Rural libraries go by the book in a hunt for help

Jan. 31—Even the youngest patrons of the Vista Grande Public Library know what they want.

And sometimes, what they want is more books on octopuses.

That was one recent request from a young child at Eldorado’s nonprofit library, said library director Julia Kelso. After a review of the library’s catalogue exposed a blind spot in octopus-related children’s books, a 5-year-old boy registered his concern until Kelso added the book to Vista Grande’s collection.

“When you’ve got a 5-year-old saying, ‘You need to get this book on octopus,’ that’s a wonderful thing,” Kelso said.

But books — about octopuses or otherwise — cost money. So do library staff members and building maintenance.

Many libraries in New Mexico’s rural communities operate on razor-thin margins, applying their meager budgets toward providing essential services to their patrons — from offering community gathering spaces to providing computers for telehealth appointments, said Shel Neymark, director of the New Mexico Rural Library Initiative.

A proposal before the Legislature would widen those margins. Senate Bill 170, sponsored by Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, would allocate $30 million to fully fund New Mexico’s existing Rural Library Endowment, offering up to $45,000 per year to more than 50 rural libraries in places like Chama, Red River, Tularosa and Hatch.

“Any funds from that goes to support everything we do,” Kelso said of the Eldorado library.

The proposal secured a unanimous “do pass” recommendation from the Senate Indian, Rural and Cultural Affairs Committee on Tuesday, and it’s slated to go before the Senate Finance Committee next. However, the state’s budget bill currently includes an appropriation of just $2.5 million for the endowment.

Rural libraries are not just libraries, Neymark said in an interview.

They’re resolanas, he said — places in the sun. They’re where neighbors go to meet one another, hear community news and socialize. They’re where residents can go for assistance in filing taxes or accessing government services, including applying for Medicaid and unemployment benefits.

In some rural communities, they’re the only places in town with internet access — and, as a result, a hub for job searchers and students working on their homework.

And libraries are especially important for New Mexico residents learning how to read. Less than one-third of New Mexico’s kindergartners, first graders and second graders scored proficient in early literacy, according to data from the state Public Education Department.

“Making the library fun means that the kids are going to come in and they’re going to see the books and they’re going to see that that’s part of the experience,” Kelso said.

Even in Eldorado — fewer than 10 miles from Santa Fe — the Vista Grande Public Library serves as a “community hub,” Kelso said, with myriad services for patrons and a prime location between El Dorado Community School and the Max Coll Corridor Community Center.

The important role of libraries in small communities inspired Neymark, one of the founders of the Embudo Valley Library and Community Center, to ask Ortiz y Pino in 2019 for help in setting up an endowment for rural libraries.

Since its creation in the 2019 legislative session, New Mexico’s Rural Library Endowment has grown to $28 million, with that money dedicated to paying out thousands of dollars per year to libraries serving communities of fewer than 3,000 residents and nonprofit outlets like Vista Grande Public Library.

Some of the funding also is available to help communities — including Pecos — fund new rural libraries and to the state library to provide library support services in small locales.

Neymark said this year’s goal is to get the Rural Library Endowment fully funded with a one-time payment of $30 million. That way, each library would have an endowment of about $1 million and annual payments of about $45,000 in investment income.

The money to fully fund the endowment, though, is still absent from the state’s budget bill.

Still, Ortiz y Pino is requesting the money this year, a move the members of the Senate Indian, Rural and Cultural Affairs Committee backed during Tuesday’s meeting.

“Of the many things that we’re spending money on, this is one that, I think, really stabilizes life in rural communities,” Ortiz y Pino said during the committee meeting.