The coordinator of the Polk County Library Cooperative spent her childhood hiking through national parks, being homeschooled by her mother and listening to the symphony every winter.

As a child, Gladys spent her winters – also known as “concert season” – in Shreveport, La., where her father played the violin in the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra. The family spent the warmer months first in northern California, where her father was a forest ranger on a lookout tower in Tahoe National Forest, and later in Utah after her father became a park ranger for Canyonlands National Park. Gladys and her family moved to Florida when she was 10 to be closer to her grandparents.

Her family’s early lifestyle inspired Gladys to become a park ranger just like her father. But a love of reading and a joy that came from being inside of a library was something she couldn’t deny, and eventually, it led her to her first library job.

Now married for 24 years to her high school sweetheart, Gladys still appreciates the time she spent in the parks, and she and her husband have been back to the Canyonlands several times to hike.

Gladys and I chatted about her first library job, the inception of the Polk County Library Cooperative, why she named her cat Moses, and how she found out the hard way that reference interviews are so important.

What inspired you to become a librarian?
Two things inspired me. When we lived on the national park, we were 55 miles from the closest town, which was Monticello. We didn’t know we were doing this at the time, but mom was homeschooling us. We would go to the public library in Monticello. Mom had made friends with the librarian, and we would check out 35-40 books at a time for a month.

When I was 15 and living in Florida, someone from my church told me about a new government program that gave teenagers training to provide cities with additional employees that they didn’t have to pay for. The hope was that when the cities were looking for regular employees, they would hire these teenagers who had taken part in the program.

Through this program, I started working as a part-time summer employee at the local library, Latt Maxcy Memorial Library. I loved being in the library so much that I couldn’t believe they would pay me to work there!

I started working there every summer. The city eventually created a new part-time position during the school year and full-time in summer, and they hired me for the job. I was so fortunate that the library directors took me under their wing. The second director, Celeste Brown, suggested I get a degree in library science. She really encouraged me, and that’s when I first realized I could make a career out of something I love.

What are you most proud of in your career?
I’m proud of being able to facilitate countywide library services in Polk County and help people achieve dreams they couldn’t do without the structure of the cooperative. I certainly haven’t done it on my own, though. I work with directors and libraries that were already successfully in place before the cooperative existed. The cooperative is a “we,” not an “I,” and I’m so proud to be a part of it.

Most memorable moment with a patron?
There have been so many over the years. It’s been so much fun.

One that comes to mind is the moment where I learned the importance of a reference interview. I had a patron who wanted information on cobras. I headed over to the 500s and we began to pull books on reptiles. He had a really puzzled look on his face, and I could tell nothing I was doing was helping him. I kept asking him all sorts of questions to try to figure out why the stuff I was showing him wasn’t helping. “Is it for a paper? Are you just interested in cobras?” Finally, he said, “No, Cobras, as in the helicopter.”

That was before I understood the importance of a reference interview. I’m surprised he didn’t say anything earlier!

Tell us more about the formation of the Polk County Library Cooperative and the challenges and accomplishments that went along with that.
A cooperative is something that the librarians in Polk County had been working on for 30-some years. They all knew there was a need to have countywide services. They all felt the frustration of having to charge for out-of-city memberships, for example. Then, in 1996, the law changed, and it was now possible to give state aid to a cooperative.

But the city was very proud of its libraries. Each building had its own story, its own history. They felt like they had built up this successful program, and they didn’t want to take all of that history and hard work and just give it to the county. And the county didn’t want it – they didn’t have a public library system or a public library person on staff. That was one of the big challenges. Even as we were founding the cooperative, there wasn’t a lot of trust between the city and the county.

There was also a great fear regarding how equity was going to work. Some libraries in the county were really well established, well funded and very modern, and then other libraries were volunteer libraries with no budget and very limited hours. There was a concern that sharing services through a cooperative wouldn’t be fair for the libraries. Large libraries were concerned that everything would fly off the shelves and go to another location.

However, the county commissioners hired a consultant to study the potential to form a cooperative, and on Oct. 1, 1997, we became the very last county in the state to figure out how to do countywide services.

The librarians themselves had formed the Polk County Library Association prior to the cooperative’s existence. They already worked together, met together, socialized and exchanged ideas. They even began reciprocal borrowing at a local level. They were already doing it, but it was much less official than a cooperative and very informal. But they laid that groundwork for trust that made it much easier to work together under the cooperative. That level of trust and friendship really helped the cooperative succeed.

What does your position as the coordinator of the Polk County Library Cooperative entail?
My job is about facilitating and disseminating information to our members and making sure everyone gets the opportunity to participate equally.

How has your job evolved since you began working with the cooperative?
When it formed in 1997, one of the requirements was that we have a coordinator. The cooperative was a three-year “deal,” and we didn’t know at the time if it would last beyond three years. It didn’t seem right to hire someone new – or bring someone into the area – that may only be around for three years.

There was also concern that someone who didn’t know us at all would come in and tell us how things needed to be done. So we decided to hire someone from within, and that it would be a part-time job.

I was the assistant director at Bartow Public Library at the time. I had just finished my master’s degree, so I had extra time on my hands, and I thought it would be fun to take on a part-time job. The coordinator job didn’t look overly demanding.

They selected me for the first coordinator position, and I worked both jobs – full-time assistant director at Bartow and part-time coordinator at the cooperative – for nine years.

Then, when we were doing the budget for 2006-07, it became obvious that we needed a full-time coordinator position. The cooperative was nearly 10 years old, and we had evolved and grown so much.  

I had to make a big decision, because suddenly I had two full-time job opportunities. It was such a difficult choice because I loved both jobs. I prayed about it, and I got my answer, and I accepted the full-time coordinator position with the cooperative.

What are the pluses and minuses of working as coordinator of the cooperative, as opposed to being director of a library?
The greatest strength is also the greatest weakness. By being a cooperative, we get the benefit of everyone’s expertise and knowledge. We can use individual strengths to help us succeed or excel. The challenge is that it can be difficult to implement countywide policies such as due dates or overdue fees because at each library, the city commission has to approve any changes.

As the director of a library, you have the ability to create a policy and immediately implement it without having to get buy-in from 15 different entities.

What has been your biggest inspiration, professionally?
The effect we can have on children and their imaginations. I worked many years as a children’s librarian at Latt Maxcy Memorial Library. To see the expression on the children’s faces when you’re telling them a story or sharing something with them they’ve never heard before is such an inspiration.

The immediate gratification is getting hugs or notes from the kids. But years later, they come up to you in the store, or many, many years later (when you start feeling old!), as adults, they come up to you and thank you, or say they bring their children to the library now.

What do you see as the biggest issue facing libraries today?
In Florida, the biggest issue is the budget. But overall, the biggest issue is staying relevant. We are relevant, but we need to tell the public that we’re relevant. A lot of people – especially if they haven’t used a library in a while – have a misconception that the internet has replaced the public library. They think, “Since I can buy my books at Barnes & Noble, and I can look at the internet for information, why do I need the library?”

What they don’t realize is all the intangibles that a public library brings to the table, and the expertise that we bring, like literacy programs or helping them wade through the internet.

It’s a challenge to find positive ways of making sure that message gets out. If they don’t realize the importance of libraries, they may not be upset if or when it gets cut because of budget.

What do you envision the library of the future to look like?
I still see it having books. I know a lot of people think one day we’ll be paperless, but I think there’s a level of comfort that comes with a real book. There’s just something about the experience of turning pages.

There’s still going to be a connection with early learning and life-long learning. The technology end of things will evolve in ways we can’t even fathom at the moment.

Libraries will still be buildings with collections in them. I think there will be a mixture of technology and our old collections. Librarians will always be important. We play a role that currently doesn’t have anyone else to fill it.

What three skills, abilities, values or areas of knowledge have you found most necessary in being a strong leader?

Patience. You need to think before you speak and listen more than you talk.

Respect. You need to respect other people’s ideas and values and try to see where they are coming from.

Sense of humor. I try to find something humorous in every situation, no matter how bad. It’s not always easy to do that, but if I can, it helps me get through it.

How would your staff describe you?
I hope they say I’m positive and supportive.

What is your favorite book and why?
Usually the one I’m reading at the time. I love all the books! Very seldom do I pick one up that I won’t finish. The one I read the most often is the Bible, and I get the most out of it.

Any hobbies or interesting tidbits to share?
I love to read more than anything. I enjoy hiking; I still have that love of growing up in the park. I also like crocheting and cooking. I don’t usually have time to cook from scratch, so when I do, I really enjoy it.

One of my favorite things to do is to have my cat in my lap. His name is Moses. We found him as a wet, angry, hungry little 3-week-old kitten out by the air conditioning unit underneath the bedroom window. There was no reason for him to be there, and we believe the only way he could have been placed there is by divine intervention, so we named him Moses. He made a pledge to himself that night that he would never be hungry again. So now he’s 20 pounds and on a diet.