“A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert.”
― Andrew Carnegie
The library used to be a quiet place for books and reading but around the country they’ve become much more. That’s especially true for the Hot Springs Public Library in Hot Springs, SD. In the span of a couple of hours one day this summer, the librarian provided a list of all movie shot in the area from memory, assisted a woman whose 28-year-old son had just died with finding burial services online, and aided a regular patron who said kids in the back were being too noisy.
It was a typical day for Dawn Aaberg Johnson, who runs the sprawling 10,400-foot, modern-day library. It seemed large for a town the size of Hot Springs, which had 3,460 residents in 2017. There are reasons for that, including the fact it also serves greater Falls River County.
“We want to be a community center,” explained Johnson. “People walk in the door for a reason. Some times it’s to use the bathroom.”
The Hot Springs Public Library still serves its original mission, she quickly adds. The library contains 24,000 items, and most of those are books, 15 percent of which are for young readers. It’s an ongoing process. Johnson relies on the three other people who work there to contribute opinions about what materials to add. The variety shows: The library also contains a robust movie collection, with 3,191 available for check out. In January they added 28 games, like chess and Scrabble, which by mid-July had been checked out 182 times.
The library dates back to 1889 with “Ladies aid groups, The Travelers Club and the Shakespeare Club,” Johnson said. It was contained in several city buildings. In1913 it officially opened in the downtown area, thanks to a donation from businessman philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, one of 2,509 “Carnegie libraries” around the country.
By the 1990s that building was showing signs of strain, so they moved to a temporary location while the library board and friends of the library raised money for repairs and improvements. Then they expanded their goal: Why not a larger facility? There wasn’t space in the downtown area, and they decided on a location at City Park, which is about a mile from downtown.
The fundraising continued over a period of 10 years. The town began building the $1.7 million facility in 2005 and it opened in summer of 2007. Better, it was paid off within a few months.
Johnson was close behind. She had initially gone the route of teaching but when she saw an opening at the library, she applied. “The library opened in June and I started in December,” she said. Her family first homesteaded in South Dakota in 1885 and while she left for a while, it’s home.
“My mother tells me I always wanted to be a librarian,” she said. As a little girl she was an avid reader and collector of the “Little House on the Prairie” books. Johnson loaned them out to her friends, instructing them on when they had to be returned.
Being a library that sees its role as part community center means a vibrant computer room with stations for people to work. It also means leaving the wifi on 24 hours a day so people can park outside and have access. “Our last census showed that 25 percent of our county does not have access to Internet,” so it’s no wonder its popular, she said. But it’s also pragmatic. Both of the main stores in town, Family Dollar and Dollar General, only take applications online, for instance. Johnson and her staff regularly help visitors sort things out on the Internet.
So, what about that question regarding movies shot in South Dakota? Johnson doesn’t skip a beat: Hidalgo, Crazy Horse, Dances with Wolves. Neither Wolf Nor Dog, Thunderheart, North by Northwest, National Treasure, The Rider, Pine Ridge, and Native. At least, those are the larger movies. Do you want a list of smaller movies, as well?