MEEKER | Mike Bartlett has been the library director of the Meeker Public Library for 27 years. June 30, 2023, marked his last day before that title passed to Kristina Selby. The two have been working together since Selby began as a library assistant in 2019. Barlett feels confident he is leaving the library he has spent years caring for in capable hands with Selby.
Bartlett first came to Meeker from Denver when he was offered the position of library director, and does not plan to leave until all seven of his cars are running. At the moment only one of them does, so we can count on having him around for around “100 more years,” as he put it.
When asked what highlights he recalls from his years as library director, Bartlett said that the move from Third Street (Fairfield Community Center) to the current Fifth Street location in 2008 was probably the biggest event, and one of his proudest accomplishments.
Bartlett had a good amount of say in the design of the library’s current home, which began as a very old building. And parts of it still are! He pointed out some of the architectural quirks engineers had to work with in order to make the new library site a reality. These included a brick wall that leans at such a degree the doorway through it had to be expertly cut in order to facilitate the angles, and an upside down truss. But it was not just the new space that made the move memorable for Bartlett.
“When we moved from that building down to this one, we could have paid somebody to move everything for us. We didn’t, instead we had a woman with a Honda CR-V and we moved everything with two women, me, and a kid. We saved a lot of money.”
Asked if they had considered reaching out to the community to make that move quicker Bartlett said that while they had thought about it, they felt it would be more organized with their small party — Bartlett, Pearl Ellsworth, Angie Harris and her son — and small car doing the work. The move only closed the library for a single week.
Bartlett was also excited about the expansion they made to the current library in 2015. This expansion added a community meeting room and patio to the site. The addition has been home to multiple events, classes, celebrations, and activities.
One thing that was evident in speaking with Bartlett is how involved he made himself in the everyday function of the library. Many library directors have a private office where they spend their days, but when the space was designed, Bartlett placed his office in an open space right next to the front desk so he could be aware of library visitors and their needs. Because how can you direct something you can’t see?
By Adrienne Wix | Special to the Herald Times
