Kathryn Hurtley took on her role as the Sitka Public Library director about a month ago. She’s still getting acclimated to her new job, she said, but she’s excited to work on enhancing programs offered at the library and starting new ones, like electronic literacy programs for senior citizens. (Photo by Enrique Pérez de la Rosa)
Kathryn Hurtley was born, raised and educated in Montana. She’s originally a teacher by training, teaching kids in Montana and Mexico but eventually, Hurtley found herself behind a library’s circulation desk in the small, 2-thousand people town of Telluride, Colorado.
“That really opened my eyes to small libraries and the power of them,” she said. “It was a wonderful place to be.
Now, she’s the new director of the Sitka Public Library. She took on her new role about a month ago but she’s been preparing for it for years.
In Telluride, Hurtley also learned the important role librarians play in people’s lives, just by helping them find a book to read. Reading is a very personal activity and Hurtley said that’s why librarians form such powerful human connections with the public they serve.
“I don’t think people quite realize that,” Hurtley said. “I’m not kidding. You are helping people realize a part of their life that is very important to them.”
For a few years, Hurtley left libraries to run non-profit organizations: first an arts council in Telluride and then the Valdez Museum. Since then, she’s been a faithful Alaska resident, directing the Huna Heritage Foundation in Juneau.
“I always say, I was pulled to Colorado but I was yanked to Alaska,” she said.
Kathryn arrived in Sitka only about a month ago. She said she’s been working on getting her sea legs at the library and supporting library staff in doing their jobs.
“They’re doing it,” she said. “That circulation desk is busy and people that work that desk do everything from talk about books to cajoling people to offering advice to getting the fines to telling them about programs.”
And she’s excited about enhancing those programs to help Sitkans stay literate, like providing electronic literacy classes to senior citizens.
“You know, there’s all sorts of things that people struggle with on electronic literacy that even their grandson can’t explain to them,” she said. “It’s like ‘grandma, just go to the library and figure it out.”
Overall, Hurtley wants the Sitka Public Library to continue to be an inclusive space where all residents of Sitka are welcome. The best libraries, she said, are the reflection of their community.
“Sitka is definitely an example of that because you have community coming in here and you’re giving access to everyone, Hurtley said. “If you’re doing that, you’re doing your job well. And I always think the barometer for that is how often do you hear people say ‘I love my library’ and you hear that a lot here.”
Hurtley said another reason some keep telling her they love the Sitka library might be because they want her to take good care of it.
“I love that I hear that because if I heard something else – like ‘oh yeah, that old library,’ – that would would worry me. But everyone here has this earnestness in their eyes of ‘you know, we love our library. You do get that part, right?’”
And clearly she gets it.
Editor’s note: Kathryn Hurtley’s husband, Kevin Hurtley, is the Director of IT for CoastAlaska, the consortium of six public radio stations in Southeast Alaska. Kevin Hurtley has joined Kathryn in Sitka and works at the studios of Raven Radio.
