TA24-J F-Pages - Flipbook - Page 64
62 Texas Architect
1/2 2024
RENDERING BY 720 DESIGN
was in disrepair, with just 14 months of
funding left before it closed its doors.
There wasn’t much to it beyond some
stacks of musty books, most of which
hadn’t been checked out in years. Kids
weren’t welcome. But there was still
enough of a sense of the symbolic
importance of a library that some
community members were willing to
fight to keep it open. Connery volunteered, thinking she’d stay on until
either the library closed down or until
they found funding to keep it open. “I
昀椀gured we could just try anything, so
we started looking around and applying for grants.” That was 10 years ago.
She’s still volunteering. “I like it. It
means nobody can tell me what to do.”
Schematic renderings by 720 Design of the new Pottsboro library, which currently squeezes its outsized programming into an old bank building.
Over the years, the library has grown
to o昀昀er all manner of services, from
areas where people could have sensitive conversations. A lot of libraries got after-school snacks to a Library of Things where you can rent everything from
grants for laptop vending machines so library users could check out a laptop a pressure washer to a knee scooter, to punch bowls and chairs for a wedding.
or tablet with their library card. (Meanwhile, libraries are also working to
With companies like Texas Industries setting up manufacturing plants
mitigate the negative social e昀昀ects of so much screen time: The Family Place near Pottsboro, there’s more attention given to the role that libraries play in
Libraries program, which many Texas libraries participate in, promotes “a workforce preparation. The $14 million that the United States Department
national model for transforming public libraries into welcoming, develop- of Agriculture has pledged to Pottsboro for a new library — a hefty chunk of
mentally appropriate early learning environments for very young children, the $100 million designated from the American Recovery and Reinvestment
their parents, and caregivers,” including teaching families how to interact Act for libraries serving communities of 20,000 and less — acknowledges the
with each other without devices.) And because, post-pandemic, people are importance of libraries like Pottsboro’s not just for local residents, but for the
more accustomed to downloading books onto their own devices, there’s sud- extended community. For instance, something that struck Connery was the lack
denly more space available for other programming. “The books are still the of technological literacy in local kids. She asks, “How are they going to operate
brand, but the size of the physical collection has changed,” says Arndt. “It’s on a level playing 昀椀eld?” Internet access was an issue; the library solved that
an interesting discussion with the community. We’re looking at, how robust is by installing a tower in the parking lot. Access to devices was another issue;
your Wi-Fi? Can your community download e-books easily? And so can we the library now has devices and routers that can be checked out and brought
use that space that would have been for a physical book for a study room or a home. From FEMA to AI, the library sta昀昀 helps locals 昀椀nd their way. “Librarmaker space or a warming station?”
ies have always been about information,” says Connery. “And information used
“People have this nostalgic view of libraries, like, I went there in third to be primarily through books, but now so much information and participating
grade and checked out ‘Charlotte’s Web,”” says Dianne Connery, director in society is online.” But the real bridge over the digital divide is a human one.
of the Pottsboro Library. “And I love ‘Charlotte’s Web.’ But that’s not what’s Among the many grants the Pottsboro library applied for and received, one
happening here.” What’s happening in Pottsboro — a community of 2,600 was a Google grant for a digital navigator. That navigator, an actual person
or so, about a 90-minute drive north of Dallas on the Oklahoma border — is named Mark, is now on sta昀昀 (the grant covers his salary for three years). Mark
everything else (plus a book club). When the ice storm of 2021 hit, Pottsboro helps library users set up their phones or connect to the internet. He makes
experienced the kind of cascading system failures that were hitting larger house calls. He contacts the person trying to scam a grandfather in a nursing
urban centers: no water, no electricity, limited communication. The library, home and tells them never to call again.
housed in a small brick building near the center of town, became a kind of
This hybrid approach to information sharing — providing both technodefault operations center. “We don’t have a newspaper,” says Connery, “so logical and just-plain-human resources to the community — is what makes
the library Facebook page was already kind of a bulletin board for the com- libraries such a critical aspect of community resilience. Without a community
munity.” The library sta昀昀 set up portable toilets. They contacted ranchers hub, resources go undelivered or untapped. Without eye contact, people in
with working wells and organized those ranchers and their trucks to pump need of something — a job, a snack, Narcan — go unserved. Arndt is careful
and deliver water to residents whose pipes had frozen. When FEMA o昀昀ered a with her de昀椀nition of libraries as resilience hubs. “There is a line as to what
delivery of blankets, the agency didn’t know where to send them; the library a library can justi昀椀ably provide,” she says. “We’re not talking about a shelter.
stepped in to receive them and then signed up community members to receive You can come to the library and get a case of water and a sandwich, but not a
intensive training from FEMA for disaster preparedness.
shower and laundry.” Meanwhile, in Pottsboro, Connery and some other locals
Connery is a fascinating 昀椀gure in the Texas library landscape, in part because recently completed a the nine-week FEMA course, and it seems that that line
she didn’t set out to be involved with libraries at all, let alone to essentially reinvent might get crossed. “I can now amputate your limb if you need me to,” says
the library model for rural Texas. “I came here to do nothing,” she said about Connery. And check you out a copy of “Charlotte’s Web.”
retiring to Pottsboro with her husband 10 or so years ago. “I had raised my kids. I
didn’t want to meet anybody or get involved with anything.” But the town’s library Jessie Temple is an architect and writer in Austin.
