Library Director Kip Roberson set to depart Cook Memorial Library

Published 11:00 am Wednesday, June 9, 2021

LA GRANDE — It was an opportunity that Kip Roberson couldn’t pass up — a chance to take the position of director of library services at the Teton County Library in Jackson, Wyoming.

Roberson moved to La Grande from his previous position in Seattle at the MidCity West Regional Library, where he missed out on an opportunity to take the job in Teton County years back. Now, the library director is landing his dream job.

That’s not to say Roberson won’t miss his time at Cook Memorial Library, where he helped La Grande’s library move forward in numerous ways. Roberson has served as library director in La Grande since October 2019 and his last day is set for Friday, June 25.

“In all honesty, I’ve never worked with a better group of employees,” Roberson said.

Roberson grew up in a small rural town in Indiana and has worked in smaller communities for most of his career. The transition to the Teton County Library will involve a bigger staff and larger community of library patrons.

During his time at Cook Memorial Library, the most obvious challenge was the COVID-19 pandemic. The library was forced to close in-person services from mid-March of 2020 until Labor Day in September.

“The staff was willing to try out things,” Roberson said. “Some worked and some didn’t, but we got a lot of comments from patrons thanking us for our safety measures and communication with the community.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, the library allowed patrons to reserve books that could be picked up in a sanitized package at the front doors. Library staff also ran a pop-up library outside in the summer of 2020 and even delivered books and materials.

Roberson credits the challenges presented by COVID-19 for making him stronger as a library director moving forward in his career.

As for nonpandemic-related changes, Roberson led the library to more forward-thinking updates. The library now utilizes outdoor storage lockers to hold materials for patrons that are unable to make it to the library during operating hours.

In addition, the story walk at Riverside Park in collaboration with the parks and recreation department is one of Roberson’s proudest accomplishments. The program encourages families to get together and exercise while also reading together.

“He’s really pushed things other than books, which nobody else has really done a lot of,” said Ryan McGinnis, a collections and technical services employee.

McGinnis, a library employee for more than 20 years, said Roberson has been more forward thinking toward social media and online presence compared to previous library directors.

Cook Memorial completely revamped its website to be more user friendly and also updated its logo scheme. One of Roberson’s biggest impacts on the library will be modernizing the systems to be effective past his time as director.

However, Roberson believes that his biggest accomplishment is something that will actually take place after he departs for the Teton County Library. Cook Memorial’s budget going forward will enable the library to hire two new part-time employees, a large enough staff to reopen on Saturdays.

“The staff will have a lot of pressure taken off,” he said. “They would often have to cancel a program if someone was sick, so having more bodies is a great thing toward better service for our patrons.”

Roberson also said that working in a small community like La Grande has been a rewarding experience because of the interactions and relationships with community members.

“It’s really nice knowing there’s a lot of community support here,” he said.

Cook Memorial Library will look to fill the position of library director as Roberson departs for Wyoming in the coming month.