Under the Sun: Erika Thibault, library director
The Sun’s Anna Pier sits down with the enthusiastic Interim Director of the county library system, who lives right here in Sonoma.
When did you start working for Sonoma County Library?
I was hired as the Deputy Director of the Sonoma County Library in June 2021. I moved up from Los Angeles as part of the “Great Resignation.”
Please explain. This is a term that they use to talk about the many people who left their jobs during the pandemic. In my case, I left a big city job for one in a smaller rural area. I had been with the Los Angeles Public Library for 13 years, since I got my Masters in Library and Information Science.
And why did you choose to live in Sonoma? We were living in Glendale, which was lovely, but we wanted somewhere not urban sprawl, not suburban, with its own distinct character. And it’s easy to get to Petaluma, Napa, San Francisco. I really enjoy the drive through the vineyards to the Library office in Rohnert Park.
I detect an accent. Minnesota. But I didn’t really grow up there. My father was in the Navy. We lived in Idaho, Connecticut, South Carolina, Hawaii. People wonder, “the Navy in Idaho?” There was a training center for nuclear subs there. My father was an electrician, working at all those different nuclear plants. I graduated high school in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and then got a degree in anthropology from the University of Wisconsin. I had begun a Ph.D. in Communication Studies at the University of Minnesota when I realized that I didn’t want to teach and I was not a big writer. I had severe ‘impostor’s syndrome’! So I dropped out and moved to L.A. I was working for Los Angeles County Museum of Art in publications, and started library school. I knew I loved the reading and the research part of grad school, so being a librarian seemed a natural.
Talk about what you love in the library world. Being a reference librarian. It’s like being a detective, trying to figure out what the person is really looking for, how much info do they want? You have to drill down. You are expected to answer any inquiry, from “I need a book for my first grader” to “Where can I learn about the Civil War?” My favorite is “reader’s advisory,” when someone asks for a book suggestion. I ask about the last book they loved, what they liked about it, what movies they like. To be a good librarian you really do have to read a lot and to know a little about everything. And I love collection development.
What’s your personal preference – digital or print? Print. Although I rarely buy books. Why would I? But my husband buys books. And I did just buy, to read again, Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage by Heather Havrilesky. I’ve been enjoying audiobooks as I drive from Sonoma to the Library office in Rohnert Park.
You enjoyed being a Teen Librarian in the LA Public Library system. I love teen and young adult fiction. It’s fast-paced, plot-driven. The Hunger Games. And I cried buckets over The Book Thief. A beautiful book. I am looking forward to Gender Queer. It’s a graphic novel, a memoir about growing up nonbinary, in a cartoon format, by local author Maia Kobabe. It’s one of the most banned books in America.
How do you feel about that? The movement to ban titles is very disturbing. So far we’ve not had any challenges. We have a Materials Review Process if there is a complaint. We operate under a JPA (Joint Powers Agreement). Our JPA partner cities include Sebastopol, Petaluma, Sonoma, Rohnert Park & Cotati, Santa Rosa, Windsor, Healdsburg, and Cloverdale, and the County is also a partner on the Guerneville Regional Library and two rural stations in Occidental and Forestville. Recently there was a library in Michigan that was defunded by the city because a librarian refused to remove certain books. Upcoming at Sonoma County Library is Banned Books Week. It’s usually celebrated, but I’d like to pay special attention this year. It’s astonishing some of the books that are in the American Library Association’s “topmost challenged 10 titles in America.” The beautiful Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of them. It won the National Book Award and was a Pulitzer finalist. And can you believe, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.
What’s new at the Library? Just this summer we launched a pilot of the BiblioBox. The Sonoma branch was chosen, in part because it has the second highest circulation. But the concept of after-hours pick up of items is part of a major effort to meet the needs of our communities. In 2021 the Library adopted a new strategic Reimagining Plan, based on the work of the Harwood Institute. Through an in-depth survey we learned that lots of people weren’t library users because of the limited hours. The BiblioBox lets patrons order and pick up materials 24/7. It is certainly true that wealthier communities have higher circulation, so we want to increase our services, especially to less affluent areas, here in the Valley and around the County. Our next BiblioBox will be in Guerneville. We are trying to meet the challenge of serving areas that don’t traditionally have library access. And part of “Reimagining” is having the Library meet wider community needs. Another option is a kind of kiosk, pretty much like a vending machine, where people can browse and select an item to borrow. We propose one for Boyes Hot Springs as part of a new Facilities Master Plan which will be coming up for approval at the next Library Commission meeting in September. There used to be a library in Boyes and one in Glen Ellen, but now there’s no library between the City of Sonoma and Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
You so enjoyed the work of a librarian. Do you miss all that working as an administrator? I do miss working with the public, but I also love working with staff to develop their leadership potential. I have started doing some outreach as a library director, and I hope to continue that, so I can get some of the patron interaction that I miss.
