West Bountiful resident Paul Stokes has taken over for 13-year library director Kay Twogood, who has retired. Her replacement does not lack experience in a variety of book and library-related jobs. Stokes has been involved with libraries in one form or another for the past 30 years. His experience includes beginning the bookmobile program in Washington and Iron counties, eventually running 19 bookmobiles in Southern Utah. Besides working in libraries Stokes also worked as a consultant for a library software management company and as a sales representative for Scholastic Books, a publishing company whose main clients are schools.
For Stokes, the Kaysville City Library provides a unique touch to Kaysville
"I think the library is a landmark. It offers citizens a little better touch because it is closer to the citizens than the county system," said Stokes
Recently the Kaysville City Library has been in the midst of change. The library itself is too small to keep up with the growth of Kaysville.
An effort to build a larger library through bonding was voted down during the last election. Stokes understands that the library does need work in terms of physical facilities, but said he believes there are different ways of improving the situation.
"I've seen other cities overcome the same problems that are facing Kaysville City. We already have some endowment funds and can work on raising more. Maybe the community could look at what we have raised and see that we have done some work to raise money," he said.
His experience in other cities gives Stokes hope that the problem of raising money and support for the Kaysville City Library is not insurmountable.
"Highland City Library (northeast Utah County) has an endowment fund and has raised almost enough money to construct a new library. I've seen this happen in Cedar City and Tooele. We need to look at all the possibilities whether or not it is a new building or otherwise," he said.
For many years, the library has received a yearly financial boost from the Alan and Kay Blood Endowment Fund. That ranges from $20,000 to $40,000 per year, with the library generally drawing upon interest to purchase new books and related materials.
However, Twogood has previously said that because of the cramped 6,000 square-foot facility, there isn't room to purchase all of the materials that ideally could be added through the fund.
Concern over what would happen to the fund, which is intended specifically for the city library, has been one issue used by backers of continuing a separate city library.
Although the overall service of the library has been termed as very high, many patrons complain that many of the library books are in ill repair. Often the answer to improving the library's collection is throwing away old, tattered books. The problem of destroying or getting rid of library books is always difficult for someone who loves books as much as Stokes.
"It is difficult for a lot of librarians to throw books away. It gives you a false sense of security to have your shelves full. We need to weed out the books that are in bad or poor condition," he said.
Twogood noted recently that "weeding" is always done carefully after considering physical condition of the book and other factors.
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