Hebron Public Library’s head librarian seeks to create ‘hub of the community’

Josh Stevens was in his mid-30s when he decided he needed a job that gave back to his community.

Now, at 40, he is pursuing his teaching degree and serving at the Hebron Public Library as its board president and head librarian, all while teaching, sitting on the village board and being a father and husband.

“I kind of … fell into it” Stevens said of his current volunteer work and career.

“I was working a job at an office, and I was not giving back to society. I was taking away from society,” Stevens said.

It was four years ago at age 36, Stevens said, when he wasn’t feeling fulfilled by his work at a mortgage company. With the encouragement of family and friends, Stevens decided to get his teaching certificate and began working at a Wisconsin school district as a paraprofessional before getting a job at Alden-Hebron High School this school year.

Then, in early 2020, “the library board invited me in to sit in on a couple of meetings. I had a lot of ideas I brought to the table,” he said. Stevens was asked to serve on the board shortly after.

Stevens has since become the public face of the privately funded library at 9908 St. Albans St. in Hebron, after he was named board president later that same year.

Colleen Geils was one of those board members who welcomed Stevens to the library.

“Josh’s goal as the board president is to see the library be the hub of the community and to build a community of readers, children and adults alike,” she said.

“His passion is for books and reading,” Geils said, noting that he helps patrons find the perfect genre of books and authors for their interests.

As library board president, Stevens posts to the library’s Facebook page, keeping residents informed of events and recommending books to all of its patrons. He kept posting even as the library was closed due to COVID-19 and through renovations.

Now, Stevens sets up the book displays for each season, coordinates upcoming library programs and ensures both social issues and events in the news have their place on the shelves.

As an example, when author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in an attack on Aug. 12, Stevens highlighted his book “The Satanic Verses” both at the library and on its Facebook page.

During Banned Books Week, which is coming up Sept. 18 to 24, Stevens plans to put some often-banned books in a library display as well. In fact, he said, that display “will probably be up all month.”

The self-proclaimed bibliophile works up to 16 hours a week at the library. At the same time, he is earning a teaching certificate while teaching English and chemistry at the high school.

But, if the Facebook posts and library’s events get people talking and coming to the privately funded Hebron library, “this it what we want to see,” Stevens said. He wants people to use the library’s public meeting room and ask to use the space for library events, all while he is “reaching out to people interested in throwing events,” he said.

The head librarian role allows Stevens to get back into a business he had a long built a reputation for.

For 10 years, Stevens worked at a bookstore on the Woodstock Square. People would recognize him on the street as “the bookstore guy” because of his years there, Stevens said.

“I did a lot of children’s programming” at the bookstore, which gave him the reputation of being good with children, he said. That also helped him make the decision to go into teaching.

He first took a job at a Wisconsin school district as a paraprofessional and later a substitute job at Alden-Hebron District 19.

When the former library president, Dorothy Peterson, decided to step down, he “threw his hat in the ring as the low man on the totem pole” for the role, Stevens said. He had been on the library board for just a few months.

It wasn’t too long into his tenure at the library when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The library, as did many other public institutions, closed down for months.

At the same time, a bequeathment allowed the library to do some much-needed updates and renovations. Dated green carpeting was ripped out, showing the hardwood floor underneath. Fresh paint and some plumbing repairs came with the update.

There are 15,000 titles in the library’s collection, most of them donated by patrons, Stevens said. “The bestsellers, we might keep four, five or six copies” until their circulation drops. “Then, we will keep one or two.”

As head librarian, Stevens also has to make decisions about which books are on the shelves.

“There should be certain book, no matter what” or how many times a year those books are checked out, Stevens said.

Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allen Poe and J. D. Salinger are authors that come to mind as the “must-haves,” Stevens said.

There is more to be done at the library, and Stevens wants residents to know they can come in and register for a library card whenever they are open.

He is also looking for an organization who might want the library’s piano, left behind from when the library was donate to the nonprofit by its former owners, the Presbyterian church. “It needs to be re-tuned,” he said, but he would love for someone to take it.

The board is also working with a downtown Hebron shop to take the chinaware left behind by the church after its 1972 donation.

The library, which is funded by donations only, is open about 20 to 25 hours a week. Stevens is on duty for up to 16 of those hours. Everything the board does, however, seeks to give patrons access to books, laptop computers, and WiFi when they need it. The board is talking about getting onto the Reaching Across Illinois Library System, or RAILS, to allow interlibrary loans, Stevens said.

“All of my board is behind me 100%. I know I can count on them, too,” Stevens said. “They love it, and we want to see it succeed.”