“Edward the Emu was sick of the zoo. There was nowhere to go. There was nothing to do. And compared to the seals that lived right next door, well, being an emu was frankly a bore.”
Adela Martinez, a youth services librarian at the Cottonwood Public Library read the picture book, “Edward the Emu,” by Sheena Knowles. Her audience stood behind her and paced back and forth. Edward and Edwina, the actual, non-fictional emus, did not seem to understand exactly what she was reading, but they looked as beautiful, gangly and imposing as viewed on Facebook Live as the illustrated emus of the book did.
Martinez had traveled to Elmersville Road near Sedona to the home of Maureen and Dana, neighbors of Cottonwood’s teen librarian Jan Quisumbing. Quisumbing had noticed that his neighbors owned a small mob of emus [mob is the official term for a group of emus], and so brought some of the librarians, two books about emus, and a camera to record and post a video online. It was the first of what the library hopes will be a series of “Librarians on Location” videos, going beyond the library building to showcase people and places in the community.
“Ever since March we went virtual,” Quisumbing said. “We can’t have families come in for story time, so we’ll bring you story time, wherever you are. Even if it’s a little bit of normality to your day, for one brief moment.”
But in addition to the library’s efforts to go online due to the pandemic, the staff have been looking for ways to bring the sense of community that libraries usually embody to the town even when the building cannot be the focus. The plan for Libraries on Location is to simultaneously show people what is in their community while also giving them a reason to check out more books on the topic if they are inspired.
“I want people to know that there is a vast amount of knowledge available through the library,” Library Assistant Liz Gooslin said. “You could learn about virtually anything you want to learn about. If we can do a video that sparks someone to come in and dig deeper and learn more, then that’s what we’re hoping to do.”
The librarians have talked about seeking out local restaurants and breweries as potential topics, giving library patrons inside looks at how certain foods and drinks are made, or going to the wastewater or water treatment plants for a tour of the processes that keep the town running.
“We hope that in the new year many businesses will open their doors to let us come in to talk to about: What do you do? How did you learn to do it? Do you have to go to school for this? How can I do this if I want to?” Quisumbing said. “I’ve read about it, but now I can apply what I’ve read to the actual [world]. We’re trying to bring experiences to people who might not normally have that chance or opportunity, whether through financial reasons or what- ever else. As a library, we try to provide all that. Come here, we will show you this.”
