Fresh from the Stacks

by Cathy Butterfield, Collections Manager

The recognition that knowledge is a form of power has shaped libraries around the world and through the ages. 

Our earliest forms of written symbol and history are passed down to us through myriad forms of libraries throughout the ages, from the cave art of Lascaux, to Babylonian clay tablets from the 3rd century B.C., to the website “Archive of Our Own.”  Without the archival passion to preserve, those records would have returned to river mud, or cemented into the walls of fortresses (many were.) 

The emperor Shih Huang-ti of the Ch’in dynasty ordered all historical records other than those of the Ch’in to be destroyed so that history would seem to begin with his rule. Preservation of the earliest records were the province of kings and merchant princes, pharaohs, and conquering generals. 

In 48 BC, a good part of the great Library of Alexandria was sacked and burned—one of the chief suspects was Julius Caesar. One of the first known libraries made accessible to the public, rather than the elite, was launched in Rome soon after Caesar’s death. The historian Pliny understood the significance, praising the founder Asinius Pollio: ingenia hominum rem publicam fecit (“He made men’s talents a public possession.”). That may be the most radical aspect of a public library—it shares the power of information with their entire community, rather than just the powerful.   

That may be the most radical aspect of a public library—it shares the power of information with their entire community, rather than just the powerful.   

The director of the Boundary County Library in Bonner’s Ferry, Kimber Glidden, resigned this last week, citing a “political atmosphere of extremism, militant Christian fundamentalism, intimidation tactics, and threatening behavior currently being employed in the community.” A few short years ago, this same library won the award for Best Small Library in the country. What happened? Boundary County’s own web page has a cogent and concise farewell letter posted on their main page that goes straight to the point. 

“This is about control of what information our community is allowed access to,” wrote Glidden. “What is the weapon a small number of people are using to divide this community? Fear, irrational threats, and moral panic.”

Moral panic is a powerful force, shaped by deception, intimidation, and irrational rhetoric. Those generating moral panic about a community having free access to books have a greater agenda—control of the institution as a whole, and by extension, the community it serves. The forces behind bans and challenges want to be kings and merchant princes, and shape history to suit their needs. As Kimberly Giddens says in her farewell:

“Now more than ever it is imperative that we guarantee the freedom to read, the freedom of expression, the freedom of information, and the right to a fair and balanced education.”

~Kimber Gidden, FORMER Boundary Country Library Director

“Now more than ever it is imperative that we guarantee the freedom to read, the freedom of expression, the freedom of information, and the right to a fair and balanced education. The library will stand to protect the rights of all people. 

“It is time to take a stand against false narratives. Thank you and spread the word.”   

Find a list of 25 Frequently Challenged Books Considered Classic Literature, here.

25 Frequently Challenged Books Considered Classic Literature

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
10. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
11. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
12. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
13. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
14. Animal Farm by George Orwell
15. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
16.  A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
17. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
18. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
19. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
20. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
21. Native Son by Richard Wright
22. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
23. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
24. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
25. The Call of the Wild by Jack London

The American Library Association lists more banned classics and the objections each book draws. More information here.  

Download a PDF of this list here.

More information can be had at www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks. The Freedom to Read statement is worth a gander as well, and can be accessed at www.ala.org/intellectualfreedom.

Children’s and YA Summer Reading Program Reports Record-Breaking Success and Amazing Accomplishments

Riddle: What has 73,800 pages, 295 kids, 78 Teens, two narwhals, and a set of Apple AirPods?

Answer: The Community Library’s Youth Summer Reading 2022! And that just scratches the surface in a year that saw the first in-person celebration in two years, new prizes, better prizes, more prizes, and the greatest number of teen participation ever.

“Oceans of Possibilities” surrounded kids and teens in the Library’s 2022 Summer Reading Program. Participants are asked to register, read, and report their reading. Besides being oceans of fun, the program helped enrich time and learning over the summer months.

…everyone who picks up a story and turns the pages with wonder and curiosity wins big.

Add to that, participants had chance to win awesome prizes for their reading efforts. We had the following big prizes, but in our book, everyone who picks up a story and turns the pages with wonder and curiosity wins big.

Kids’ Grand Prizes

• Straws & Connectors Building Sets + Dog Man Boxed Set 1-6 (2 available)
• Aquarium Lego Sets (2 available)
• Melissa & Doug Giant Stuffed Narwhals (2 available)
• Toy Store Gift Cards: Grand Prize: $100, $50 second prize

Teens Grand Prizes  

• Apple AirPods
• $100 Cash 
• $20 Cash (5)

Wanna know who won what? See our list of winners here. And … No one walked away empty-handed:

Everyone who fully participated received a $10 voucher to Chapter One Bookstore in Ketchum or Iconoclast Books & Gifts in Hailey.

And if you came to the Awards Party, you received a fun and playful door prize, as well as the comradery of your peers.

DeAnn Campbell, Children’s and Young Adult Library Director, heard some heartwarming feedback on the prizes:

“The winner from Carey came to Bloom and told me he had won a whole set of Dog Man books that he could keep forever,” said DeAnn.

“Also, we were told by the mother of the girl who won the $100 gift card to the Toy Store (Clara Brown, who will be going into 1^st grade this year) that Clara worked super, super hard on her reading this summer. That she had a tutor and that she read and read and worked so hard on her reading.”

“…coming out of the pandemic, this year’s summer reading program felt important. The kids were reconnecting with books and reading and their library. There was more in-person human connection.”

DeAnn Campbell, Children’s and Young Adult Library Director

We had participants and prize winners from all over the county including Hailey, Bellevue, Sun Valley/Ketchum, Carey, and even Fairfield. This represents a diverse mix of kids who come to the Library building and those who participate through our Bloom Truck bookmobile.

Here is the breakdown for the cities where we had participation:

DeAnn sent out special thanks to Candida and Helen and all the summer interns: Josie Gilman, Ally Orihuela, Zariah Johnston, Zach Quesnel, Gretel Huss, and Noemi Hurtado Chavolla who worked hard to promote the Summer Reading Program with the BLOOM program as well as manage the circulation duties there. It can be a big job to juggle that much especially in early summer.

The librarians in the building: Lee, Andrea, and Judy who manage it inside. Lee and Judy did fantastic displays. All help with vouchers, sign-ups, and reminding people and kids to keep participating in the summer. On-line sign-ups and record keeping have made this easier, but there is so much still that Lee, Andrea, Judy, Helen and Candida do always to keep it running. Judy, especially keeps the back-end rolling with the maintenance of the registrations and logs. This record keeping is A LOT. Judy was also master of ceremonies extraordinaire for the summer reading party.

DeAnn offered the biggest THANK YOU to our GRAND FRIENDS, Elise and Bobo for underwriting the vouchers and the summer reading prizes, saying, “Your support of literacy for the youth in the valley is quiet but so impactful. The program would not exist in the form it does without the both of you.”

DeAnn added, “I will say personally, that coming out of the pandemic, this year’s summer reading program felt important. The kids were reconnecting with books and reading and their library. There was more in-person human connection. There was excitement about prizes, but also reading, books, community, and each other. It brought hope. Well, it did to me.”

My name is Diana Sabrina Muñoz, the Summer Programs Intern at The Community Library.  

On the night of June 16, 2022, Ali Noorani, the current Program Director of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s U.S. Democracy Program, and Former Chief Executive Officer and President of the National Immigration Forum, and author of truly impactful book Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants, presented a program at The Community Library.  

He was joined by Bob Naerebout, former executive director of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, and ZeZe Rwasama, Director of the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Program united for a discussion about immigration, specifically here in Idaho. (Watch the video replay of this presentation here.)

I was given the honor of introducing this program. When asked if I would be willing to introduce Ali Noorani, and as I read Crossing Borders, I got increasingly excited. Not only because I would be able to have conversations with the former CEO and President of the National Immigration Forum, but because I knew he could reach an audience more than I ever could.  

Below is part of my introduction to that event.  

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This is my third time interning here at The Community Library, and I honestly have never been so excited for a program. As the daughter of immigrants, who traveled here to the United States from both Guatemala and Mexico over 20 years ago along with other family members, I have personally seen the struggles of being both a legal and illegal immigrant, in not only my own family but among my peers. I have also experienced firsthand the privilege of being a United States citizen.  

Immigration is a topic close to home, not only to me, but to all of you who reside here. According to the Blaine County School District website, 43.4% of the district student population is categorized as “Hispanic,” a statistic reflected visibly in Blaine County as a whole. As a graduate of Wood River High School who obtained all my K-12 education in Blaine County, I can say with great confidence that many of my fellow Latinx/Hispanic peers here in the Wood River Valley are either immigrants, or they have at least one parent if not both who are immigrants, or immigration is a part of their family in other ways. 

Throughout my high school career, now college, and in my time here in the Library, I have worked on various projects in effort of expanding diversity, equity, and inclusion, and most importantly sharing experiences both good and bad as a Latinx student and community member. With the work I have done in regards to the issue, I like to think I have impacted people, but there is so much more to be done, so much more to learn about before an impact larger than myself can become a reality.  

Many ask why do so many immigrants come to the United States. This is one of the many topics Crossing Borders explains. Struggles that immigrants face in their home countries, struggles that my own mother has told me stories about, struggles that push and force migrants from Latin America out of their countries with no choice but to travel North to the Mexico-US border. Stories that, if read with an open mind, will help people understand the what and why.  

I urge everyone to pick up Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants here at The Community Library, where the complexities of migration are presented through stories of families fleeing not only from violence and poverty, but even their own governments, and the difficult living conditions that are sometimes tolerated by their own home countries.  

It is your problem, it is my problem, it is our problem.

If you are more of a TV-watcher, I also urge you to watch “Immigration Nation”, a docu-series that shows the brutal realities and fear immigrants faces in regards to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a fear all too familiar in my family as well. I also urge you to watch another docu-series called “Living Undocumented,” where the lives of undocumented immigrants and families are shown along with their fears and realities of being deported, being separated from their families, their siblings, their wives or husbands, their kids, who sometimes have not even reached teen hood. Both docu-series are available on Netflix. 

Even after this program I not only hope but beg you all take the time to learn more on the topic of immigration as it is a topic so prominent, not only here in our community, but in the United States as whole. Immigration is unfortunately ugly, brutal, and ultimately a story of survival. But that ugliness and brutality within immigration that I have witnessed, which has affected countless families including my own, can all be changed with education by reading books, hearing stories, and changing policy, to ultimately reveal the incredible and gorgeous features of culture and so much more immigration has brought to this country, and to reveal the inspiring and impactful stories of survival and success immigrants have here in the United States. 

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I am daughter of immigrants who was lucky enough to have the privilege, like so many of you reading this, of being a United States citizen. Many of you do not recognize this privilege that many immigrants are not lucky enough to have.  

You, most likely a U.S. citizen, most likely a white citizen, may not even give an afterthought to immigration. You may think that immigration does not affect you. But me, a U.S. citizen just like you, can strongly confirm that immigration affects me to a great extent, and not just because I come from a family of immigrants. But because I walk along immigrants every day, on my way to class, in the grocery store, at a park, everywhere, and trust me you do, too.  

Thanks to this country, my mother and family escaped a corrupt and violence-filled country. Thanks to this country, I can obtain higher education, and I am able to say that I am a first-generation college student. But I also know that we live in a country that has hatred woven into its history and its present. 

It is mine, yours, and our decision whether we want our children to grow up in a country where not everyone is accepted for who they are or for where they come from. It is our decision if we want to live in a country of discrimination, violence, and inequality. You may think that these things do not affect you, but they do. It is your problem, it is my problem, it is our problem. But it is you who needs to decide if you want to do something about it.  

An Australian Couple Rediscovers the “Community” in The Community Library

Newlyweds Katherine Suttor and James Stanton recently returned to The Community Library to reflect on an old family tradition and delight in new discoveries. . .from the Library’s programs to the learning tools to puzzles and musical instruments, and oh, the books.

“I remember discovering the Library all those years ago with my mum,” says Katherine. “Mum has always been an avid reader, and I would have lots of fun roaming through the Library shelves and picking out my summer reads. Getting a stack of books to take home was a keystone part of our trip.”

Katherine’s parents fell in love with Ketchum/Sun Valley 30 years ago when they first arrived at the invitation of a mutual friend to the Australian celeb and local jazz pianist, Alan Pennay.

While it’s not uncommon for the Valley to see regular visitors returning for seasons of sun and snow, Katherine’s family made an annual tradition of the 8,000-mile trip … from Sydney Harbour, over the Coral Sea, and across the Northern Pacific Ocean to the remote regions of southern Idaho.

Winter in Ketchum is summer in Australia and the family spent all seven weeks of their down-under vacation time across the world and up in the mountains–skiing, reading, playing, and socializing in Ketchum/Sun Valley.

“Coming to the Library is a nice way to feel like a local, like I’m part of the community.”

Katherine Suttor

“Mum would put us in ski school where we were often the only kids to hang around for seven weeks straight,” recalls Katherine with a wry nod to those early years, freeing her parents to have the days to ski on their own.

Nearly three decades later, Katherine brought her then boyfriend, now husband, James, to the Library. Wandering through the stacks, James stumbled upon the music section. “I couldn’t believe that I could actually borrow a guitar and check it out from the Library, just like a book,” says James. “I thought it must be a mistake.”

But he got a Library card, checked out a guitar, and “one of the first things we did,” he says, “was to perform for family and friends.”

“My whole family used Library services over the years,” says Katherine. “My sister and I both used language learning tools through the library. My mother would come here and take courses to learn emerging technology.”

When Katherine was studying for her entrance exam to the Harvard MBA program, she spent her holiday in Ketchum, skiing in the morning, and studying at the Library in the afternoons/evenings. She says it was her home away from home away from home.

Even Katherine’s father, Michael Suttor, a preeminent architect in Australia, got in on the action, and did a presentation on classical architecture in the Library. “There’s something here for everyone in my family,” says Katherine, “and now for James, too.”

New to the area, James has discovered the Community Library as a landmark that orients his way. “If I can find the Library,” he says, “I know where I’m at.”

“I love it so much here in Ketchum and Sun Valley,” says Katherine. “Coming to the Library makes me feel like a local, like I’m part of the community.”

Though the structure of the Library has changed over 30 years, a few things remain the same for Katherine and her family: The iconic fireplace that welcomes your arrival, and the sense of belonging…halfway across the world from home.

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