Though I can’t deny I’m suffering from Year in Review fatigue (even our library’s Dog Poop Scoopers send out a year-inreview letter!), it seems almost unkind not to give 2021 her due, especially after such a dramatic fire and ice finale.

This past year was a humbling reminder to many of us that no man, nor mountaintop, is an island. I’m the first to confess, one of my desires to live more remotely in the mountains (beyond the moose), was a naive belief that I could somehow control the push and pull of human relations. As if any of us can pick and choose social and collective responsibilities. When the world is on fire, we have to learn to turn back toward one another to make it through.

By nature and design, libraries strive to be sanctuaries of the spirit and mind and it’s no accident my life’s calling has placed me in them. As I’ve gotten older, I recognize that a sanctuary also needs to be a stronghold, but this doesn’t happen passively. Decisions and choices always have to be made to preserve library values and to continue to empower our community to learn, connect and grow.

Often, especially in the past two years, patrons come into our library yearning to discover life’s deeper meanings. Insights gleaned from the written word spill out from bound books and typeset into lively and enriching conversations at the library desk. For me, this is the transcendent joy of librarianship.

My greatest pride in our NCL library is not its collections, its beautiful building, nor its gigabyte speed: it’s our staff. Daily, our wonderful librarians welcome the diversity of humanity and human thought into our library, intentionally fostering an environment for respectful and open-minded conversations. When have we needed it more?

Those around me have heard me make many a joke that the skills I learned as a bartender in my 20s have served me well as a librarian. The shelves have come alive as all our staff have invented new signature NCL literary cocktails for our readers who, like us, are struggling to find the perfect blend of escape, wisdom, and inspiration.

Do you prefer your James Patterson with a twist of Victor Frankl or Kazuo Ishiguro? Louise Penny can be a surprisingly great chaser to your Stacey Abrams! Would you prefer top shelf Mary Oliver or Leonard Cohen?

Forgive my gallows humour, but 2021’s most frequently checked out nonfiction is a great record of our communal angst: The Mountain Baker: 100 high-altitude recipes for every occasion (by Mimi Council and Kimmy Fasani); How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need (Bill Gates); Subpar Parks, America’s most extraordinary National Parks & their least impressed visitors (by Amber Share); The Reign of Wolf 21: the saga of Yellowstone’s druid pack (by Rick McIntyre); The Book of Joy, lasting happiness in a changing world (by the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and Douglas Abrams); Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants (by Robin Wall Kimmerer), Caste, the origins of our discontents (by Isabel Wilkerson) and the list goes on.

Interestingly, adult and children’s fiction picks have not changed much over the past years; adults like their mysteries and family sagas, and children like their graphic novels featuring anthropomorphic animals and middle school drama!

Although 2021’s strong headwinds gave us little time to roam freely about the cabin (groan), library staff worked hard this year to host as many in-person programs as we safely could. Community-building is one of our core values, and we understand that to do it well, it needs to be done both in-person and with virtual options.

We kicked off 2021 with a very successful outdoor 10 Year Anniversary Celebration of the Library’s permanent home and we were able to bookend the year with a successful Thanksgiving Pie Baking Contest, squeezed in right before the Omnicron variant forced us to buckle back in.

Fortunately, summer weather and our summer lovin’ Foundation members helped bring the library outdoors at various community events, including the Farmers’ Markets and the Historical Society’s Heritage Days. We also hosted most of our storytimes outside on our East property (yes, that’s where all the bubbles have been coming from!).

Recognizing that our services are going to have to continue to change and adapt, we have been investing in more robust technology, and are expanding our partnership with Nederland Elementary School to include on-site after-school programs and (very soon!) database access to both World Book Online and Pebble Go!

We have also re-allocated some of our resources to boost our downloadable e-book and e-audiobook collections. If you don’t already know how to download materials, please reach out to us. We are also adding a new collection to our library: Manga! If you’ve not yet entered the world of graphic novels or Manga, you may be surprised at how accessible, engaging and yes, educational, this genre can be. Please ask us for recommendations.

A few other things that you will see coming this year, in response to challenges from last year, are added small business services (printing capabilities and notary services), continued efforts to support our local businesses through cross-promotions and contests, continued diversification of partnerships, and many of us are excited to launch a Book to Movie program with the Backdoor Theatre. Please send your book/film suggestions our way!

In 2021 Nederland Library was honored with a Colorado State Library Award for our #/SongsfromtheStacks program and this year we want to go even one better and be the first library (that we know of) to offer Singer/Songwriting workshops. Two of our community’s top musical talents will be launching the program: The Strangebyrds and Eric Stone. (Check out our newsletter or website for more details and help spread the word).

We are also very excited to be partnering with The Mountain-Ear, the Nederland Area Historical Society, and the Colorado State Library’s Digital Collections Department to digitize and share with the broader world more of Nederland’s amazing history. We will be looking for volunteers to help us with this, so please reach out if interested.

This past year also brought several staff changes and though we were saddened to say goodbye to Mike Sivcovich, Jodi Couillard and Charlie Westerink, part of what we strive to do at NCL is launch great library-loving humans into the larger world. We are happy to announce we did our jobs well and all three are thriving. (And some of our former library pages are now working in academic libraries! Great NCL legacy!) Life passages allow new talent to grow, and many familiar NCL faces are transitioning into new roles, with new responsibilities. We also have a new Library Board President, Lisa Ryder, and if you don’t yet know who she is, you can spot her as our Frozen Dead Librarian 2022 coffin rider.

As we usher in 2022, it’s good to remember that the future is here, whether we voted for it or not, so come learn, adapt and laugh with us. Our library booktenders are waiting for you!