sometimes our fleeter stature allows us to meet local interests and needs in direct, responsive ways.

Certainly, one size does not fit all.  Wellington, Fort Collins, Loveland, Estes Park, Berthoud and your local downtown personalized Red Feather Library serve very different individualized populations in Larimer County, serve them well and in varying fashions in sometimes widely differing ways. Different strokes for different folk in different communities. Super sized in Loveland or Fort Collins may otherwise find you here at your local downtown Red Feather Library – just off unpaved, two-block Main Street – in much different local proportion.

Size matters, and sometimes less is more. Here at your local downtown Red Feather Library you’ll be greeted and assisted by anyone available – ranging from our great community of library volunteers through our mostly part-time staff.  Have a library problem? We’ll fix it and fix it in ways that are guaranteed to be comfortable for you as well as for the Library.

Being a thrifty size, your downtown local Red Feather Library could put you in contact with anyone associated with the library, ranging from the help at the circulation desk through solving that problem mentioned just above. During the transition from the past director to myself – a several months process – the library board of trustees, seven volunteers in their own right — served in the unusual stopgap role of managing and working the circulation desk, ordering books, shelving books, and for a time janitorial.

Being the small economy size here at your local downtown Red Feather Library we’re adept at passing the buck – or, as the case may be – passing the book. Meaning, of course, that if someone you’re directly working with can’t answer your question or solve your problem chances are we’re aware of someone who can directly assist. That ranges from access to tow truck assistance through campground assistance and local eateries. We work extensively with the Red Feather Historical Society – another group small, but mighty – in answering local questions.

Then, there are questions of interest or taste-testing.  One library volunteer is an avid reader of C. J. Box, Craig Johnson, Margaret Coel and Tony Hillerman; another can provide advice on where and how to start watching best foreign films – directly available for checkout at the library—while another can get you started in reading accessible verse from the British Romantic period: “start with Keats – the Odes and occasional poems are great, as well as Wordsworth — the Lyrical Ballads – and much of Coleridge.  Due care with Southey, Shelley and Byron. For a modern uptake, try Dylan Thomas.”