Bringing love of books, desire to connect to Seeley Lake Library

SEELEY LAKE – Carrie Benton grew up helping her mother in the library. She developed an appreciation of libraries and a love affair with books that she is excited to share with others and connect them with resources offered at the Seeley Lake Community Library.

On Oct. 28, Benton started as the new Library Assistant. She had a week of training with Librarian Susan Stone before she retired Nov. 3. While Benton admits she has big shoes to fill and still has a lot to learn, she is looking forward to continuing the service and connections Stone built at the library while hoping to expand the role of the library within the community.

Benton's mother Jackie Hanson became the school librarian in Havre when she started first grade.

"Before school I was in the library, after school I was in the library and I would help my mom," Benton said. "As I got older, she would teach me how to do more things. I was exposed to this love of libraries and how libraries work"

Her mother became the K-12 head librarian in Big Sandy and then Box Elder. Benton spent time during the summer working with her mother when the new book orders arrived.

"It was like Christmas. It was such a fun time. We would process books together and repair old books and shelve and organize and think about the new year," Benton said. "My mom instilled in me this love of books. There were just all these things that you never knew were out there to know."

When she was in college, Benton would go to the library, even when things made the big shift to digital. She and her husband, who also loves to read, would go on dates to the Carnegie Library when they lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"I've had a love affair with books, of all sorts, since I can remember," Benton said. "There is just something really special about holding the actual book...You can immerse yourself in that world for a little while."

Benton's background is in social work, human and family development and child protection and Spanish. She also has worked with inmates and reintegrating them into the community. She is currently the pastor at Mountain Lakes Presbyterian Church in Seeley Lake. She loves meeting new people, learning about them and listening to their stories.

"I wanted to explore something very different along with the work I usually do and I wanted to meet people that I wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to meet," Benton said. "I like to know my community."

During her week of training with Stone, Benton met the staff at the Missoula Public Library main branch and learned about many of the programs they offer. She said they were all very helpful and she will lean on them when needed.

"I'm not afraid to ask questions and seek the help I need," Benton said.

Her past experience has helped her learn how to connect people with resources. She wants to figure out how the library can best link the community to resources. She also looks forward to helping patrons learn how to access resources for themselves and assisting them in finding that special book or books on a specific topic.

"It is this fun investigative process that I really like. It helps someone because they are trying to learn about something or there is a story that they are really curious about," Benton said. "People get excited and their faces light up."

Benton is learning about the partner libraries from which they can request and place holds on books. The Seeley Lake Community Library also can make copies for a charge and offers computer access with Internet and wi-fi, including hot spots available for check out. During the school year, the computer use is limited to one hour for the public. However, during the summer, there is no limit.

"It is a really unique relationship of both the public library on this side and school library on that side sharing the same space," Benton said. "Figuring out that partnership has its challenges but it also has some interesting opportunities."

Benton looks forward to working more with SSHS Librarian Michele Holmes and the other staff at Seeley-Swan High School. She would love to create a "safe space" for students in the library where they could hang out during their down times. She's already begun conversations with the students and staff to see what would make the space inviting and useful.

Benton looks forward to working more with substitute librarians Pam Keller and Arleen Sawitzke and getting people back into the library. This spring, she is hoping to resume the book chat/book club and the children's storytime that were held prior to COVID as well as offer more programs from the main branch.

"Even with all the limitations and recommended restrictions that we have, what are ways that we can still bring people into the actual space of the library," Benton said.

To foster those connections, she would like to host "living room conversations."

"We need to learn how to have a conversation in the divisive time that we live in," Benton said. "I think these are skills that we have lost because they haven't been nurtured or we are inundated with hostile voices and we don't know how to tune them out, think for ourselves and do our own homework."

Benton said the computers are being upgraded this week and she hopes to offer more programs on them in the future. She also looks forward to helping people understand the digital options that they have access to through the library including audio books, "Montana Library To Go" and "Overdrive."

Finally, she wants to figure out how to partner with other organizations in the community and help increase connections.

"What can we do, as the library, to connect with other things going on in the community to work together?" said Benton. "I think the opportunities are really only limited by our imagination. We are in a time right now where we really have to think innovatively, creatively and the traditional barriers that we think are there, really aren't."

The Seeley Lake Community Library is located in the Seeley-Swan High School and is open Mondays and Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. and Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.

During the holidays, the library will be open Mondays, Dec. 20 and Dec. 27 and Wednesdays, Dec. 22 and Dec. 29 from 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. They will be closed Thursdays Dec. 23 and 30th.  Normal library hours will resume Monday, Jan. 3.

"We've got some great brand-new books available in both adult fiction and non-fiction," Benton said. "Come by to stock up on over-the-holiday reads."

Masks are required. For more information call 406-677-8995. Curbside service is available when requested.