{"id":42805,"date":"2022-01-10T22:18:13","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T05:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/candidates-vying-for-position-of-mancos-library-director\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:09:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:09:40","slug":"candidates-vying-for-position-of-mancos-library-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/candidates-vying-for-position-of-mancos-library-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidates vying for position of Mancos library director"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Mancos Public Library has returned to its pre-pandemic hours. (The Journal file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Two candidates are vying for the director position at the Mancos Public Library.<\/p>\n

Charlene Swanson and Jared Boudreaux were at the library Saturday afternoon mingling with citizens curious to know about their backgrounds and ability to lead the library.<\/p>\n

Previous director Lee Hallberg vacated his position in early December, and library employees Midge Kirk and Bernadette Tuthill have served as interim directors.<\/p>\n

While the in-between period has been challenging, staff has been supportive, Kirk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a village, and we\u2019ve got one,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Peggy Littlejohn, president of the Mancos Library District, said it has been a struggle to find a director. A third candidate removed himself from consideration, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big job, but we have a very stable staff who will help guide the director,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Charlene Swanson<\/div>\n

\"Charlene
Charlene Swanson seeks the director position at the Mancos Public Library.<\/span>Kala Parkinson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Montezuma County resident for 27 years, Swanson worked at the old Mancos library in 1999.<\/p>\n

Of course, it was much different back then, and it was smaller in size.<\/p>\n

She was present for the opening of the current library in 2009.<\/p>\n

For the past three years, she has worked at Fort Lewis College in reference and interlibrary loan, and also taught a class.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been rewarding for her to see students she recognized from Mancos now attending Fort Lewis, she said.<\/p>\n

She also worked at the library in Bayfield.<\/p>\n

Originally from Waterford, Connecticut, Swanson\u2019s journey out West began when she studied at the University of California Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n

In 2011, she received her master\u2019s degree in library science from the University of Wisconsin Madison online.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gone out and done a lot of adventuring at other libraries,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Now, she says it\u2019s time for her to return to where it all began for her, and to give back to the Mancos community.<\/p>\n

And, she wanted to make clear her love for dogs. Swanson\u2019s fond of her \u201cathletic-looking\u201d black Labrador named Rocky.<\/p>\n

Jared Boudreaux<\/div>\n

\"Jared
Jared Boudreaux is one of the candidates vying for the director position at the Mancos Public Library.<\/span>Kala Parkinson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Making a weekend trip to appear at Saturday\u2019s meet-and-greet, Boudreaux is eager to trade hot Louisiana for the mountains of Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve basically had my fill of Louisiana,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m ready to spread those wings and get out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s from Buras Louisiana, and previously served as a library director in Assumption Parish, where he oversaw five libraries.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of them were as nice as this building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During that time, he began his master\u2019s degree in library science online, but said he felt he was getting better experience dedicating more of his energy to the role of director. He plans to one day resume his master\u2019s.<\/p>\n

He received a degree in English from Nicholls State University with a concentration in film studies.<\/p>\n

Currently, he works for the state of Louisiana, but misses being immersed in the community and \u201cfeeling like you\u2019re doing good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving from one remote location to another wouldn\u2019t be an issue, Boudreaux said.<\/p>\n

He feels that there is more growth opportunity in Mancos. Here, he said, there is more tourism and openness to change than where he is from.<\/p>\n

Boudreaux displayed his sense of humor in a reply to a question about housing \u2013 whether he had found housing or would live in a tent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably don\u2019t want to live in a tent, but I\u2019m not ruling it out,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

candidates hopeful for Mancos Public Library Director position <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,167,83,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-local-news-lead","tag-mancos","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85462,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42805\/revisions\/85462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42805"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}