The past year has been an exceptional one for WCL, in many ways. At the end of 2019, the library achieved an all-time annual attendance record – over 45,000 – for its programs and classes. That’s in a county library system that officially serves 16,000 patrons. (The City of Pullman has its own stand-alone library system.)
Then earlier this year, WCL marked its 75th anniversary. But because this milestone happened in the midst of another extraordinary event – the coronavirus pandemic – there was no big celebration. Indeed, all of the library buildings were shut down for a time. Library staff implemented a new system of mailing requested items to patrons’ homes, then pivoted to curbside service, and in August, when the library was allowed to reopen, the staff adjusted yet again, reconfiguring for what are now reduced open hours with social distancing requirements and time limits for library visits.
Also this year, Kirkpatrick – whose smiling presence has been a mainstay not only for the community, but also as an advocate for libraries at the state and local level – announced her impending retirement. Her replacement was hired from the neighboring county library system.
As director of the East Adams Library District, Kylie Fullmer had worked actively to support local and statewide broadband initiatives helping to ensure that rural areas had access to high speed internet. This was certainly one of the factors in her selection as Kirkpatrick’s successor.
WCL, too, has been dedicated to expanding digital inclusiveness. In the late 1990s, the Gates Foundation provided a game-changing grant that provided equipment and infrastructure changes, with a surprise visit by Bill Gates, himself. Now the CARES Act and local funding sources are helping to advance internet access even further.
In the 21st century, this has become imperative for modern democracy. In rural America, it gives remotely located citizens the same tools to access information on current affairs that their urban brethren have, and it facilitates their ability to ask questions and exchange ideas.
But last month, not even 24 hours before Fullmer was scheduled to begin training with Kirkpatrick for her new job with WCL, an almost unthinkable catastrophe befell the community. It was already a hot and wind-whipped day up in the northern reaches of the county when a tree branch fell on a power line, igniting a fire that quickly exploded into a fast-moving inferno. It flashed through tinder-dry fields and stands of parched pine before raging up the road to the little burg of Malden, where it incinerated everything in its path: cars, trucks, homes, the Masonic lodge, post office, city hall, fire station – and the branch library. Only the charred book drop box out front remained recognizable.
Eighty percent of the town was reduced to a pile of smoking ash and rubble. And Malden, Fullmer noted, was one rural community where the internet already had been laid to every door.
Malden Library bookdrop.