Director Looks to Take Spanish Fork Library to New Heights
Spanish Fork Library Director Scott Aylett’s association with the city started in 2013 as an intern while working on a Master of Public Administration degree at Brigham Young University.
Following graduation in 2014, his career path led him to work for Zions Bank for four years doing consulting for municipalities, then back to Spanish Fork as public information officer in 2018. He filled that position for two years before taking on the library director position in June 2020.
“As our previous library director was retiring,” Aylett said, “I was asked to move from the public information officer role over to the library director role to help take the library in a new direction.”
Prior to filling his current position as library director, Aylett had no library employment or management experience, so it’s been a learning experience from day one on the job.
Though he didn’t grow up in Spanish Fork, or Utah County, Aylett has a special affinity for the city due to his mom living there during her childhood. He grew up in Sandy, but his family regularly attended Spanish Fork’s Fiesta Days.
“Spanish Fork was part of my family growing up, even though I didn’t live here,” he said. “It wasn’t until I worked here as an intern, and then as an employee, that I started living here,”
For those who live in Spanish Fork, it’s no surprise that the city is building a new library across the street from the current one. Crews broke ground on the new building in March 2021 and the expected completion date is in early 2023. Several delays have slowed the construction’s progress, including a six-month slowdown due to a steel production shortage.
“It wasn’t until the end of November or beginning of December that the structural steel arrived and construction moved forward,” he said.
In the first week of March, a topping-off ceremony took place, which included the installation of the final steel beam in the building.
Library patrons and employees got to sign the beam before its placement. This event was a monumental moment in the building’s construction.
In under two years as library director, Aylett has overseen projects that are preparing the library for its new location.
Among these projects is one that involves adding a new radio frequency identification system and converting more than 70,000 items to the new system.
The seventh of 10 children in his family, Aylett and his wife have two sons, a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old.
In spite of the gradual leaning by the reading community toward ebooks and audiobooks, Aylett doesn’t see print books ever going away.
“I don’t ever see that happening,” he said. “On average, of all the materials checked out from our library in any given year, only about 20 percent is digital content. That means that 80 percent of everything that gets checked out is through our front and back doors. Most of that is driven by our children’s collection.”
This is sure to be good news to bibliophiles.(Martinez is a Serve