Q+A: Director says libraries do more than enlighten; they change lives

By Jackie Valley

Friday, April 22, 2016 | 2 a.m.

As a young librarian in the 1970s, Ronald Heezen visited a high school detention class. Most of the teens stared at him blankly, looked half asleep or doodled as he read aloud.

Later that afternoon, however, a young girl from the class — one who had been drawing the entire time — came into the public library and asked to borrow the book he had been reading.

Week after week, she returned and checked out more books.

Years later, Heezen, who was by then working at a different library, received a visitor: It was Regina, the girl from the detention class.

“I came here to thank you,” Heezen recalled Regina telling him. “It’s because of you I started reading. And because I started reading, I started doing pretty well in school. I’m no longer a detention-style student. I just got a full scholarship.”

This is the moment that keeps Heezen, executive director of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, preaching the importance of public libraries. Much has changed since he became a librarian more than four decades ago — for one, the explosion of the Internet.

This year, a new strategic plan for the library district went into effect. The document, which serves as a blueprint guiding library development over the next four years, even acknowledges the changing times: On its introduction page, the first sentence proclaims, “We don’t library like we used to!”

Walk through the county’s newest library on Windmill Lane in the southwest valley, and it’s obvious. There’s an art gallery, an auditorium, a used-book shop, a children’s play space, computer labs, meetings rooms and, yes, rows upon rows of books and periodicals.

Even so, Heezen said one aspect of the book-filled facilities hadn’t changed.

“Libraries change lives,” he said. “We help people dream their dreams, see their visions, discover their full potential and then actually achieve that potential,” he said.

The Las Vegas Sun recently sat down with Heezen to discuss the evolution of libraries and what they provide the community. Here are excerpts from that interview, edited for clarity and brevity.

Most libraries probably rely on computer systems rather than card catalogs to keep track of their collections. How else have libraries changed the way they operate since you began your career?

Libraries have always — even more so lately — acted as the third place. You have your home; that's your first place. You have your job; that’s the second place you go. Where do you go to connect to people who think like you do, have the same interests? Some people choose their church or even go down to their Starbucks. But there are so many people who use the library as their third place — the place they go to connect with other humans. That’s been happening ever since I’ve been in the library. It’s just that now it’s more of the focus of who we are.

I was at Denny’s just three to four weeks ago. This one lady came to check me out at the cashier’s desk. She saw my badge. She looked at that and said, “You work at the library? My husband and I lost our jobs and our house during the recession. Because of the library, we had a place to go to learn how to write a resume and do applications.” That’s the kind of thing we see at libraries.

The new strategic vision calls for a focus on four areas — limitless learning, business and career success, government and social services, and culture and community. How will libraries in Clark County evolve based on that mission?

It’s going to be different at every location. We have 25 libraries and because of the demographics that are driving each library, we will focus the services to what the users in that location want and need.

The Las Vegas Library will be moving to a new location in eastern Las Vegas in 2018. The library district met with residents of the area, representatives from the Mexican consulate and community leaders to get their input about what they want for the building. For example, they didn’t really want an auditorium. They said, “No, we want a place where we can have quinceaneras." And we said, “That’s great. Anything we can do to serve the population.”

Has visitor volume changed in recent years?

Last year, 6.3 million people came through our doors at our 25 locations. That does not include website users. And 14.9 million items circulated in one year. We are staying fairly level in terms of our circulation because people are discovering our digital content.

What kind of digital content do Clark County libraries provide?

You name it — magazines, music, movies, books, databases, newspapers. We have it all, and it’s all free. Now, you do have to come into the library to get a card, and you have to renew that card once a year.

And by the way, music through our source you get to keep forever. So instead of signing up for iTunes and downloading, you can go through our provider and download three free songs per week. It will take you four weeks to get the full CD, but nevertheless, you’ve got all the songs and you never have to pay a penny. That’s one of the hidden gems that people don’t realize we offer.

You mentioned that young families account for a large share of library users. What do you wish they knew about services the library offers?

We can actually stop the summer slide. Kids who have nine-month school schedules are out for the summer, they always go backward in development — unless they have participated in our summer reading club. Kids who participate in our summer reading club have very little, if any, backward slide. It’s a free program for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Local schools must appreciate the summer reading club. Do libraries work with the Clark County School District in other ways?

We’re trying to collaborate more and more with Clark County schools. For example, if they go to a model of using digital textbooks, for kids who can’t access that, we can provide access points at each of our locations. We can help in so many different ways. We’ve begun the conversation with them, but it’s going to take some time to develop. It’s a very early-stage partner examination.

Are you confident libraries have a strong future in the community?

Oh yeah. It’s the most American institution there is. Every other institution you can think of — whether it’s the police department, fire department, the Legislature — was modeled after some European predecessor. The free public library is uniquely American.

Last but not least, what are you currently reading?

“Nine Lives” by Tom Barber.

***

The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District keeps track of what the area’s residents are reading. Here’s a peek at the most-circulated items in March.

Fiction

“Cross Justice” by James Patterson

“The Promise” by Robert Crais

“Rogue Lawyer” by John Grisham

“The Guilty” by David Baldacci

“The Crossing” by Michael Connelly

“Tricky Twenty-Two” by Janet Evanovich

Nonfiction

“Killing Reagan” by Bill O’Reilly

“Timeless Beauty” by Christie Brinkley

GED Test

Nevada Manual del Conductor

“He Killed Them All: Robert Durst and My Quest for Justice” by Jeanine Pirro

Nevada Driver’s Handbook

eBook

“Gone Again (Jack Swyteck series)” by James Grippando

“Private Paris” by James Patterson

“Fire Touched” by Patricia Briggs

“Fool Me Once” by Harlan Coben

“Clawback (An Ali Reynolds novel)” by J.A. Jance

***

Food drive for library fines

Have a boatload of library fines? The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District is accepting canned goods and other nonperishable food items in lieu of payment. The library district will waive $2 in fines for each canned or packaged food item donated at any regional library. All donated items will be given to Three Square Food Bank. The Food for Thought program runs through the end of April.