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The Eagle Mountain City Public Library began in a 12-foot by 12-foot room adjoining the Town Center fire station in November 1999.
"It wasn't much bigger than my office," library director Michele Graves said. "It was Liisa [Nunz] and a group of women who put the library together ... She was the catalyst for the beginning of the library."
The library was later moved to the north wing of the modular city offices and when the city office building on 1650 E. Stagecoach Run was completed, the library got a new home.
Everything was done manually and the library had 1,500 books. In March 2002, the fledgling operation would become the first Utah state certified new library in 20 years.
While she credits Nunz, who has since moved from Eagle Mountain, as one of the founders of the library, it is Graves who has been at the helm for the nearly 90 percent of the community library's lifespan.
A mother of two boys, a tween and teen, Graves said her job as Eagle Mountain's librarian works well with her family life.
Multiple sclerosis dogged her health for 11 years before doctors were able to diagnose her condition. She cut her hours to 20 hours a week until her MS was under control and manageable and has been able to increase her hours to 32 hours.
"Michele Graves is a wonderful employee, a very fine employee who has done a lot of hard work to improve the library for the citizens and working with the north area of Utah County to provide broad access to library services for the citizens of Eagle Mountain," said city administrator John Henrickson. "She is very interested in the welfare of the people and the library."
A city employee since September 2000, Graves has also been a catalyst for the library helping to spearhead the interlocal library agreement in north Utah County, a two-year endeavor that will see its pilot program kick off July 1.
She started researching the viability and costs of an interlocal library agreement with former Eagle Mountain Mayor Kelvin Bailey and has been working on the agreement with American Fork library director Sheena Parker, Pleasant Grove library director April Harrison, and Lehi library director Kristi Seely since 2006.
"Kelvin Bailey and I were talking about it because certain people in the area were asking why we didn't have this," Graves said. "I'm glad that our little library in this relatively new city is part of something really big."
As an Eagle Mountain city center resident, she not only loves her library, she loves her community, too, according to Hendrickson.
She has been teaching basic computer classes for senior citizens in Eagle Mountain since July 2007 and said she loves it. She says there is nothing better than seeing an adult's face light up when they learn something new on the computer.
Under her leadership the library has grown. Nearly 6,000 library cards have been issued with 4,800-5,000 active members.
There are more than 24,000 items in the library's collection, with circulation 80,000 annually, and the library staff has grown from one full-time librarian to a team of five.
"She is very accommodating to our needs," said library worker Karen Kast. "She's very open to new ideas. She is very proud of our library. I think she loves our library."
Graves's interest in literacy and learning extends elsewhere as well. She is an online mentor for inner city kids for a company called in2books.org. They work with children in low income areas in the east and they read books together throughout the school year and discuss them online.
"Michele loves books, which is an obvious asset in her position," said Angie Ferre, executive assistant to the Eagle Mountain city administrator. "She enjoys helping to foster a love for books in the children in our community." |
