Wizard of books wields his magic at local library

For someone who admits that he is more of a “techie” than a bookworm, Joeten Kiyu Public Library director Kevin Latham cannot envision a world with only computers and no books. After all, he has always been surrounded by the printed material, having been raised in a family of book lovers and worked almost half of his life in libraries.

“There is always going to be books. You can’t replace the experience of holding a book in your hands,” he said.

Born to a working-class family from a Chicago suburb, Latham has three brothers and one sister, all of whom love to read. “My brother collects books like crazy. He has more books than anything else. I’m actually the one least interested in books because I’m more into technology and art. But books are not just literature anyway; there are books on anything,” he said.

Two of his siblings also work as librarians, but “I did it first,” he stressed.

“The best thing about working in a library is you get to meet a lot of people. And when they come, it is in a manner that they’re looking for knowledge and information, so you can interact with them at that level. It’s great to be in an educational environment and have all those resources available around you,” he said.

The 42-year-old Latham graduated with a bachelor’s degree in art from DePaul University, and then moved to Dominican University (then Rosary College of Arts and Sciences) to get his master’s degree in library and informational science.

He started building his career as a librarian in 1987 at the Chicago Public Library, where he worked for 15 years. In 2001, he transferred to a computer center attached to one of the library’s branches.

Latham said the stories of his Chuukese best friend, backed up by another friend from Taiwan, got him interested and made him decide to come to the islands. While on vacation on Saipan in Nov. 2002, he visited the library and was interviewed for the position of library director. The Joeten Kiyu Public Library had him on board four months later.

Running the community library in Susupe is not a very difficult task, Latham said.

“It’s pretty enjoyable here. You can be creative. There are not much constraints as to what you can or cannot do as library director. You can go out and find ways to improve the library and there’s not much opposition. If you’re in a large system, you have to be part of the system,” he explained.

Since taking over the library in Feb. 2003, Latham has remodeled the library by moving the stacks and giving visitors a clear view of the facility’s interior. He expanded the library’s Information Technology Center and equipped it with more computers, a scanner, a DVD burner, and a printer, among other things.

From July 12 to 30, the ITC will be holding its Summer Internet Camp where 4th to 12th grade students are taught to use the computer and access fast broadband connection. Children also learn to use the Internet for research and information and the Adobe Photoshop software to make computer graphics.

Separate computer classes are held for adults.

Also this summer, the library launched two reading challenges, under which children will be required to read a certain number of books from July 12 to 31. Each participant who completes and returns a book by the end of July will receive prizes such as a book of his own or a $10 gift certificate from BestSellers book store.

Besides serving as public library director, Latham also acts as the Commonwealth librarian. Through his efforts, the Commonwealth received federal grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to fund the automation projects for the Joeten Kiyu Public Library and school libraries.

Latham also has a pending grant application at the Administration of Native Americans for the conversion of the library’s conference room into a new children’s library “that would be a center not only for juvenile literacy but a forum for traditional cultural learning.”

He noted that with the additional funding, the library hopes to upgrade its book collection and ultimately encourage more island residents to read.

“Our circulation per population is low right now. There should be more people reading books. And in order to make a big change, you really have to work with kids and their parents, and make reading a part of their life,” he said.