Silver City: A Community of Book Lovers

"Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time."- Edwin P. Whipple

Silver City Librarian Wins Award

By Karen Woodmansee, Virginia City News

(January 15, 2008) - Recreating the Silver City Volunteer Library after the fire at the Silver City Schoolhouse community center in 2004 destroyed the original has earned a local activist some recognition.

Quest Lakes, of Silver City, who worked to restore the library in the tiny office of the Silver City Volunteer Fire Station, was recently given a plaque and special citation award by the Nevada Library Association in recognition of her efforts.

She said now the library is bigger and better than it was in the Schoolhouse.

“There was really wasn’t a library before the fire,” she said. “What we had were 3 bookshelves, and it was mainly things people donated.”

She said the town used to have Coffeehouse Fridays, where there would be soup to eat and books to discuss, along with musicians and occasional board games.

But Lakes said people in the small historic town loved to read so much that the loss of the books was among the first things lamented after the fire.

Those books were destroyed, mostly from smoke and water damage, save one children’s art book that had been inside a metal cabinet, Lakes said.

Though she didn’t have any library training, Lakes said her mom was a librarian and books were important enough for her to start a new collection to be housed in the fire station that serves as a temporary community center.

“Now we have a really wide range, a lot of best sellers, a complete set of Nevada Revised Statutes that Joe Dini donated and encyclopedias donated by Lyon County Libraries,” she said.

The children’s offerings range from preschool picture books to the latest in the Harry Potter series. The library even had two Harry Potter Parties that were attended by every kid in town.

“We also have a lot of other fantasy series, like the Golden Compass series and the Hobbit series,” she said.

For adults, there are journals, Civil War history books and the latest mysteries.

There are also periodicals for adults and children. Lakes said there are two older computers at the library, which is only open on Sundays at least until the Schoolhouse reopens.

“We already have volunteers to help us move things and we’ll get some other computers,” she said.

Books and materials are donated from all over, she said.

“We’ve gotten a lot from local residents and Lyon County Libraries,” she said. Other places that donated books were Community Chest in Virginia City, Community Threads and Things in Dayton, Soroptimists and even Barnard College in New York.

She said the volunteer library has received some funding through Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties, and that funding has helped the library’s programs, all of which are free.

“As small as we are, we have all these programs, art and cultural programs and book signings,” she said.

Even Sue Fawn Chung, an expert on Chinese-American history, flew up from Las Vegas to give a lecture last summer, she said.

Lakes, who was nominated for her award by Lyon County Library Director Diane Brigham and is quick to credit others for the library’s success, in particular the local fire department, the Silver City Task Force and local residents.

“Silver City is a town of book lovers, and it seems as if we’ve had donations of books from just about every household,” she said.