The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON-Ellen Brigham is happy to step into her new role as the director of the Dayton Memorial Library.

"I'm just really excited to step into this new year with a fresh slate of ideas and positive outlook going forward," she said.

Library Science is the perfect field for her, she said with a smile.

"It was just a childhood dream of mine. When you're little, you look at the library and think it's a perfect place to sit and read. I never really let it go."

As a busy adult, she doesn't have as much time to read for pleasure as she would like, but she still manages to carve out some time from her busy schedule. She shares what she reads with the public in her weekly online newsletter.

Brigham gave a nod of appreciation for the well-appointed library building and staff she inherited from former Library Director Todd Vandenbark.

While she wants to continue with some of his ideas, she does have plans of her own.

One of these is to revamp the children's picture book section located on the library's lower level. Right now, the books are filed by the author's last name, on shelves too tall to be user-friendly for the youngest "readers." She plans to purchase shorter shelves and organize the books by subject, placing them in bins with the book covers facing out. This arrangement will make them more open to exploration, she explained.

She also plans for some adult-size furniture for the lower level, including a study carrel so parents can sit or work on the computer while their kids are occupied.

Brigham also wants to invite speakers from the Washington Humanities Bureau and local authors to share their areas of expertise with the public. Additionally, she will offer more craft programs and looks forward to partnering more closely with the local schools to help fill gaps where their library collections are a little thin or out of date.

Though attacks over challenged material in the collection are fewer, Brigham was recently targeted by someone using her identity to fill out a form at an entertainment company to book a drag queen for storytime. The new director immediately informed the Columbia County Sheriff's Office about the situation.

"I only found out when the drag queen entertainment company emailed me saying, 'Thanks for filling out our form, unfortunately no drag queens are available'. "

To her it seemed like a ploy to get people up in arms.

"That kind of rabblerousing is not conducive to a good society. If people have issues with the library, they are free to come and talk with me," she said.

Brigham grew up in Walla Walla. Her father was the administrator of the Washington Odd Fellows home, and her mother was the Music Librarian at Whitman College. Both are retired now. She has one sibling, a brother, who lives in Seattle.

She earned a double major in Japanese Studies and Religious Studies at Willamette University in 2013 and graduated with a Master's in Library and Information Science, in 2018.

Brigham was hired for the position of Library Assistant I, by Todd Vandenbark in July of 2021, and appointed Interim Library Director shortly after he resigned in July of 2023. Brigham was one of three candidates the CCRLD Board of Trustees interviewed for the position of library director. The vote was unanimous to hire her.