Reporter Jan Procacci talks to librarian Josh Bennett to learn about what makes the Round Valley Public Library so special. Josh, thanks for taking the time to talk with us today. How does it feel to be a winner?
It feels great. Thanks Jen. Yeah, we are, we're thrilled out here. It's amazing, it's an amazing win for the Mendocino County Library and the branch out here.
In Round Valley, we work real hard to be responsive to our community and library journal recognize that and it's very cool to have that recognition. Oh, it's a community win. It's so cool. Like people here are really happy to get national recognition for a place that they love and a place that they use. So a lot of folks are, you know, kind of, it's like a hometown win. Folks are, folks are really excited about it. You know, we're here today, we're at the Round Valley Library. which is where the public library is located and also our cafe and the community room and the Walnut Grove where the farmers' market happens. We are having this wonderful celebration. There's probably, I would say 75 or more people here enjoying food and just celebrating this great win, and you recounted something on stage when you were making your speech, something you overheard a patron in the library saying the other day, would you tell us what that is? Yeah, it was so cool. I was in the back, but I heard someone come in and they said, say what you will about Covelo but we have some wonderful stuff here. It was so, it was such a great statement I, and I kind of made note of it because people are used to getting ignored by the news media in Kovallo and people are used to bad news. Unfortunately, there's a lot of bad news that we get attention to and this is good news. People are thrilled and people are also telling us, oh, we knew this all along
You know, we, people really love their uh their branch library here in Round Valley. We do, we have some of the best stuff in the country, apparently, but we all already know that. What is some of the programming and what are some of the services the library offers that are unique that stood out that potentially grabbed the attention of Library Journal when they were considering the entrance for this award.
They seem to focus on a few things, and if you haven't read the article, it really, it's worth a read. They did such a nice job. Lisa Pete from Library Journal really made us look good. She highlighted a few things. They were interested in stories.
Here about our backup generator, for example.
the friends of the library group raised money for over the course of a couple of years, back when we were getting electricity shut off for wildfire concerns. Also, and many folks in rural Mendocino County know in the winter, the power goes out from time to time, and that happens out here in Round Valley. The friends group here raised money so that the library branch could be powered no matter what. So when the, power goes out, the library lights stay on and the library is open. They really like that story. They talk a lot about resiliency and talked about sustainability when writing about our branch, the seed library was featured real prominently in the article, seed library at the Round Valley branches. It was the first one in the county at a, at a county library branch, started by Pat Sobrero. It's thriving. The community uses it. The community is excited about it. It's a big part of what we do here. And so there's a couple of things that stood out, you know, when people are talking to me about being the best small library. I mean, I, I like to remind folks that we do normal library stuff we make sure there are things here that kids want to read, that new readers want to read to, to either learn to read or practice their reading. We have that a lot of, a lot, a lot of materials for kids here and they're new and they're inviting and kids want to jump in and want to read the books. That's a big part of what we do, and that happens at libraries all over the country. So wonderful. Our library gives so much to our community far beyond just the scope of books, but you also have so much reading material in the library that's really unique and whenever I go in there, I notice how it is so well curated to the seasons to applications that are really useful and relevant to the residents of this area. Could you tell me a little bit about the other folks in the library that helped you do those kinds of things.
Yeah, most definitely. So first and foremost, I spent a lot of time today giving a shout out to the the staff at the Round Valley ranch. So Pasabbrero, D Mullen, Shelby Medina, Shakti, Caitlin Harness was with us this summer and those folks work hard, uh, they work very hard every day, kind of responding to, to the needs of folks who walk through the door of the library and like you say, that could be books and trying to have uh inviting display out to entice readers into borrowing more books from the library is a big part of what we do, but we respond in other ways too. We're, we're ready to provide tech help, you know, we have magazines and newspapers, we have board games, and those folks, the, the staff at the Round Valley Public Library, they're county employees and they work really hard to um provide the programs and services at the Round Valley ranch. Wonderful, Josh, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today and congratulations. Of course, Jenn, thanks for being here today at the library for our reception.
Round Valley Public Library Celebrates "Best Small Library in America" Award

Friends of the Round Valley Public Library