The Transformative Power of Libraries and Literacy (Guest: Kelvin Watson)

Episode Transcript

*DISCLAIMER: Transcripts are created using AI, and may not accurately represent the content exactly as presented. Transcripts are provided as a courtesy to our listeners who require them.

[00:00:00] Opening Theme (Music by Danya Vodovoz)

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[00:00:30] Welcome to Queue Points Podcast

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Sir Daniel: Greetings and welcome back to another episode of Queue Points Podcast. I am DJ Sir Daniel.

Jay Ray: And my name is Jay Ray, sometimes known by my government as Johnnie Ray Kornegay III what's happening people.

Sir Daniel: J. Ray, we are in store for an amazing conversation because do you recall back in the day when we would watch television and the regular scheduled program would be preempted and there was that spinning logo that says special program? Well, That's what's happening here on Queue Points podcast for this episode, because we are about to endeavor on a conversation that is near and dear to our hearts and should be to yours and that right, Jerry,

Jay Ray: Absolutely.

[00:01:11] The Importance of Literacy

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Jay Ray: So for so For actually the last year or so, we've been having a conversation behind the scenes about literacy. We listen to music. Sir Daniel, this is a music podcast, right? We listen to the music and we listen to the composition. We listen to the lyrical content and we ask questions, right?

Sir Daniel: we ask a lot of questions and you know, what reading is fundamental, Jerry. So I'm going to go ahead Go buy our show run. And I'm going to ask you to make sure that you let the people, this is still business has to be taken care of. I want you to go ahead and let the people know how they can subscribe to Queue Points and, uh, purchase our wonderful merchandise.

Jay Ray: Boom. Yes.

[00:01:56] Supporting Queue Points

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Jay Ray: So, uh, first and foremost, thank you all for tuning into Queue Points. If you can see us, if you can hear us hit the subscribe button, wherever you are, we really appreciate it. Do us a solid y'all. And this is all the free stuff. We just going to run down the free stuff that you can do. Do us a solid, share the show with your friends.

family colleagues. If you enjoy Queue Points, chances are they will enjoy Queue Points because as you see, we of course talk about music, but we talk about black culture in general. So they will get a lot out of this show too. So share it with them. Go ahead over to our website at Queue Points. com. You can do several things.

You can join our mailing list, which you should, you can read our magazine Queue Points mag. That's where we have some additional stuff about all the topics that we cover on the show. And, to Sir Daniel's point, shop our store, store. Queue Points. com. You see these, you see all those lights behind Sir Daniel? See how they're glowing?

They're like coming up from the back. We got to keep the lights on at Queue Points, and you can support us by doing that, by definitely shopping our store. We would appreciate it.

Sir Daniel: Pretty please.

[00:03:01] Back-to-School Memories

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Sir Daniel: So at Jerry, as we say goodbye to the summer, I know there's a lot of young people that are experiencing that anxiety that comes with COVID. Going back to school and just getting ready to having to switch that mode from staying up late to having to get back on a schedule and getting yourself up on time so that you can get to, you know, get up and get the bus or however you get to school.

And then you have to switch your mind on as well and get ready to start taking information. Well, Jay Ray, um, Well, first, let me ask you this. Do you recall what was getting ready for school like for you as a kid? Cause I, first of all, I grew up in the northeast so school didn't start until September for us.

Jay Ray: Right. Yeah. So.

Sir Daniel: lot of kids are going to school, like here in the south they're going to school in August, which is in a couple weeks. So, you know, but for us, like, do you recall what it was like when you were getting ready to head back to school and what was important to you? Um,

Jay Ray: Yeah, so a couple of things. So my, uh, mom specifically was one of those, uh, parents that we always had schoolwork to do in the summer. So

Sir Daniel: uh,

Jay Ray: she was very much from the school of, we actually had a chalkboard in the dining room of our house. So, and as I got old enough, I was responsible for like tutoring my brother on like math, like that was part of the job.

So in the summer. I was always kind of one foot in of the learning mode and one foot out. Um, so for me, um, getting ready for school looked like, well, one, you knew it was time, Sir Daniel, when you went into the store and suddenly the seasonal aisle shifted to books and pencils and whatever. So I

Sir Daniel: traffic keepers. Don't forget traffic keepers.

Jay Ray: bruh.

Can we okay that we can't we ain't even got time for that on this show to talk about the trapper keeper Um, but I do remember that piece of just like being excited about new school stuff So whether it be clothes whether it be stuff to get to take back to school with me. What about you sir? Daniel, what do you remember?

Sir Daniel: Um, it's pretty much the same thing. So, um, all right. So like we said, we've mentioned briefly about the traffic keepers. We got, we can't really talk about lunchbox lunchboxes were so important.

Jay Ray: lunchbox game Yes,

Sir Daniel: than your sneaker game back in the day.

But anyway, so, I was, I was in private school, so the school clothes part was taken care of. I had a uniform. But um, for me, I would go back and forth between New York and Barbados during the summers. And as an only child, one of the things that I enjoyed to do a lot was reading, because I'm an only child.

And I would, you know, if I'm on the plane, I would have something to read. And then when I would go visit my relatives in Barbados, you know, I always, I would, for whatever reason, I always had access to comics or I was always asking for comic books. Um, I was really into the Rin Tin Tin series, um, of books as well as, um, Archie and Betty and Veronica specifically.

So I was still reading. It wasn't academic, no chalkboards in my house. It wasn't academic, but I was still reading. My imagination was still being fed. And I think that is so critical to the development of young minds. As you know, as they grow, and even when you're experiencing music, you know, because information is being fed to you, being able to read J.

Ray, in my opinion, allows you to analyze what is being sung or rapped to you. What do you think?

Jay Ray: Absolutely agree. Um, the, the learning, the reading, the comprehension even helps you to kind of, if you can comprehend a sentence, mostly even words in the sentence that you don't understand, you can kind of figure out what that word means. And that's so, so critical. So I remember that too, of just being able to me, allow reading to one, expand my imagination, like you said, but also help me to just understand things.

Um, and also the space that we got to occupy where there were just all these books around. I remember how special it was to be able to walk into the library in the school in elementary school. I still remember what it looked like. It felt like a room that was as big as my house. It probably wasn't that big, but it Felt that big.

And I remember how important the librarian was to just helping us to discover possibilities in the books.

Sir Daniel: libraries. When I was growing up, the library was like my first libraries for a kid or a kid. My age. Well, the decade that I grew up is probably what can I compare it to? It's like making a Starbucks run for an adult. Going to the library was like my Aaron, you know, like, okay, Change clothes, put your books down, you know, put your bag down.

Come on, let's go. We got to go to the library. You have, you know, I would get to spend an hour and I would get to pick, you get to pick two or three books, whatever your limit was, and it was just, like you said, it was exciting. And mostly because it was outfitted for children. Like you said, it pro it appeared larger than what it probably was because everything is outfitted.

Um, specifically kids libraries are outfitted for them. Everything is scaled to their size. So you're absolutely right. It's one of the very few places that you felt important and you felt like. Um, things were created and set up for you. So that's why the library going to the library was a very fun and an exciting experience for me as a child.

[00:09:22] The Role of Libraries

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Sir Daniel: But Queue Points podcast family, you are in for a special treat because in this discussion on the importance of literacy on Queue Points, we Jayray and I, we're intelligent, but We're not that intelligent when it comes to everything. We don't know everything I should say. And so we made sure that we reached out to a brother, specifically a brother that can speak directly to the importance of the, of libraries and library sciences and library systems across this nation.

So Jerry, I'm going to let you do the honors and introduce our special guest.

Jay Ray: Absolutely.

[00:09:57] Introducing Kelvin Watson

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Jay Ray: We are so honored Queue Points family to welcome Kelvin Watson to Queue Points. I'm going to read his bio because it's really important that you understand Kelvin's background. Kelvin is, Kelvin is the executive director of the Las Vegas Clark County Library District. He oversees 25 branches run by 600 plus employees spanning 8, 000 acres.

thousand square miles with a budget of 77 million and a collection of 3. 2 million items. Kelvin has brought innovative award winning leadership to Nevada's largest library system and his deep experience in fundraising, technology, program development, and demonstrated success in addressing the digital divide has brought a new and Era to this library system regarded as one of the most highly respected thought leaders in the library industry Kelvin is credited with expanding his customer base in multiple library management roles Through outreach efforts to underserved and diverse populations Kelvin earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and a minor in military science from lincoln university In missouri, he is a member of kappa alpha psi fraternity incorporated Incorporated and Beta Phi Mu Honor Society.

Queue Points. We are honored to welcome Kelvin Watson to the show. How are you, man?

Kelvin Watson: I'm fine, Jay Ray. How are you?

Jay Ray: We are, listen, so grateful. Thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to spend some time with us and really help us dive into something that as music lovers, as a podcast host that we feel like is really important.

So thank you for being willing to share some of your knowledge with us.

Kelvin Watson: No worries. I'm looking forward to the conversation and, uh, the pre conversation, uh, has, uh, has me already thinking.

Jay Ray: Awesome. Awesome. Well, let's jump into that. So as you can see on Queue Points Kelvin, right, we use our memories as a way to kind of settle ourselves into a discussion.

[00:11:57] Kelvin's Early Library Memories

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Jay Ray: So question for you, um, what is your earliest memory of visiting the library and what impact did it have on you? Mm

Kelvin Watson: So one of my earliest memories, but first I'd probably say that, uh, I agree with, uh, DJ Sir Daniel in that we're, we're, all three of us are probably from, uh, we're from the same decade. So we, we visited the library the same way. Um, um, the card catalog and all the things that, uh, the physical card catalog, actually the card

Jay Ray: Right, where you had to pull it out the drawer?

Kelvin Watson: It's just, it's just digital now. Uh, you had to pull it out. You had to take the card with the book, you know, to the, to the desk. They, uh, the stamp of the date do slip. Uh, the librarian would take the card and put, I remember all

Jay Ray: Yeah.

Kelvin Watson: You know, there wasn't that long. It was long ago, but not that long ago.

So my first memory, um, and I grew up in St. Louis, uh, inner city of St. Louis. And so my first memory, um, or one that I remember most is that we used to have these little small community libraries. Only about four people could probably fit in the library. It was really small, um, and it sat on the corner of, uh, of, um, Kingsbury and the pair.

Actually, I remember the street not far from my house. And, um, I, I, I checked out this, checked out the book. They were Sidney Sheldon's. the master of the game. I think I had just watched the series. I don't know if you guys watched the series, but that, that, that show, the series, it was like a nighttime, uh, young and a restless type thing.

Um, and so I checked this book out. I'm eight years. I had to be about eight years old. Maybe the book is like 300 plus pages. And I go home and I'm reading about things that I saw in the series, but also. I'm, I'm reading more about the diamond mines of Africa, like South Africa and all these other things that didn't necessarily come out in the series.

When you're reading a book, that's what you can, you can, you can get so much more details. And so that's my memory. Um, and that I also, uh, a few years ago now, I also had the opportunity to thank The librarian, uh, in my role, uh, in that I have become a librarian. And at that time I was the president of the black caucus of the American library association.

The conference was being held in St. Louis. And my librarian was attending the conference and so I had the opportunity to thank her, um, for, uh, you know, just just, you know, being helping us, um, you know, helping us black kids out with reading and being there. Um, and being there for me. Um, and so that's the, that's what my memory of the public library school library.

If I can just say that real quick. I was the school library helper in, uh, in the fourth grade, my third grade teacher, uh, had become the school librarian. Um, and so I was her helper in the fourth grade. So you talk about the school library being as large and so I have memories of that and shelving books.

And certainly back then, I never would have thought that I would be. Uh, a librarian and or leading, leading, um, my second library now.

Sir Daniel: Well, Jerry, I think it's safe to say Kelvin is walking in his purpose based on, it's on those recollections because, but like you, Kelvin, you know, those trips to the library and opening those books definitely took us to different worlds and exposed us to, you you know, different people, different walks of life.

I remember being heavily impacted and heavily enjoying the Judy Blume series, right? When I was growing up, those used to be, I mean, that was my favorite tales of a fourth grade. Nothing, I believe was the very first book that I checked out and I related to it big time.

[00:16:17] Challenges Facing Libraries Today

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Sir Daniel: Um, but so Kelvin, what's happening now, though, is a lot of kids aren't Going to be able to necessarily experience a Judy Blume book in the public libraries, or they may not be able to get their hands on a Sidney Sheldon book in the libraries because of, you know, widespread political, um, uprisings and using books, books in schools, books and libraries as a, um, As a political point or a way to gain points with voters.

Um, and one of the things that people are confused about, or I'll say I'm confused about is how exactly our library systems typically funded and um, You know, based on that, how much, you know, how much, um, I guess, um, wait, can that be put on libraries and what books are put in there? Books.

Kelvin Watson: a few different, uh, there's not one easy answer, so I'll make it as clear as I, as I can. Um, and we, we touched on public libraries being one thing we touched, I touched on the school library. There's multiple libraries that serve, uh, the public, right? Schools, they serve our students.

Uh, the public library, we serve the entire community, and then there's academic libraries that serve their students on campus, and if it's a publicly funded university, uh, then that, that library is also, or can be also open to the public as well. So let's, let's, let's frame the library, let's frame the types of, those types of libraries. The funding mechanisms for public libraries. Um, are primarily from, uh, it depends on the, it depends on the, um, the, like if it's a county library, for example, that library is most often funded by the county, right? It's a, it's a county agency. It gets, it fights for its funding alongside the police, the hospital, the fire department, so on and so forth, right?

If it's a city library, same. Um, they also are fighting, um, and you'll, and you'll know most of the time what type of library it is by the name of the library. So New York City, Brooklyn, uh, you know, those are all funded by the city, um, county. When I worked for Broward County, we were a county agency here in, uh, Nevada.

We don't have a lot of city or county libraries, even though our names may say that. So my library is the Las Vegas Park County Library District. So the district piece adds a nuance in that I am not a county or a city agency. I serve the city and the county 8, 000 square miles, but I'm funded by the state.

Jay Ray: Wow. Wow. That's a totally different

Kelvin Watson: so, so I'm sort of like, we're independently funded by the state, like a state agency. That's it. Um, so we get our money from sales tax. And property tax, but at the end of the day, all libraries are somehow publicly funded. And so when you talk about the, um, the weaponization or the, the, the, the, the politics behind it, the public in some way is funding the library.

Same thing with schools, same thing, as I mentioned with the academics, and so that's why you have individuals trying to get on library boards. Or school library boards, because the boards actually create. Are responsible for the policy creation. And so if you can impact the policy, you can impact potentially what books are being purchased.

Um, what program it even goes beyond the bookstore. What programming is actually being, you know, hail, right? Because there's, there's programming like during pride week, for example, we get a lot of people who are, who complain about our programming and our book displace. Right. And then we get the letters and, you know, I get the letters and, uh, you know, that we're grooming kids and we're doing all this stuff.

But in reality, uh, what we're really doing is we're providing information at the end of the day. And, and, and I can go on and on, but information is key. To what you'd like. The book can take you as we just we just talked about. Books can take you places and it can take you to spaces that you weren't even familiar with or can educate you about a particular topic, and that information is what people are trying to not share or they're trying to create a new narrative or, or, or new, uh, let's say a new history.

By not having that information be shared. So I'm pretty passionate about this topic, as you can see, but at the end of the day, that's the problem. It's, it's politicizing, but it's also not giving people information to either make informed decisions, um, about a particular topic or about a particular lifestyle or whatever, right?

And my job and librarians jobs. Are primarily to be, um, very democratic, not necessarily neutral, but democratic, and that we provide the information for everybody. Yeah,

Jay Ray: I have so many things, Kelvin, but Kelvin, you might actually remember this, uh, from, uh, uh, I remember I was working at borders at the time and we had got in the kite runner. And I remember like, we had, you know, we, cause we had promos, right? And it was like, Oh, well, let me read this book. I'm hearing a lot about it.

Let me read it. I was riveted by this story. Now, this story, the beauty of books, right? Is the story wasn't about me or my experience at all. But I felt like in reading this book that I had an understanding of a part of the world that I had not visited, but I felt like I related to it, right? The beauty of the information and just the Connectedness that books give us.

I just can't overstate it enough. I always talk about, um, music and books helped to expand my worldview. I hadn't traveled anywhere yet, but because I had books, but because I had books and music, I was able to travel to all of these places and I didn't leave Chester PA yet.

[00:23:30] Libraries as Community Equalizers

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Kelvin Watson: it's, it's, it's, um, you know, we librarians are really information. That's my job information. I go back, it's, it's to give and provide access. Is to let people discover what they haven't been able to discover and then to create the mechanisms of delivery of either a physical book, which you can come into our branches and get, or, you know, we've now got Outpost in, you know, we got vending machines like Redbox.

You can, you know, we got those in different places. Um, yeah, we, we do that in Las Vegas. Um, and then,

Sir Daniel: Look,

Kelvin Watson: we have digital.

Sir Daniel: and vending machines in Vegas,

Kelvin Watson: So we got, we have a vending, we have a vending machine actually in a mall and we also have one in a hospital here in Vegas. Um, and a hospital waiting room. Um, but then we also have, of course, the digital access, right?

So we put, we've put access to digital books on 400 buses here. We've put access to digital books at a halfway house. We've got digital books at a prison. We've got, you know, we're working on a project now to do this in the hospital. And so that's what it is about access discovery and delivery of information.

Sir Daniel: access, discovery, and delivery. And I mean, you know, you know, I was, thought I was going to ask you about what kind of impact your team is having on the, on the county, but you already, look, you, you got that. You, you already answered that. If you can, if there's no reason not to have some piece of literature or something to expand your mind these days, and Jayra, you kind of alluded earlier to, um, librarians and talking about the importance of librarians and how most recently, you know, in social media, like, Librarians and the topic of librarian science or the job of a librarian itself had come up in the, um, in social media.

But just based on that, do you think, um, like, have you seen an uptick in people coming to libraries now? Has the flow, the people coming into the library, has it increased?

Kelvin Watson: um, we continually see people using the library, like people, people, um, you know, I've been in the library book space for a long time. Jay Ray and I worked at Borders Together Before Borders. I worked at, uh, in a, at a library, uh, distributions company that's part of a larger book distribution company.

Um, and so I've been in this space with libraries or working with libraries since 1998. Uh, so a very long time. I didn't become a librarian until 2007, so I actually didn't get my library degree till 2007. Went to library school in 2005. And so, you know, people who put a death nail in libraries. Um, in the early 2000s with, you know, more people using the Internet, people searching Google, um, and so they were like, well, why do you need the library?

Well, as I look around, there's certainly been hundreds of library buildings that have been built. Since that conversation was had, right, right. There's libraries being built every day. We're actually building one. We're building a 40, 000 square foot library here in Las Vegas that we're planning to open next year.

So again, libraries are still being built. Books are still being purchased in the books and people, I mean, in the libraries and people are still coming. Um, during COVID. Libraries had to figure out how to serve the people who primarily came to the library for physical books. So we've we have and we did increase the number of digital access.

Books that people could get ebooks, digital audio books. Of course, we're more, we're more than books to remember that. Also, I mentioned program. We have digital magazines, for example, physical magazines. We got, um, streaming movies. We actually still lend DVDs here in library in our libraries, right? Because people in our communities.

Don't have, uh, believe it or not, not everybody has Netflix, not everybody has prime, right? People still borrow DVDs. They have DVD players. Um, so I get to see and learn like how privileged we are. And how we've become, but not everybody has those things and people need the library. They need the library for their book.

People come in and check out 50 books at a time. The kids, you know, we're, we're the ones serving the students during the summers libraries are with, uh, because of summer, you know, we used to call it summer reading. Now it's called summer challenge. Uh, they changed the name a few years ago. So it's summer, summer challenge.

And so we, we have a summer challenge going on for families. Okay. Um, a couple of years ago, we added a summer challenge for adults so the adults could participate and we give prizes and, you know, all kinds of stuff to for people to, uh, you know, as an incentive for them to read not so long answer. But the truth being people are still using libraries.

Sir Daniel: Mm hmm.

Kelvin Watson: people are using them, they figured out again, they can either come into the building or they can get something digital. So you don't never have to walk into a building, you'll never have to walk into a library to use the library. The library is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week,

Sir Daniel: Wow.

Kelvin Watson: how you have to think about it in that, in that and from that perspective.

Right.

[00:29:42] Digital Access and Community Support

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Sir Daniel: While we're still here, um, you made mention about the fact that there's some people that don't have access to, um, to digital platforms, or some people don't even have internet access. And a lot of, there's a lot of people, and I don't think people realize how important libraries are also to people who are experiencing homelessness as, and other difficulties.

People who are suddenly unemployed, you know, briefly talk to us about that, how the library helps them, but also talk to our listeners about what it is that We the public, what can we do to support you, your teams, not just in Vegas, but all across the nation, all libraries across the nation, what can we, as the public do, just help support you?

Kelvin Watson: So to answer, let me answer the first, let me answer the first question about the digital divide and that work that we libraries do. Um, as mentioned, that's some, you know, some of the things that I have been, you know, I've become some more people say expert here. Um, and that's lending hotspots, lending tablets, working with different partners.

Um, you know, lower income, right? I don't focus on incomes at all, right? Because the library is for the haves. And the have nots the library is that remember I talked about democracy, right? We are the equal we the we are the place that equalizes Everything for everybody, right? We don't charge you, you know for to use the library library is free, you know, um You can so if you have the internet you can still come and borrow a hot spot You know, you can borrow a hot spot for you know up to four months at a time I I know people that They got rid of their internet service with Cox and Comcast, and they just keep borrowing the hotspot device.

They got all their family members a library card. So Kelvin gets it for four months. J Ray gets it for another four months. You got a year's worth of library internet access and you didn't pay that whatever we pay 150 a month or whatever. Right. We also, um, um, we, we partnered with the housing authority a couple years ago.

We, we got a grant where we received 300 Chromebooks. We gave families in the Housing Authority, lower income folk, free Chromebooks. Helped them set up, uh, their library accounts so that they could borrow the hotspots. Last year, last year, we got a grant to provide 50, 000 people in our community access to the internet with a, through a partnership with Cox.

So it's, that's what the library can do. Like, we're the, we're that, again, we're that connector, that in between, we can be the The provider, uh, you talked about the, um, you know, unhoused individuals, uh, you know, we had, there, there's money that they had because of COVID. We did a project where we got almost 400 cell phones and we gave people unhoused individuals cell phones and the library paid the bills for up to 24 months.

We pay for the cell phone service and the data plan. Okay, that's what the library can do. Um, what can the public do?

Sir Daniel: Yes.

Kelvin Watson: First, the public needs to vote. That's what's it. Okay, so if you, I mean, I, I'm not to get that. That's the main thing.

Jay Ray: Do that's what we need. No, say what you need to say.

Sir Daniel: Say what you

Kelvin Watson: you need to vote because, because there are people who don't believe that the library should exist and be providing the services that we provide to the public, right, because they believe, like, they believe that people don't need the library because we got Google.

Or they, right, but we just talked about how we know people who don't have computers and people who don't have the Internet and people who don't have that technology that they need to access, discover, and deliver and get that material that we got, I talked about, right? So voting is one. So voting is one of the main things, right?

The other is, you know, go to the library and volunteer and, you know, um, you know, if you've got some, some extra, you know, if you happen to be fortunate enough to have some extra, you know, uh, you know, funds, you know, consider donating to the library, supporting our foundation, supporting our programs, uh, so that we can continue to, um, you know, Do the things that we that we do, and maybe even look at some additional programs, right?

So we just did a program where we're providing parents and newborns, their first library books. As well as access to library programming for newborns, and they get it when they get the kid at, you know, at the at the hospital. So we're working with the hospital to do

Jay Ray: dope.

Sir Daniel: That's excellent.

Kelvin Watson: yeah, so there's all kinds of things that libraries do and I'm only sharing, of course, for my library, but I've got colleagues around the country who are doing similar Thank you.

Uh, you know, similar programming, you know, as well, providing free legal services. For example, I know my colleague in, in, in, um, in the, in the Baltimore area, Enoch Pratt, they got a, they got a mobile legal van or something that goes around and gives free legal advice. So, um, the library is like, again, I, I say we're the equalizer. I'm, I'm, I'm giving y'all the buzzwords that I use, right? Uh, we make things. So that everybody has access.

[00:35:52] Reiterating the Importance of Voting

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Sir Daniel: So Kelvin, one of the, the important word that you, you you're using over and over again is equalizer and equity, right? Equity changes everything in our communities because while you were speaking, I was just reminded of a young man that I used to work with who was on the verge of. Um, being locked up unless he participated in some anger management courses that were provided online.

The courts didn't ask him, do you have internet access or anything like that? They didn't ask him any of that kind of stuff. They didn't provide him with a Chromebook or anything like that is no, if you want to stay out of jail, you need to go ahead and do and take these courses. Now you need to figure it out.

And you just reminded me of. the conversations that he and I were having about how he was going to get these things done, get these classes done. And the first thing we thought about was going to the library on Candler road because they have, they've got rooms that he could take a Chromebook in and, and hop online for these zoom classes.

They've got internet X, they've got wifi there at the library. It was literally the library was standing between him being free or going to jail. And I don't think we, things like that. I think people, there's people that do understand that Kelvin, Jerry people, there are people that Kelvin was talking about that do understand the importance of the libraries and that's why they don't want us to have them.

So I just, I just wanted to drive that point home really quickly. Um, before we pivot onto the, to the next topic, but yeah, this is people keep, people keep your ears open and go in there and vote and let's not get caught up in all that other hoopla.

Kelvin Watson: They talk, we talk about voting. And in, in all aspects of our lives. you know, I don't really talk a lot about the voting aspects until people ask me like, well, what is it that people need to do? Like you asked, that's what it, that's what is key because as easy as we have it, like I said, there are people, we have it, but there's also people who take the libraries that don't know, who take it for granted and then don't go vote, who don't know about.

The, the, the classes or the access or the rooms that we have or the Wi Fi or the computers or the, you know, so many, many, many things. The social service connect is that we also have some libraries, um, have social workers on staff who help people, you know, uh, with their, with, you know, mental illness. And, um, you know, but we also help make sure that people get fed, you know, You know, we also help make sure that people get clothed, you know, it, you know, we, we, we are a safe, uh, here in Nevada, our libraries in Las Vegas Park County, we're, we're called a safe place.

So, like, if a teen is having an issue at home, they can come to the library, and we'll connect them with resources. Um, you know, talk about the human trafficking. We participate in helping, you know, there as well. I mean, we do a lot of things. That people don't know we, we do and participate in, right, right.

Jay Ray: it's so interesting, Kelvin. So you have, it's, as you were talking about, um, the safe space, this unlocked a memory for me. So when, oh, this is a great memory. When I was in high school, um, there was a brother who ended up actually being, um, the valedictorian of our high school.

[00:39:46] Library Memories and Safe Spaces

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Jay Ray: He actually worked at the library.

So we would gather at the library and we would like do our homework together and like stuff like that, but we would literally do it in the library.

And then when we were done our homework, it was probably like five, five 30. And then we would like scatter and walk home to wherever we needed to be. But that safety, like we knew that was a place where we could go. That we would be okay. You know what I'm saying? And we can get, and we can have access to books that we may have needed to get the homework done.

Like everything was in there. We didn't have to like, look for it. That safety that, that knowing in the community that there's a place where you can go and there's information in there that you can go and get, and the people behind the counter wants you to have it. They want you to have it right. They want to make sure that you have access.

And, and this actually. brings up as we pivot.

[00:40:42] Concerns About Literacy Rates

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Jay Ray: Um, we have been hearing lots of conversations about, and alarming statistics about literacy when we think, talking about young people, literacy. So that's the reading, the writing, and the comprehension, Kelvin. And frankly, Sir Daniel and I have been alarmed by like, the conversation itself.

It's been scary. I've actually had conversations with educators, and we've been talking about it too. And they're like, nah, no, you're, it's real what you're, what you're hearing. Just as we kind of dive in, cause we have a few more questions to ask. Can you reflect on the importance of reading?

[00:41:27] The Role of Libraries in Education

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Kelvin Watson: Well, so, so I'm going to go even deeper and, you know, I'm glad that you've had conversations with these educators, uh, as, as we've seen for, man, the past, uh, man, 10, 15 years. I mean, we, we can go back to see where we've had issues in our education system. Right. The educational system. So this is not just a lot.

This isn't a library. But we participate and I'm going to talk about how we have, uh, work to supplement our partners in the educational, right. But when it comes to, you know, but, but it really comes down to, um, the educational system, the decline in the support for our, for our inner city schools, for example, right.

The edgy, you know, the educators or that we're teaching to the test. Right. Right. And like, so there's a, like, so I'm not an educator. I'm just a parent. I'm somebody that's I guess you can say well read on these subjects and, and really close to them because of the work that I do in the community with the community partners, the educators, because what people haven't realized, and this is again, why we make my voting.

This is what we had to realize is that that educational system, the output of that is on the back end, impacting our workforce

Jay Ray: Ooh,

Kelvin Watson: our future. We put, like, put that together. Put that together. If you don't have a, so if you don't have this educated population, there's an output, there's a correlation between education and workforce, right?

I get to see it and participate in these in depth conversations about how these things work together and the impacts. We've had an issue with having our youth prepare for third grade reading for many years. That's why the library, our library system in particular and others. That's why we started that newborn library program, right?

There's a, there's a reason for that. It wasn't that Kelvin was just trying to be nice. and give kids the library books. There's a, there's a, we have a problem. It, this isn't the only solution, but it helps if we are giving parents resources so they can start reading to their kids, that kids can start learning to love reading and by the time they go to school.

Then they're already ready to be, you know, engaged with reading and, and be prepared by the third grade. Right? So that they, so that they can, so there's a reason, right? There's a reason behind this madness, right? That we do what we do. Kelvin does what he does. And libraries do what we do, because it, at the end of the day, impacts and affects all of us. If we don't have these kids learning, reading, comprehending, educated, right? And then, again, there's an output. Because this is the future. Like, we're, we're talking about the past. What we need to be talking about is the present and the future. That's the, you know, the past, like, the past is the past. What are we doing now?

Because that's going to be what's going to impact us in the future.

Sir Daniel: You that piece about.

[00:45:20] The Disconnect Between Generations

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Sir Daniel: Starting them reading from the moment they leave the hospital is so important because there is such a disconnect. I see there's such a disconnect between parents and their Children that reading used to create such a bond between parent and child. I remember being young and reading to my mother, being, being excited about her.

She used to read to me before I went to bed. Then I got so excited that I could read to her before I went to bed. And that was, that created a bonding moment between us. Now we're seeing a disconnect between. Um, families basically, because the young people, um, are so connected to their phones and there is no, there's such a disconnect, a breakdown and the, the, the bond between that could have happened when their parents were reading to them if they were doing that, but they know these babies know how to pick up a phone and they know how to access YouTube.

They know how to play the games. They can do all of that and that's fine and dandy, but there is something reading to each other that it's not just the literacy aspect, but there's a bonding piece that is missing now and which I think creates a lot of strife between the generations and people, period.

But that's another show.

Kelvin Watson: I'm happy. I'm happy. A lot for future shows here, but you know what? I also had

Sir Daniel: Mm

Kelvin Watson: add another piece to that, right? Because you, you, you were hitting on this point about, you know, people, these babies having their devices, right? But go further that these kids. Get out of high school, for example, and can't even write a sentence.

They came out of sin. Like there's no, there's no word. Like, so you see these, you see these things and I'm a practical person. So what I'm bringing is the, that, that to this conversation is that, I live in the world like everybody else, so I just have to see, like, what helped my, you know, I have a, my, my, my two daughters, 33, and, um, my, my, my youngest daughter just turned 18.

So, um, I had the privilege of having access to books. Right.

Jay Ray: Yes.

Kelvin Watson: I work in book distribution. I work for porters. I have relationship with publishers. I used to go to book expo. So I've always had books and materials. You know, but I taught my oldest daughter how to read. She'd read the newspaper to me, you know, even before I got into the book, you know, the book, um, the book spaces or libraries, right?

Take my youngest daughter, who's 18. I've been in this like space again for the past 18 years. So she still wants books for Christmas, like physical books. Right. She's still reading like these things. That's, you know, and she's, she's been fortunate enough, you know, to do that. Graduated from high school.

She's going to Michigan State in the fall. So not everybody has that, that privilege, right? Or even the forethought to say, let me get these kids, the love of libraries, right? My, you know, my daughter comes and spends the, she would come and spend the summers with me, um, my youngest and we'd be, she'd be at the library.

With me at the library, like, cause she'd stay at the library, you know, um, you know, or, or, or taking her to, uh, you know, taking her to the Random House headquarters in New York, right. Having her talk to authors. And so I've had that, like, so they've had the privileges of this is the world from the book and learning and education and that I don't, like, I'll give you, like, I'll give you books.

Like I have a nephew that's incarcerated. And I'll send him books for, you know, I'm gonna send you some books instead of some money. Right? So you can, because I want you, I want you reading. I want you, you know, educated on what's happening out here.

Jay Ray: hmm.

[00:49:47] Influence of Celebrities on Reading

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Sir Daniel: you know that see so what Kelvin is showing you showing us Queue Points listeners Is that you can be you can still have an influence on somebody in that respect if you providing them books parents, especially you can still have Impact on your kids, um, regardless of what these celebrities are doing, what their favorite rapper is saying, you can still have the first and most important impact on your, on your kids.

And speaking of celebrities, I want y'all to check this out. So there's, here's a quote from none other than Mr. West himself, Kanye West. He recently said in a, I believe it was a Rolling Stone article. He said, quote, when you said I hadn't read this book, I actually haven't read any book reading is like eating Brussels sprouts for me. Um, let me repeat that reading is like eating Brussels sprouts for me.

Jay Ray: by the

Kelvin Watson: I just ate some last night. So that's us. So we, we. Okay.

Sir Daniel: we're not gonna comment on, on like maturity level of the brother, brother Ye and, and how underdeveloped his palate is, cause Brussels sprouts could be hooked up too. But if, if someone like that, the youth that was so concerned about, You know, the takes and the cues that they receive from these celebrities and musicians in particular, well, duh, should we be concerned about what, about what their favorite artists or celebrities do not find any value in reading?

Yes, we need to find that. That's interesting. That's concerning that they don't find value in reading. And like, what can we do about

Kelvin Watson: trying to be, I read this, you know, I knew this question was coming potentially, uh, you know, he's just a fool. I mean, just, I don't even know. I'm just trying to figure out what I

Sir Daniel: And has a school of his own and

Jay Ray: a school.

Sir Daniel: named after his mother, who was a professor.

Kelvin Watson: right. And I think when I say he's a fool, this is what I, let me, let me, let me, I think he says things and does the opposite thing of those things. Because at the end of the day, you remember, you know, before he became who he is today, he actually went to college. Remember, he went to college. He was in college. So clearly he was reading something. Um, and I think, He's, he's, he's using his, you know, celebrity in a wrong way. And what we, and the public and, and, and, and your listeners, right? We need to change who our kids look up to as celebrities. They need to be, I don't want to be, I mean, Like, we've got young folks here in Las Vegas, I got a librarian on my staff, he worked with me down in Florida.

I know this is a question that was coming up later, but I'm going to hit on it now, in that he's a celebrity. He's a celebrity to these kids in the community. Um, he is, um, somebody that we're helping to promote on social media. He's promoting himself on social media. He's got his own, so she's got his own.

He's got his own channel. He's got his own following. He's actually got his own, you know, sweatshirts and all his other gear as well, and, uh, I think he's going to even go further. We just, we just wrapped, uh, a few weeks ago, the filming of an episode of Queer Eye that he's going to be featured on along with the library, by the way.

But, but, but we. Did this, you know, uh, he did this, right. I recommended him for the show. And so that, so that's, cause it's going to be coming out probably later this year, around December or something. I think it's like episode nine. So we're going to be on, so we're going to be promoting the library, reading literacy.

They, they even filmed one of his, um, his story times with the kids. That's going to be on that. So we, as I said, we need to change where our kids look to, uh, from, you know, some from celebrities, right? That they need to be making folks like, you know, librarians, teachers, you know, other folks. That's who should be the, these are the celebrities.

Um, and not really promoting these people that, uh, you know, say foolish things or tracking the most thing, you know, something that's on social and, you know, they talking more about, uh, no Drake and all of that stuff. And, and, and we got the whole, the whole world probably crumbling around us with what's happening with, with voting and politics and so on and so forth.

And we want to keep the conversation going about, you know, a beef, you know? So that's. That's what I'll say.

Sir Daniel: got beef with the literacy

Jay Ray: We, we do, we do got beef with illiteracy. That needs to be a shirt.

[00:55:35] Representation in Library Science

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Jay Ray: Um, Kelvin, right here, I do not want to lose the importance of also having you on this show to have this conversation because I do not remember ever having a black male librarian. That's just not a thing that I remember. And so we're seeing folks on social media.

Like you just indicated, right? That are building, you know, their own celebrity. Um, talking about libraries, talking about reading, etc. Can you talk to us? Because Sir Daniel alluded to this earlier. People were on social media talking about library science. That's not a real thing. And we're sitting there like, what are y'all talking about?

That doesn't It doesn't make sense. Can you talk about the importance of black men studying library science and being librarian,

Kelvin Watson: Yeah, I mean, I, when I got into this field, as I said, um, you know, I think my first, I hadn't really seen many black librarians, um, my first interaction, and actually tomorrow I'm actually heading to the National Conference of African American Librarians tomorrow. So I'm going to see a lot of black male librarians tomorrow.

Um, and so in 1999, I went to my first, uh, National Conference of African American Librarians. And I had the opportunity to, had the opportunity to meet several male, black male librarians. Um, there's only a few of us, um, probably two percent of the profession is black male librarians. Um, and so the importance of it is, you know, that people who use the library recognize the library, that we, uh, that they see people that represent them. That's what I mean. We know that our population is changing here in this country and that who best to serve us are the people that represent us. The people that know us, the people that can have this conversation that I'm having today with you gentlemen, right, is that I'm not coming from this just from a librarian perspective.

I'm coming as from a black man. I'm coming from the inner city. I'm coming from, you know, and I ain't even talk about my experiences. I mean, right. I'm coming from all of those places. And so it's important that people didn't see us. And that we share, uh, what we've gone through to get here and that we, that people can see, hey, um, there are black, not only there are black librarians, but there are black male librarians, and that black men can share. Can also be library directors like myself that we can be leading these large organizations, right? Um, that we can be a part of the, you know, the community. I get, I get this all the time. I get it all the time and I'm pretty much like known in the, you know, in the spaces, right? Uh, but you know, especially when I moved to a new community, right?

When I moved to like, when I moved to Vegas and people introduce, they say, Hey, You know, and I'm, if I'm going to, if I'm with some of my staff who, um, happened to be majority, uh, Caucasian, right? So the Caucasian man walks in and they, we, they, the, the, the people, uh, immediately assume that that's the library director, they deaf, that they don't see me or that when my, so, and I come to this someplace is really unassuming, but I may go to a reception and I'm just hanging back in the cut.

Just chilling.

Jay Ray: Like Kelvin Dubey's just like, right,

Kelvin Watson: right? I'm just hanging, right? I'm just like surveying the spaces and my staff may be there, and then my staff will bring people over to introduce them to me, and, and there's sometimes a little, uh, uh, you know, taken aback a lot first that I'm black, that I'm a man, that I'm my age.

I mean, I got a whole bunch of things going on. Right. And that, uh, so that happens, right? And so, but when I'm in, um, and it even happens in our community as well. You know, when I'm in our community, I go places and people like he, here's the, here's the, he's the library director. They, are you a librarian? I mean, I got that.

I still get it every, I, it's not, I'll probably get it today. So if I go somewhere and tell somebody that I'm a librarian, you know, they're going to be taken, uh, taken aback by it. So, but again, the importance of it is, is just. That we, uh, that we're here, we're, we're growing, um, we're, we're recruiting, I, I, we, we're mentoring one another, uh, the, the young man that works on my, on my team here.

I've been mentoring him and working with him for the past 14 years when he was an undergrad, uh, and, and didn't even have his library degree. He attended Lincoln University like I did, uh, with a cohort of other folks who were interested, black folks who were interested in becoming librarians. And this program produced, I think five, five, five librarians, five male librarians, black male librarians that came out of this program.

One works for me as a branch manager here. He's worked for me in Vegas. He worked for me in Florida. Um, and then there's another one that he works. Um, he's in Dayton, Ohio. He's a, uh, he's kind of like a branch manager in Dayton, Ohio. And then the, uh, one of the other ones, he's actually working, he went to library school and he worked, uh, he's never worked in the library, but he's worked in the library business, the information business, the effort on the information side from a sales perspective.

So again, you wouldn't know, you wouldn't even know. Uh, you know, I mentioned myself. I'm the library director Las Vegas, the library director for LA County Public Library. She's a black female. Um, the director at Austin Public Library, um, in Texas, black man. Um, the director of Philadelphia, the director of the Philadelphia Free Library.

He's a black

Jay Ray: I didn't know that. I gotta go down there and see that

Sir Daniel: known any, I would have never known any of this

Kelvin Watson: so, so there's several of it. I can go, there's a, like, I can go, I mean, there's a lot of, I mean, I was gonna say a lot, but I just named the director of Cleveland, Cleveland Public Library, black man, um, the director of Harris County Library in Texas, black man. Um, several, I'm just going off the, like, there's several of us.

And these are public library directors. I didn't even talk about the library administrators of schools or the academic from the academic side, how many leading professors and library deans and, you know, university librarians. That are, you know, black and, you know, black in general, but black, black, um, you know, black men as well.

Sir Daniel: That's powerful. That's super powerful. I think what they, I know it's cliche now, but what they say about representation, representation for sure matters. And I'm glad we've had this opportunity to speak with you today, Kelvin, on this episode of Queue Points podcast, but I would be remiss. If I did not ask you, bring it back to music just a little bit, because like I said, we're, we're men of a certain age.

We came up in a certain generation where, you know, we heard slogans like reading is fundamental. And as we got a little older, we started seeing campaigns that featured some of our favorite musicians in alliance with reading campaigns. I mean, hell, I'll never forget. Um, who was it? I think Jerry, you were talking about you, you sparked a core memory with me also about those, um, book fairs at school.

And how, if you didn't, if you don't have any money, you felt. I mean, I felt if I, if my mom did not give me a couple of dollars to take with me so I could order some books, I felt like I was a black sheep. I completely left out of all the fun, but I'll never forget. There was like a LL Cool J poster

Jay Ray: the LL Cool J Reed poster

Sir Daniel: read, uh, get caught reading or something like that.

And just how powerful that was. But Kelvin, I got to ask you, I, am I missing it? I don't see those anymore. Is that a thing of the

Kelvin Watson: there's Yeah, they're still around. Um, you know, they they don't use as many music artists as they used to they still use celebrities though um, you know actors and actresses, uh, um, the actually the american library association, um, which is the association, um, You That is, represents, I think it's 50, 000 librarians across the country.

Um, they're the ones who produce those posters. Um, you know, there's LeVar Burton, of course. You guys know about Reading Rainbow. If you haven't, if you and the listeners haven't watched that documentary around reading, you know, Reading Rainbow, it's great. Talks about a lot of things that we were just talking about, you know, today.

Um, but so they're still around, the reposters are still around. Um, they've transitioned a little bit, uh, you know, they don't, they're not in. Well, they're probably not in as many schools as they used to be. Um, and I don't think we put them up in many libraries and the public libraries as we used to as well, but they are still.

They are. The campaigns are still still there. Um, it's just kind of transition, man. And I think, you know, we don't use, well, we got, we talked about this earlier. We got, we got Kanye West who was talking about, you know, how, how reading is like eating Brussels sprouts or whatever. So, you know, you, there was a challenge.

And getting the right celebrity on their repost.

Jay Ray: That is true.

Kelvin Watson: Because you might, you might be right, you know. Um, but, you know, what, what, what you have to know, and I think we did that back then. There was more of it throughout the years, right? Uh, because libraries and music and the arts are so tied together, right? We are, you know, we're, we're intertwined.

We've got art galleries in our libraries, actually next week we're doing, you know, this is interesting. I think folks will like this next week. We're, we're going to have a hip hop architecture camp for teens where we're combining hip hop and architecture. And so the kids will be creating their own, um, uh, raps and music videos

Jay Ray: we got to go out to, we got to go out to, we got to make it back out to, we were out in Vegas when we were nominated for the Amby's. We got to go back to Vegas and hang out. Yes.

Kelvin Watson: so, so look this up and this is a, this is a national, national, uh, program actually, uh, where the guy who started his name is Michael Ford. He's out of the, he's out of, uh, the Detroit area, but he's did any, he's done this in different cities. We did a, we did a one day camp during Superbowl and then we expanded it to a full week and so next week is going to be the full week, but they, the kids create little, um, uh, architecture buildings out of like paper clips and all kinds of, so it's a, it's a, it's a, uh, you know, and like I said at the end, it, it combines art, literature, music.

You know, to this thing. So look up hip hop architecture. Uh, and you'll see there's a whole, there's a lot of videos of these young, young people. Uh, and that's how we're keeping the teams in the libraries. We're keeping them in the libraries by focusing on things. That they're interested in and and then getting them, you know, getting them that way to the books and the reading, you know, we got podcast studios in our libraries.

We have DJ, we got DJ booths in our libraries as well. We've got the teams have their own spaces, for example. So that's just again, we're, we, we have art galleries in our libraries as well. So here in here in Vegas. There

Jay Ray: Man, this is awesome. Um, Kelvin, thank you so much for taking the time.

[01:08:43] Connecting with Libraries and Final Thoughts

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Jay Ray: Where should folks, um, best connect? Should they, should they visit the library to best connect with, with all the stuff that you have going on? How does, how should folks stay connected to you, the libraries? What's that? How does Shasha folks do that?

Kelvin Watson: are multiple ways. If you want to connect with me, you can reach me, um, you know, at my email. If you want to email me, WatsonKatLVCCLD.

org. You can go to our website. The library district. org, you know, here to see what we're doing here in Vegas, the programs, the books, the, you know, all of the, all of that stuff, sign up for our newsletter. We've got, you know, where we highlight and profile things. If you're not in the Las Vegas area, you know, visit your public library.

I just talked to, I mean, man, go to go, you know, if you're in Austin, man, go to, go to the Austin public library. You're in LA. You're in, you know, St. Louis, you know, uh, Columbus, Ohio, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, wherever you're at. You know, like I said, I'm going to New Orleans tomorrow, the New Orleans Public Library.

Uh, and you'll get to see. Um, you know, talk to a library, you know, you can go physically or you can just go to their website, uh, and look it up and look up the library and see what's going on, you know, and if you don't have a library card, that's the best free thing you can get like with some free stuff out here.

Get you a library card. If you don't have a library card, get a library card. Uh, I call it, we call it get carded. We have a whole campaign around, you know, black giddy and it's called get carded. We got, we got t shirts that say, get hashtag get carded. And people, uh, have really, uh, you know, that's my challenge to people is to get a library card.

Jay Ray: Man, oh man, Kelvin Watson is the executive director of the Las Vegas Clark County District Library District and Kelvin. Thank you so much for joining us here on QPoint, sharing your knowledge. This has just been a really, really dope and rich conversation, brother. We really appreciate you.

Kelvin Watson: I thank you both. And, uh, yeah, it's been a great conversation. Cause I don't get to talk about some of this stuff sometimes, uh, all the time. I probably said, uh, More things than I normally say about a whole lot of different topics.

Jay Ray: Well, hold tight real quick, Kelvin. We gonna wrap up real quick. Hold tight. One second, man. Oh man, sir. Daniel. My goodness.

Sir Daniel: What an amazing, amazing conversation. Wow. Like library. I, I'm going to, when we wrap up, I'm going to go and get my library card. There is a library literally two minutes from where I live. I can go there and right now and apply for a library card and I'm going to look up all the, all the things that my, my neighborhood library has to offer aside from being beautiful.

The worst thing, Jay Ray is the only time that a lot of us go to the library in this neighborhood is so that we can file our taxes because you can get your taxes

Jay Ray: in some cases voting. Right, right.

Sir Daniel: Exactly. We need to change that because the libraries have so much more to offer. It's like Kelvin said, access, discover, and deliver.

It all takes place at the library.

Jay Ray: Man, oh man, oh man. Sir Daniel, listen, this has been an amazing conversation. I, um, want to just remind folks, stay connected to Queue Points. Um, let us know if you have your library card, leave us a message. You can always, of course, leave us a video message or an audio message, but let us know. Do you have your library card?

What's your first library experience? Let us know. Um, but stay connected to Queue Points. If you see us, if you hear us, subscribe, visit our website at Queue Points. com, join our newsletter, read Queue Points Magazine, um, and just generally stay connected. Also, you can of course shop our store. We're so grateful for all of y'all.

Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning in.

Sir Daniel: Yes. It's like I always say, Jerry, in this life, we have, we have all the opportunity. You can either pick up the needle or you can let the record play. I'm DJ Sir Daniel.

Jay Ray: My name is Jay Ray y'all.

Sir Daniel: And this has been Queue Points Podcast, dropping the needle on black music history, and Sonja Massey should still be alive.

[01:13:16] Closing Theme

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