Barbara Brattin Wins Librarian of the Year

The Telluride Daily Planet
Published 12/12/07
www.telluridegateway.com

By Elizabeth Guest

The awards just keep rolling in for Telluride.

This fall, four local educators earned the highest recognition from the state as the best in their respective fields.

Barbara Brattin, director of the Wilkinson Public Library, made the list as Colorado librarian of the year. On Tuesday, Town Council honored her, as well as Mary Rubadeau, recipient of the Colorado Superintendent of the Year award, with citizenship awards.

“That’s what is so cool about this town,” Brattin said of all the positive feedback she’s received since wining the award. “They really embrace this.”

Last Wednesday, Brattin received a proclamation at the San Miguel County County Commissioners meeting, a similar thank you for her service.

Since its opening in 2000, the Wilkinson Public Library has served the community with written resources, technology and programming for children and adults. The 20,000-square-foot building is multi-functional along with its staff, lead by Brattin,
“It’s high-tech and high-touch at the same time,” Brattin said of WPL’s unique facility. “It’s two very difficult things to combine — we give people stuff they can do themselves, but we also have a friendly staff.”

Sarah Landeryou, manager of adult services, and Elizabeth Tracy, youth services librarian, nominated Brattin for the award last spring. Both wrote recommendations describing Brattin’s positive traits and innovative ideas as a library leader.
“She’s a really good leader,” Landeryou said. “She gives staff the room they need to do what they need to do, but at the same time she keeps everything moving in the right direction.”

The deciding body, the Colorado Association of Libraries, named Brattin Colorado Librarian of the Year in September. For Brattin, the news was a surprise.
“[Landeryou and Tracy] came into one of our board meetings, and said ‘can we make announcement?’” she recounted. “It was really fun how they did it, and it really surprised me.”

More surprises were in store. When honored at an awards ceremony at the annual library conference in November, Brattin’s kids flew in from across the country, and her sister surprised her, showing up unexpected in the lobby of her hotel.

At the awards ceremony, Brattin received a plaque and made a speech.

“I got to do a nice little speech and tell the world about how great Telluride is,” she said.
Brattin took the helm in July 2005. She moved from Chicago, has bolstered the WPL with improved services such as the interlibrary loan program, a grant from LSTA [Library Services and Technology Act] for downloadable audio books and increased youth and adult programming.

“She’s done great things,” Landeryou said. “She came into a situation as an outsider, with everyone skeptical about change, but she understands the library’s role in the community while at the same time pushes new things.”

One of Brattin’s big moves was to bridge the libraries of the Western Slope. As members of the Marmot Library Network, an integrated library computer system service
for a consortium of academic, public, and school libraries in Western Colorado, Brattin brought about a greater sharing of resources between member libraries.

“[Brattin] convinced other libraries to share books in their collections, and borrow from other sources,” Landeryou said. “Some people were a little hesitant at first, but it’s at the heart of what libraries do. Libraries are all about sharing.”

Operating under this mantra, Brattin shares the award with the rest of her staff. Collaborating with staff, she’s enhanced programming and made WPL more accessible, hiring Sierra Stafford as Public Information Coordinator to reconstruct and modernize the library’s Web site.

The improvements have paid of and the library is as busy as ever.

“It’s wonderful here,” Brattin said. “Our use went up 10 percent from last year.”
This weekend, the library hosts a Writers Conference, from 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m., on how to get published. The winner of the short story will also be announced, receiving a $1,000 prize. The contest included 50 entries, which were sent to outside readers to ensure unbiased judging. Last year’s winner was Reilly Capps, a reporter for the Daily Planet.

As always, WPL hosts a long list of events leading up to the weekend. On Tuesday, WPL has Toddler Story Time at 11 a.m., Book Match  —  Find your next great read at 11:30 a.m. and Science Club, for ages 8 and older, at 3:30 p.m. On Wednesday, there’s Yoga for Kids, for ages 4 and older, at 10:15 a.m., followed by Ann Lincoln, juggler, magician and comedian, at 3:30 p.m. On Friday, the weekly Infant Story Time takes place at 11 a.m.

For more information on WPL, call 728-4519 or visit www.telluridelibrary.org.