Librarian weathers storm over split

Joey Kositzky chooses to remember the great things about the changes at the Whitefish library that occurred in 2011 and gloss over the not-so-great parts of this past year.

Kositzky, director of the Whitefish Community Library, spent some long days and nights dealing with unexpected consequences of the decision by Whitefish city officials to terminate the local library’s affiliation with the Flathead County Library System and open an independent city library.

Kositzky said Whitefish leaders didn’t agree with the county’s “cookie cutter vision” for the library.

“It didn’t fit the Whitefish vision of a library,” she said. “What might be good for Kalispell or Columbia Falls might not be for Whitefish.”

The community library opened in early July, after litigation, forced mediation and ongoing disputes about who owned what.

But, almost six months later, Kositzky and her staff essentially have dismissed those issues as they focus on meeting the needs of their library patrons.

“The City Council’s confidence in us is overwhelming,” she said.

She credits the council, Whitefish library supporters, the library staff and residents with making the venture immediately successful.

“It’s never been one or two people that made this successful,” she said. “It’s been an incredible staff, the committee, the library foundation and the valley.

“In the last six months we have created a library,” she said. “It’s been touch and go sometimes, but worth every minute of it.”

Deciding to break away from the county and operate a city library “was a huge decision” for everyone involved, Kositzky said. She had worked for the county library system for more than 20 years and is appreciative of all she learned in that role.

The learning curve was quick, she said. But personnel from Flathead Valley Community College and the Montana State Library spent time at the Whitefish library teaching the staff about book ordering, processing and cataloging.

Usage at the library has increased every month since it opened, she said. Kositzky expects the number of users to increase more in 2012 as the new Friends of the Library group unveils its list of planned programs.

The library doubled the number of computers now available to the public — 21, which continues to pull people into the building, she said.

The Whitefish library housed about 32,000 items in its collection when it was part of the county system. The county took about half of those items and placed them in other county libraries, leaving 14,500 items in Whitefish. The collection has since grown to about 23,000 items, Kositzky said.

“Our shelves are full.”

The library has received many donated books that are on the shelves and has used donated cash to buy more library materials.

“The community has a real ownership in this library,” Kositzky said. Now that the library operates independently, “we can listen to the community directly.”

Being a city library allows all the library employees, volunteers and board members to be more involved in giving back to the community of Whitefish, she said.

In 2012, the library plans to establish more partnerships with various organizations, including local theater projects and schools, Kositzky said.

“We want to do more outreach, have more guest speakers, have a history trip,” she said.

And, if the public wants other types of programs, she intends to find ways to offer those.

“This isn’t our library,” she said, “it belongs to the people out there.”

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.