Tell people Las Vegas has a dynamic library district, and you’ll likely get confused or surprised looks. But it’s true. Your neighborhood library is also a community center and a hangout, a spot for doing just about anything.
Beyond the traditional book stacks of the 25 branches are countless offerings that have refined the modern library in the digital age: DVD rentals. Assistance for job-seekers and small businesses. Auditoriums for plays and concerts. One branch even offers DJ lessons.
The man overseeing this giant, multi-faceted operation is Kelvin Watson, executive director of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. With him and State of Nevada host Joe Schoenmann is Rebecca Colbert, the district's head of collection and bibliographic services.
Watson said the ideal library system is accessible. “The library is where you are.”
They’ve done that by extending the library system’s reach online, making it accessible at all hours on their website, or through partner apps like Libby and Hoopla. Locally, they also partnered with the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada giving free digital access to library resources on 400 city buses. It’s been used thousands of times.
In the libraries, they’ve tried to make them a third space.
All of their resources are free to the public. In every local library, you can find classes for DJing, sewing, resume writing, the list goes on. Sometimes they’re hosted with community partners, but many of them are hosted by library workers. Watson said attendance shows their programming is becoming more popular.
“People still love the library,” he said. “Because what we have to acknowledge is that not all of us have those resources at our homes. Secondly, what we have to realize is that, especially in this era of again, people coming out and being more social, sometimes people just want to be together. And the library is the place where people can actually come together … I think of it as a public square, I think of the library as the last bastion of democracy. That's the library to me.”
Colbert’s department does all the selection of materials that you can check out. Currently, they have 3.2 million items, and about 30,000 are added each month – books, DVDs, video games, toys, state park passes, passes for the Discovery Children’s Museum, Springs Preserve and more.
“COVID gave us a gift because publishing slowed down. And we did not add nearly as much during COVID shutdown or maybe the 18 months after COVID. So we have some room to grow right now. And we're adding a lot more material. We do deselect books that aren't checked out are books that are in bad condition. And about 10% of our items that just never come back eventually. So it's a natural process,” she said.
Want something the library doesn’t have? Just request it, she said. Often, they’ve already ordered something that’s being requested. Digital books can be requested through the Libby app, as well.
On TikTok, avid readers use the hashtag #BookTok. And Colbert loves it. “[It’s] good for authors that maybe are not as well known, and also their backfiles. Because if an author gets popular, they want to read everything the author ever wrote.”
So what are people reading right now? The biggest title of 2023 so far has been “Spare” by Prince Harry. The audiobook has the most holds right now. Colleen Hoover is another big author. “Romance-fantasy has got a resurgence.”
Libraries across the country have also become the locale of some controversy, and Las Vegas has not been spared of that. In May, the East Las Vegas library is where a concealed carry gun event is happening. The event will feature guest Kyle Rittenhouse, a Wisconsin man who killed two people in 2020, claimed self defense and was found not guilty by a jury.
Watson said the library system doesn’t have a policy on who can or can not rent their meeting spaces. But, guns are not allowed in the library, so he said they worked with the organization behind the event to change the title of “Guns in the Library" to "Talking About Guns."
“If you bring a gun in the library, you're going to be banned, restricted and probably arrested for bringing the gun in the library,” he said.
The Library District offers its meeting rooms for public rental. The upcoming “Guns in the Library” event is not sponsored by the Library District and does not, in any way, represent the views of the organization. Possession of any type of weapon in a library is prohibited.
— Las Vegas-Clark County Library District (@LVCCLD) March 7, 2023
Watson mentioned how drag story time has also become controversial.
“The same way that we're not canceling this event, we certainly don't cancel those events either. We prepare for those, the safety of the public, we do the necessary things, increasing our security guards, making sure that we have library administration on site, we reach out to Metro, as well. And we moved forward, literally two weeks ago, we had individuals from the public asking us to cancel a speaker at a Black history celebration, because he was a controversial speaker, we moved forward with the program. Again, this is the library, the library is the place for everyone. I don't personally agree with the program, or Kyle Rittenhouse. But my personal responsibility … is running the public library, which is the public space. And there's going to be discourse on either side, all sides, regardless of the program.”
Colbert said that’s not limited to programming.
“We had a discussion in our department the other day about types of items to add and what we thought would be appropriate for the collection. And we explained to all of our librarians on staff that if we wait for everyone to embrace every item that we get, we would have a very sad selection. So we can't be all things to all people,” she said.
Watson added, “There's many different types of individuals in the community, all walks of life, different religions, different races, ages, colors, … the library is there and we have resources available for them.”
Books mentioned in this hour
- Amanda Skenandore, “The Second Life of Mirielle West”
- Danise Payne, “Elbows in My Ears”
- Claire Vaye Watkins, “I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness”
- Prince Harry, “Spare”
- Colleen Hoover, “It Ends With Us”
Guests: Kelvin Watson, executive director, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District; Rebecca Colbert, head of collection and bibliographic services, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District
