AALS AWARD NOMINATION, Written by C.J. Horton, Director of the Alexander Memorial Library:

La Salle County is 1517 square miles of scrub brush and cactus, occupied by many coyotes and cattle and less than 6000 people. Cotulla may be the county seat and the location of Alexander Memorial Library; but Encinal, 30 miles south and at the county’s edge, has a pretty fair-sized population of all ages and backgrounds. A few years ago, a non-profit arts group called Art’s for Everyone / Hecho en Encinal was started there and has become an established fact of life for local residents. (By the way, Hecho en Encinal means “Made in Encinal”.) They sponsor GED classes and computer labs at their building several evenings a week, and have held Alexander Memorial Library Summer Reading Club StoryTime events there since 2003.

We’ve tried several ways for years to get library services to Encinal, including having books dropped off at the City Hall for pickup or return to the library; and working with the school district and the bus driver who comes to Cotulla every school day. But the effort these plans took on the various parties could not be sustained for long.

Finally, in the spring of 2006, a small committee of folks sat down and hashed out what would be needed to make library services a viable reality in this small town. We were spurred to take action when a local “benefactor” was heard to remark, “What this place needs is some kind of reading room”. Three members of Hecho en Encinal and the Alexander Memorial Library director made decisions about basic requirements for using the library’s circulating items, and Hecho en Encinal offered its building space and staff for housing library materials, obtaining library card application information, and maintaining circulation statistics.

Alexander Memorial Library has, for countless years, been a McNaughton customer. The library director worked with the McNaughton representative for a couple of months via phone and e-mail to establish a second plan which would be a part of the library’s account but could be identified and paid for separately. With a definite annual cost for this second plan in hand, the “local benefactor” was approached and he agreed to pay for a year’s plan so that books could be ordered by Encinal folks for Encinal folks.

At the same time, the Hecho folks prepared and distributed a survey in strategic locations around Encinal, gathered and collated them, and gave the results to the library director.

With these plans in place, the library director gathered up 120 items from our shelves (books for all reader levels; videos -- VHS and DVD; music CDs; and an audiobook or two) and hauled several full boxes to Encinal and the Hecho building early on June 1^st, 2006. The informally-named Hecho Library was open with books and videos reflecting the survey responses.

Word got out to locals through the elementary school located in Encinal, and to the folks who enrolled in the GED classes and computer labs, as well as through word of mouth.

The original plan was to leave the items for two months and start another cycle. To date, the cycles have lasted for about 4 months each. The second-cycle materials were mostly picked out by the Hecho staff who had learned what items were most popular, especially with the kids.

The Hecho McNaughton books are delivered to the library where we process them and put them in our catalog, with an Hecho identifier tag. They have nearly 60 McNaughton books on their shelves to date. When we update the library’s New Titles web page, we note the ones that are “Encinal McNaughton”s and highlight a notation that all library patrons can request these books for check-out (even if they’re not residents of Encinal).

The biggest users of this remote “library” are the local kids, a good indicator of its potential.

This effort has been in operation less than a year, but thanks to the dedication of the Hecho folks, and the strong support of our library board for this project, we think this one is actually going to work!