WITH PAT HODAPP
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SFR: A lot of people go to bookstores instead of libraries to read these days. What are you doing to get them back into the library?
PH:
What's so great about the planning of the new southside library is that there is a coffee shop. You can go in and check your books out and stay right there and read. Lots of libraries have coffee shops now, and librarians, at first, were so worried about what if people spill coffee on the books? It's not like people go home and put on white gloves. They get their coffee and their book. My favorite day off is to make my cup of tea, get my comforter, sit where I can see the outside world and read a book that probably came from the library.
When do you expect to open the southside branch?
In the next month we should have 'substantial completion'-that means we can actually be in the building without hard hats. It should be done enough that we can start moving furniture and setting up the library. We'll also have to check for things that have to be fixed, carpet and little things like that. So we don't have an exact date yet, but we're getting close.
What do you do as the director of libraries?
I meet with people from the city, have helped with the planning on the new branch. I've done a lot with the Books and Babies program, which gets new parents back into the library and involved with reading to their children. I ran a marketing firm for years, and it's a lot of that kind of work. Reaching out to the community.
How did you decide to become a librarian?
I actually decided in the second grade. I said I wanted to be a librarian and an artist. I do some art, so I always say that I became a librarian, but I've always been an artist.
Is there any fear that the Internet is causing people to read less?
We actually find that the Internet is driving people into the library, because as much as there is online, not everything is full text. Plus it's just not the same to sit on your porch with a cup of coffee and a laptop. Someone said that, 'Until you can take your laptop into the bath and not worry, you're going to have a book there.'
Where do the books at the book sales come from?
Those are totally donated. Our librarians review all donations for condition, timeliness and whether we have a need for them. If it's something we can use, it goes right into the collection. Right now people are so aware of the southside branch that they're bringing in thousands of books. Santa Fe is different from so many other communities in that many of the donations are still on the bestseller list and are in pristine condition. When the last Harry Potter came out, we had a huge waiting list and only a few copies. The Monday after it came out, two copies were donated by people who'd read it over the weekend.
What is the biggest challenge facing libraries?
After high school, until families have a baby, there's a gap when people don't see a need for the public library. College kids go online or to Borders and they kind of forget about the public library. They forget, or don't know, that we have study rooms and do interlibrary loans. The space at southside also has a special patio for teens, and we're looking at that to be a place where kids can do poetry slams, karaoke, whatever. When I was at the Denver Public Library, we had a night where we had Opera Colorado downstairs, and upstairs we had a rock band playing a teen party at the same time.
How have libraries changed over the years?
If anybody has said 'Hush' to you, I want to know about it. Because we want it to be a place where people come to find what they need. It's a community center. In the past, libraries didn't encourage families. We create spaces for people, because not everyone wants kids running around them while they try to read. So the kids and the parents really feel like it's theirs. Plus people know that we're nonjudgemental. We're the last bastion of democracy, no censorship and freedom of information. It is not for us to judge what someone wants; we're here to get them the information they need.
Why are libraries so important?
There was a study that showed parents who took their kids to the library felt that they were successful parents. So we try to instill that in families. The study also found that when people need information they get it from a friend. That was over newspaper, Internet, whatever. So libraries want to become that friend for people, so that if they need information on a recipe or car repair, we hunt it down for them.
Do you offer wireless Internet in your libraries?
Right now, the city has a resolution up in front of it looking at wireless in city government facilities and properties. So the idea is if they choose to they could actually put it on the Plaza. We don't have it right now though. We have 17 public computers downtown, and if people could use their laptops they wouldn't have to wait for that space, and those computers are used every minute of every day.
What do you do with people like me who have overdue books?
We have no fines. We find in Santa Fe that only about 1 percent of materials checked out don't come back.
What's your favorite book?
Jane Austen is one of my favorites, and Bruce Chatwin, he's a master of finding antiquities. I also just read
The Inheritance of Loss
by the Booker Prize winner Kirian Desai. You have to read that.
