There's a new Librarian in town

For the first time in nearly four decades, the Lincoln Library has a new librarian handling the literary needs of the community.

Kate Radford took her new post as the Lincoln Library Branch Manager July 31, after a couple days of training at the main Lewis and Clark County Library in Helena, and has been busy getting to know both the library and the community.

"Everybody has been super kind and friendly and supportive," Radford said. "but I have heard a number of times what big shoes I have to fill." Radford takes on a job held for 36 years by Sherri Wood, who oversaw many of the changes to the library that have made it a critical asset for the town.

Originally from Belgrade, Radford comes to Lincoln from Boise, where she went to college and where she worked previously as the information services librarian at the Boise Public Library.

"I'm settling into the work pretty well, but moving...it's always harder than you remember," she said.

She said getting to know a small community is a big job but said she's ha help from longtime Assistant Branch Manager Eleanor Pierce. "Eleanor has been amazing, just super supportive and helpful. I'm grateful she was here through the transition."

Radford isn't entirely new to Lincoln. Her grandmother, Jesse Sallin, has lived in Lincoln since the 1960's and served as the librarian herself for a time before Wood was hired. For a couple of years Radford even took the lead in organizing the Lincoln Flea Market with Sallin, who clued her in about the job opening here.

Looking ahead, Radford sees plenty of opportunities for the Lincoln Library in the future.

She said the collection itself presents a bit of a challenge, as they are getting to work to refill it with a more robust selection.

"We've been trying to add about 1000 to 1500 items to make the collection a little bit bigger, but 1000 items in physical space is a lot," she said. To accomplish it, they have been bringing in additional books incrementally, as they rotate other books out and back to the Helena branch.

The Lincoln Library is also now part of the Montana Shared Catalog, a cooperative project involving 170-plus libraries. It increases the pool of material available to Lincoln, but also requires tracking of the shared material to ensure they get rotated back into the pool.

"We're working with the collection manager in Helena to gather statistics on what sorts of thing circulate best, which is really kind of neat because we can say 'we know people up here really love mysteries,'" she said. "I think that's going to be kind of fun to play around with and see what people like and what they want more of."

Radford said there may also be opportunities to work with online library services Hoopla and Libby to improve user access to e-books and other digital media.

Kids and community organizations are also a priority for Radford, who took on her first story time for local youngsters just a couple weeks ago.

"It's really fun," she said, but added she's hoping to find ways to meet the differing needs of the different age groups of the kids, who range in age from one to six years old. She pointed out that stories aimed at four year olds for example may not be great for one year olds.

In addition to working with Lincoln School to make sure the library has materials on hand to help support the curriculum or special projects, Radford is also interested in working with community organizations to have material on hand that supports their various activities.

Radford said Sallin has been helping to keep her informed about local meetings and events, and last weekend she volunteered time to help at the Upper Blackfoot Valley Historical Society's Heritage Day.

"Right now, it's just trying to get to

know people and

seeing what groups

are out there. If people are interested in working with the library, I'd love to work with them," she said, adding there's still a lot to figure out when it comes to supporting local organizations. "The community is a lot more involved than I expected. There are board meetings for everything, which is amazing."

Once she gets settled and has a better idea of what time is available, Radford wants to look at adding a few STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) programs for Lincoln kids. She also sees possibilities

for maker programming at the library using 3D printing, laser engraving and robotics, which were part of her job at the Boise Public Library.

"A lot of it is just figuring out the community and what people need," Radford said. "The library I worked at before was really big in comparison. It's just a different feel, a different tone."