Luke Alvey-Henderson, the newly appointed director of Durango Public Library, said he wants to expand library services and grow public partnerships within the community.
He was appointed to the library director position by Durango City Council on June 20.
When Alvey-Henderson told his two daughters, ages 9 and 10, they were moving to Colorado, they were ecstatic, he said.
They have visited only once, but they fell in love with the state. His wife is a native Coloradan and always knew she wanted to return, she just didn’t know when, he said. The family got their chance when Alvey-Henderson accepted the library director role.
Alvey-Henderson grew up in libraries and always knew he wanted a career in service, he said. He started his library career 12½ years ago at the Moore Memorial Public Library in Texas City, Texas, as a teen services and marketing librarian. He worked under that title for six years before being promoted to assistant library director for about two years. Then he was appointed the library director, and served in that role for four years.
Erin Hyder, managing director of internal and cultural services for Durango, said the city set out on a national search for a new library director and received more than 40 applications. After a “lengthy and competitive interview” process, the city hosted finalists for the position, and Alvey-Henderson came out on top.
Alvey-Henderson said an independent library district, something the city has explored in conjunction with La Plata County, could be what is needed to stabilize funding for the library – but he needs time to gauge the public’s opinion first.
“The next step in looking for a library district is going to be public polling,” he said. “They finished the feasibility study, and what was interesting about that study was that they found that with our current model of funding, the library would have stable funding for eight to 10 years barring a recession.”
But economic indicators suggest the country may be on the verge of a recession, he said.
When recessions strike there are winners and losers, he said. It is possible Colorado and Durango could make it through a recession all right and there would be no need for alternative funding. But either way, he wants to gauge the public’s opinion.
“Regardless of if we do a district model or not, I’m going to look aggressively at finding ways to bring stability to funding because I feel like that is one of the primary parts of the role of director,” he said.
Alvey-Henderson said the city’s emphasis on building a positive staff environment and its focus on diversity, equity and inclusion – including outreach to underserved groups – is what attracted him to the role.
He said the city’s requirements for a library director are “hallmarks” of his service model at Moore Memorial Public Library.
“Not that there wasn’t an emphasis on that from previous directors, there was,” he said. “But I was able to kind of bring that a bit into the 21st century and it was something I’m deeply passionate about.”
Although Alvey-Henderson hasn’t started at the Durango library, he said he is already impressed with its staff members. From observing its day-to-day operations between city interviews and checking out the library’s website, he already feels confident the library staff fits the definition of “best practices” for library services.
“To have that as a director going in, where your job isn’t to motivate people or keep people but just to unlock their full potential by being a service to them and the community, is my dream job,” he said.
He said he has the same thing in Texas City on a smaller scale, but it was just time to take the next step in his career, and time for his family to make the leap and move to Colorado.
He said his oldest daughter is about to start middle school, and he and his wife thought it was a good idea to couple that transition with a family move.
Alvey-Henderson isn’t just moving his family. He wants to advance the Durango Public Library’s presence in the community, he said.
“I’m really looking forward to immediately getting involved in the community, attending a lot of community meetings and events,” he said. “Both just as a citizen going to them and trying to get some more library outreach physically outside of the building, and working on staffing models to make that work.”
He said libraries, if managed well, can provide numerous dynamic services to communities.
“And Durango absolutely has that where they support their library being a service point and reaching out to the community and being a vibrant part of the community,” he said.
The challenge for libraries, he said, is staying relevant to the communities they serve. Not just by supporting the people who visit the facilities, but to the people outside the libraries themselves.
Alvey-Henderson said he is a “big believer” in building strong public partnerships with health and human services as well as jobs and career services because those organizations can make for powerful associates.
At Moore Memorial Public Library, he grew public partnerships “by more than 10-fold” within his first year there, and he has similar goals for Durango.
“The library can add so much value by partnering with those groups,” he said. “And so I expect to see those partnerships grow, frankly, exponentially, within my first year there.”
Alvey-Henderson assumes his role as the new Durango Public Library director in mid-July.
cburney@durangoherald
