HOOPA, Calif. – Kim Yerton Memorial Library is located on the beautiful Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. The library is named for the late Kim Yerton, a tribal member who was committed to preserving Hupa traditions and culture. She developed and maintained an extensive bibliography of archival documents and photographs for the Newberry Library in Chicago. She continued her work at the Smithsonian Library in Washington D.C. The Hoopa Library, established in her honor, is the fruition of her dream to make reference and research material available to the local community.
The library is unique in many ways. It is the first library to be run as a partnership between a tribe and a county in California. This partnership offers many benefits to the community. Hoopa Valley residents have access to the entire Humboldt County Library systems’ collections, at no cost. They can request items through the systems’ Web page, either at home or from the public use computers found at the library. Humboldt County provides rotating stock, including new releases, books on tape and movies on DVD and VHS. The county also has an extensive online resource library available at no charge for all who have a library card. This collection is useful for high school and college students and can be accessed from the Kim Yerton Library or from patrons’ homes.
Students use the library extensively, beginning with the preschoolers enrolled in Hoopa’s and the neighboring Yurok Tribe’s local preschool programs. They visit the library for story time and have the opportunity to check out books to read at home or in the classroom. Classes from the local elementary school also visit the library, where they learn research skills and receive help with preparing class assignments.
Community groups use the library’s meeting area for public events. Book signings, readings and public story times are some of the activities the library hosts. Kristin Freeman, branch manager, pens a weekly column, ‘Owhwhe, which means “read” in the Hupa language. Her column appears in the local newspaper, The Two River’s Tribune, and covers recent library related events, highlights for the coming week, as well as book recommendations and news.
Freeman has been a public library enthusiast all her life. After a long career in fiber and textile arts, she chose a second career in the library field. She joined the Humboldt County Library staff in 1999 and began working at Kim Yerton Memorial Library in 2000. She enjoys working in Hoopa, with its rural setting and focus on family and community.
She shares her passion for needle arts with like-minded community members; Thread Benders meets each Friday at the library and has become much more than just a meeting to attendees. One of her other passions, learning about and practicing sustainability, also finds a home at the library.
“We have been adding related books in a number of areas including green building, and growing and preserving food. Humboldt County Library system also recently received a grant from PG&E, which will be used to purchase titles for young adult readers in the areas of energy conservation, alternative energy, recycling and science fair projects on energy. I think this is really awesome.”
The library recently received a copy of “Food Security & Sustainability for the Times Ahead,” through Bio Diverse Press’s book grant program. Copies are made available to Native libraries based on 10 percent of publisher proceeds.
“‘Food Security and Sustainability’ is very timely; it has great ideas for people who may not be educated on the issues of sustainability. Small steps are presented, and individuals are shown how they can make incremental changes, one at a time,” Freeman said. “To make a difference for yourself and the planet, you don’t have to wake up tomorrow and do everything differently. The author, Harvest McCampbell, lives in our community and is a regular library patron. We are excited to add this local contribution to the literature available on sustainability.”
To volunteer, make a contribution, a donation, or for more information on the Kim Yerton Memorial Library contact Kristin Freeman (530) 625-5082.
