New San Luis library manager aims for outreach
Megan Baird hopes to bring in more patrons to facility
San Luis, Ariz. — Having worked in public libraries, Megan Baird is used to seeing familiar faces come back again and again as loyal patrons.
Yet she knows that in any community there are people or segments of the population who don’t take advantage of the books and other learning resources the local library has to offer.
As the new manager of the Yuma County Library District’s San Luis branch, one of her goals is to broaden the customer base to include people who haven’t been among the traditional library users.
“What I would like to do is more outreach to get in new faces,” she said. “I love the regulars — they are the bread and butter of libraries. But I would like to reach out to people who aren’t regular users.”
Baird has been the library’s manager since February, having succeeded Lorenia Diaz, who moved with her family in late 2016 to Florida.
Baird comes to San Luis from Fort Worth, Texas, where she served as a unit manager in the adult section in the central branch of a library system that serves a city of nearly 1 million.
She said she’s excited to take the helm of a library with nine employees who serve the much smaller border town, one of a little more than 32,000.
“What really appealed to me was the community,” she said. “The library itself was beautiful, it was gorgeous. I had a chance to look around and meet the staff, and the staff couldn’t have been more helpful. While the town is smaller and I came from a larger city, I like small towns.
“I love the job,” she added. “The people could not have been nicer. I have a staff that is wonderful. They are willing to go above and beyond to help me out.”
Baird isn’t planning significant changes to classes and programs the library already offers, she said, although depending on the needs and desires of patrons, new ones could be added to the lineup.
“I really want to keep the citizenship classes going, because I know the community responds well to them,” she said.
Other programs that have been well-attended — and ones Baird also plans to continue offering — are English and computer classes.
From her experience, she knows adolescents are less apt to visit a public library than other groups. But that doesn’t mean the San Luis Library can’t get them in the door, Baird said.
“They’re at the age when they think they’re too cool for the library. Reaching them is a little trickier, however we have some wonderful staff members who have established a great rapport with teenagers.”
A native of Wisconsin, Baird lived for a time in California before moving to Fort Worth to work for the city library system, in which one of her posts was as assistant manager of a branch that served a largely Latino community.
It was in that position that she was able to improve her command of Spanish, a language she studied in college. She said one of the incentives to come to San Luis was the opportunity to further improve her fluency.
“Language can be a challenge, but it’s one I can overcome with time and practice.”