Stories from the Stacks
The Monthly Liaison: March 2022
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Annamillet (age 6) searches for her next book in the Children's Library. |
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A Dictionary, an Atlas, a Promise |
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Two books anchor my bookshelves at home: One is a hefty dictionary, inches-thick, with a broken spine; the other is a mini world atlas, sized to fit easily in a backpack, held together now with a rubber band. Both were gifts to me when I was a teenager, unsure of myself and hungry for the world. The dictionary is inscribed to me from my grandparents, with “love, high hopes, and best wishes.” The little atlas was given to me by an older cousin I admired; from Twin Falls, Idaho, she had lived in Chicago and Israel and Paris.
Those two books have helped me write essays on Willa Cather, locate international conflicts, understand stories both lovely and vile, plan adventures, and be inspired. They also have failed me—the dictionary does not have the word “internet” in it, and the atlas does not show Ukraine. They remind me that knowledge shifts and the world changes, and I’m glad I have other books to turn to, too.
But that broken dictionary and that worn atlas still remind me that people I love believed in my capacity to navigate the world before I was even ready to do so. They believed in my ability to choose my own words and destinations. Those two books offered a promise that I still cling to: The world is big, wondrous, and unwieldy, and I am not alone in it. Books can help me find my way.
When I see young eyes open wide at Story Time on Monday mornings, when I see a lone teen curled over a book in a window seat, when I hear an adult ask today, “What can I read about Ukraine?”, I see that promise sought again and again, and I see how it matters.
I am concerned by the efforts of some Idaho legislators to break this promise and limit the capacity of libraries to offer the world to each of us. In the last several weeks, state lawmakers have considered penalizing librarians for checking out the books that any given patron wants, and, over the course of three budget bills, they attempted to de-fund the Idaho Commission for Libraries.
The Community Library is unique among libraries because it operates independent of government funding; it does not receive any dedicated tax dollars. We have particular freedom to keep opening our doors wide and letting people range freely to ask the questions they want to ask, to explore emotions and places and perspectives that will help them live more fully in the world. We advocate for conditions that make that freedom possible here and across the state, through libraries we learn from and collaborate with, even if we are funded differently from them.
Libraries—private and public, in towns big and small across Idaho—believe in our capacity as individuals and communities to navigate a complex world. Let's believe in libraries and the promise that they offer.
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Jenny Emery Davidson, Ph.D.
Executive Director
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Women in History:
Celebrating Strong Personalities
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By Nicole Lichtenberg
Director of Operations
"It isn’t new or shocking or generational to be loud, to be persistently and unapologetically yourself, or to be excellent.”
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Women’s History Month: An important celebration (and remedial education) of the many named and unnamed historical figures that have affected the course of human history.
What also tends to happen is that we as a society somehow manage at once to fondly and rosily recall these women of yore as if they were especially well-mannered participants of a down-tempo tea party, and continue to call contemporary women making history...
...as too bossy, too loud, too dogged, too militantly feminist, or my personal favorite euphemism, as having “too strong a personality.”
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Sisters Sara, Nicole, Lauren and Chloe Lichtenberg at LitWalk 2018
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As you may know, The Community Library Association was founded in 1955 by seventeen women who valued independence as much as they did books. One of these women, Elnora Seagle, was wonderful enough to describe the early days of the Library (really, at that point, just The Gold Mine) in an oral history that we have stored in the Center for Regional History.
One of the first things our founders did was go around to secure the support of the women’s organizations, and then the men’s. Elnora describes that after securing the support of the men’s organizations, one of the first remarks she heard was:
'Well, it’s just another women’s organization. Won’t mean a thing.’ The next thing I heard was, ‘[a racist idiom meant to imply that so many opinionated women would never be able to actually work together].’
Anyone who has ever gone into the Gold Mine or The Library knows the patent inaccuracy of those remarks. And as Elnora makes clear, The Community Library Association did not flourish despite those strong personalities, but because of them:
And always, when you’re working with…with any kind of organization…you have personality clashes. And it’s just bound to happen. … If they hadn’t been strong personalities, we wouldn’t have accomplished so much…they had to be that way. They were working against a [sic] idea and problems that they’d never come up with before.
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Groundbreaking for The Community Library building on Walnut Street in Ketchum, 1956 |
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This isn’t the only time that strong personalities working together made for solving big problems and forming strong organizations.
The University of Idaho Women’s Center, where I was fortunate enough to have my first real job, was described by Gloria Steinem, as “One of the most important women’s centers in the country.” It is also one of the longest-running—we celebrate its 50th anniversary this year.
When the center initially opened in 1972, it was with volunteer staff and donated furniture (like The Library!). Their work, as well as the work of the Women’s Caucus, was changing the course of history.
Facing issues with recruitment and retention of female students, pay and promotion inequities for female faculty and staff, and other issues, University President Ernest Hartung appointed a Women’s Caucus to research issues affecting women on campus.
On May 8, 1974, the Women’s Caucus and President Hartung signed a conciliation agreement to address those issues. This agreement facilitated lasting change for the students and faculty of the University of Idaho. While the work that they started is not over, the legacy that they created continues to inspire and center (pun intended) ongoing work towards greater justice and equity.
Women’s history has always been filled with strong personalities:
- Dolores Huerta’s contract negotiating skills on behalf of farmworkers earned her the moniker “The Dragon Lady.”
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Shirley Jackson’s, well, anything, have creeped out generations, setting the framework and the bar for the horror/terror genre.
- Many women, together with activists of all genders, fought back against police profiling and brutality during the Stonewall Uprising.
It isn’t new or shocking or generational to be loud, to be persistently and unapologetically yourself, or to be excellent.
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"If they hadn’t been strong personalities, we wouldn’t
have accomplished so much." ~Elnora Seagle
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I am lucky to have worked, and currently work, at institutions founded, continued, and currently staffed by individuals who know the importance and value of persistence, advocacy, and making and holding space.
I am honored to be able to work to support my colleagues in continuing the loud and participatory history of women in Idaho.
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Recommended Titles in Women's History |
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Women's History Month—and The Community Library—celebrate
the vital role of women in American History. Here are a few titles we like
in print, ebook, eaudiobook, and film (all free with your Library card).
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Hail from The Hemingway House |
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"There are two major things you need to be able to write successfully: time and inspiration, and neither of them is easy to find. My stay at the Hemingway House gave me both, in spades.
The views didn't hurt, either."
~Heather Hansman
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Heather was in recent conversation
with Jenny Emery Davidson at
The Community Library.
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THANK YOU to Our February Donors
for Supporting the Stories of the Library
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Anonymous - 2
Jean and Pete De Luca
Felicia and Wolf Funke-Riehle
Galena Lodge
Linda and Charles W. Goodyear
Virginia D. Johnson
Marcia and Donald Liebich
Enid Perl Rawlings and Greg Rawlings
Susan and Reuben Perin
Lisa and Mike Riley
Pamela Sandine and Joseph P. Williams, Jr.
Nancy and Dr. David Sheffner
Debbie Shiraishi-Pratt and Richard Pratt
Gun Taylor
The Lehman Foundation - Barbara and John Lehman
The Marshall Frankel Foundation – Bex Wilkinson
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Page Turner Society
Robyn and Todd Achilles
Big Wood Landscape
Daphne Coble and Patrick Murphy
Kathleen Diepenbrock and Kelley Weston
Claudia and John D. Gaeddert
Kyla Merwin
Elaine H. and Michael T. Phillips
Narda Pitkethly
Gay Weake
Anita Weissberg
Susan Woodruff
Tribute Gifts
Randi and John Kanellitsas in honor of Donna Delahorne
Becky and Peter Smith in memory of Betty Hedreen
Joyce Friedman in memory of Norman Friedman
Steve Broback in memory of Mike Hughes
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The Community Library is supported by people who believe in the free flow of news, entertainment, and information.
It’s never too early to start planning to make a gift from your IRA (also known as IRA Charitable Rollover Gifts). Money can be transferred directly from your IRA to a 501(c)(3) charity, such as The Library, TAX-FREE! Donors must be 70½ years of age, and a gift from an IRA helps you meet your Required Minimum Distributions.
Strategize now to save on next year’s taxes. Director of Philanthropy, Carter Hedberg, is here to assist you.
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