Retired New Mexico Rancher Loves His Library

After ALA Midwinter Meeting I grabbed a rental car and headed down to New Mexico to do some exploring.  Last night I ate my dinner at the bar of a little restaurant called The Shed (Santa Fe) where I highly recommend you try the pollo adobo.  Delicious.

Anyways, when I travel I like to start up some conversation with the locals.  You can see every sight in a town, but if you don’t talk to the people you might as well have stayed home and watched a special on the travel channel.  People make places; that very fact is why public libraries are different every place you go.  People and culture differ everywhere, so the library buildings and collections do too.  Fresh out of the ALA conference I couldn’t help but ask the retired rancher sitting next to me at the bar if he used his public library.

What a total feel-good moment for a traveling librarian.  The man pulled out his wallet, showed me his library card, explained to me about all four locations, and immediately started singing the praises of public libraries.  He told me how he fights for responsible oil and gas production as well as sustainable energy production in his state.  We talked about education and books; he suggested I read the Roberto Bolano novel 2666 and I suggested he read Cradle to Cradle by McDonough and Braungart.

My informal library advocacy roadtrip continues today as I head to the hot springs in Jemez.  I’ll check back in and let you know what the people have to say about libraries over there.