The Garfield County Public Library District is seeking trustees (our word for library board members) to fill three vacancies. (For more information, visit www.bit.ly/GCPLD-wanted). Applicants do have to live in Rifle, New Castle or Parachute.
By the end of the year, the Rifle position will have been vacant for six months, due to delays in the county’s management of the appointment process.
In New Castle, Brit McLin will be up for reappointment after his first year, as he completes the term of Crystal Mariscal. The Board of County Commissioners are requiring even the trustees they interviewed and appointed themselves to reapply.
Michelle Foster is termed out in Parachute. Her great depth of community insight and experience will be sorely missed. Thank you, Michelle. Congratulations, you lucky folks at the western edge of the county for the gift of her time.
The Commissioners have never really said what they’re looking for in trustees. Nor have they said how the commissioners evaluate their performance. But surely we all can agree: We should have good trustees.
I’ve been a library administrator for 40 years and have formed some opinions about what makes someone qualified for the job. Here’s the list:
By the end of the year, the Rifle position will have been vacant for six months, due to delays in the county’s management of the appointment process.
In New Castle, Brit McLin will be up for reappointment after his first year, as he completes the term of Crystal Mariscal. The Board of County Commissioners are requiring even the trustees they interviewed and appointed themselves to reapply.
Michelle Foster is termed out in Parachute. Her great depth of community insight and experience will be sorely missed. Thank you, Michelle. Congratulations, you lucky folks at the western edge of the county for the gift of her time.
The Commissioners have never really said what they’re looking for in trustees. Nor have they said how the commissioners evaluate their performance. But surely we all can agree: We should have good trustees.
I’ve been a library administrator for 40 years and have formed some opinions about what makes someone qualified for the job. Here’s the list:
- Trustees should be interested in and (ideally) already connected to their community. They are representatives of their town’s region. Six of our positions are tied to zip codes (Parachute, Rifle, Silt, New Castle, Glenwood Springs and Carbondale). Another board seat, currently held by John Mallonee, is at-large. Qualified trustees are paying attention to the information needs of their neighbors. To that end, we look for a spread of ages, backgrounds and life experiences. For instance, roughly half of our business is in children’s books. So it’s good to have parents of young children. Between 30-40% of our population is Hispanic. Right now the biggest gap on the board is a native Spanish speaker.
- Trustees should be curious. We live in a time of great and sometimes wildly contradictory change. Libraries provide resources to help our communities make sense of the world. We need open-minded people alert to the environment around us.
- Trustees should be principled. This does not mean that they never change their minds. It means that the library, a public institution, is based on some core premises. At a minimum, trustees are thoughtful stewards of public funds. They are aware of our mission, our purpose in public life. That purpose is this: Libraries reflect the topics of our times, the things people are talking about. Libraries preserve lines of investigation and knowledge.
- Qualified trustees don’t impose private values on public institutions or seek personal financial gain. While trustees should argue and vote their consciences, they are also committed to the integrity and transparency of public deliberation.
- Trustees should be concerned with the public good. Why do we invest in public libraries? Because we believe they make things better. They grow children’s brains (see our 1,000 books before kindergarten initiative). They assist community members trying to find their life’s work (a curated list of resources in print and online). Libraries build community (through programs, meetings and discussion groups).
- Trustees should be brave. The sad fact is that today’s environment is more focused on personal attacks than public policy. If you take any position at all you’ll be targeted or punished by someone. But all of that is a distraction, an attempt to dominate discourse, to turn it away from the issue to the individual. Civic courage means fearlessness of inquiry, not cowering from some real or imagined mob.
- Trustees should hold themselves accountable. Annually, our trustees fill out and discuss a personal and group scorecard, assessing their knowledge and performance. Not all public boards do.
[This column originally ran in the November 19, 2025 edition of the Sopris Sun.]
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