So much more than books

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

The sailfish decorously attached to a wall above the checkout counter is a crowd-pleaser.

But when they speak of it, patrons at the Lake City High School Public Library use tones as hushed as the marlin’s many hues.

“The kids love it,” librarian JD Smithson said. “That, and the flags.”

Smithson has been the branch manager at the city library inside the high school since it opened more than a year ago. Having the high school library double as a city library is part of an effort to provide

library services to patrons living at Coeur d’Alene Place and other neighborhoods, far enough removed from the Hayden library and the Coeur d’Alene library headquarters to prohibit them from being regular customers there.

Patrons can use the library for its summer reading programs, to participate in library games, and to order materials or pick them up, the same as any other local library, Smithson said.

The idea to house a public library in a school was novel enough to be recognized by the Association of Idaho Cities last month, which endowed the district with its Community Engagement Award.

For library director Bette Ammon, the kudos bookended a yearlong effort that started with a discussion and became an obsession.

“This award is confirmation of what we set out to do,” Ammon said. “We wanted to make the Lake City library more accessible for the students and teachers while at the same time expanding library services to patrons in a fast-growing part of the city.”

Expanding those services under traditional parameters would likely mean building a new library, a cost-prohibitive enterprise. Library board members looked around for more suitable models and found one in Missoula, where a combined school and public library thrived.

The Lake City Public Library branch was established through cooperation between the school board, high school administrators and city council, Ammon said.

Council member Kiki Miller, who was instrumental in the proposal, said the idea simply made sense.

“It’s a double bang for the taxpayer buck,” Miller said.

And children in neighborhoods near Ramsey Road and over to Atlas Road have access. There are a variety of activities here, including two Lego clubs and during the school year, when the library closes at 6:30 p.m., students can spend their time doing homework until their parents pick them up. The library is open Monday through Thursday between noon and 5 p.m. in the summer, and it is part of a cooperative information network — a library exchange that includes 27 libraries in idaho and Washington.

Earlier this week, Judy Carran, a retired social worker from Arizona, found the Lake City Public Library on the internet. She was passing through Coeur d’alene with a friend, driving on Ramsey Road looking for a library that offered Wi-Fi.

“We drove by it, and saw the sign,” Carran said. “I yelled, ‘there it is, there it is.’”

Since parking their camper north of town she and her friend have made regular trips to the Lake City library as they prepare to head east to Montana.

“I live off of libraries,” Carran said. “I love them. I have all my life been a library geek.”

So far this summer the library, and its services, have been relatively untapped.

Carran soaked up the silence this week as she perused books and spent time on the internet inside the library, sun splashed with natural light and devoid of users.

“In the summer it does slow down,” Smithson said.

Even though the library with its thousands of books and materials, is adjacent to their neighborhoods, many nearby patrons still travel to Hayden and the downtown library.

“It’s hard to get people to change their habits,” Smithson said.

The new visitors that park in the high school’s main lot and walk down the steps into the quiet, air-conditioned confines will find 60 computers for public use and volumes of books targeting a wide range of ages, topics and genres.

Children who visit the newest branch of the Coeur d’Alene Public Library system like to gaze at the national flags hanging down from the high walls above the tables and books, Smithson said.

“They like to find the country of their origin,” Smithson said.

And everyone is drawn to the sailfish.

The marlin, as long as a dinghy, with a glistening eye, is kind of an anomaly.

“I don’t know where it came from,” Smithson said. “People like it.”