After 50 years Mat-Su’s libraries are hubs for local readers, services

Mat-Su’s five small community libraries have become vibrant focal points for community meetings and services while also serving the local reading communities. While Wasilla and Palmer have city-operated libraries but the Matanuska-Susitna Borough operates community libraries serving outlying areas, Jillian Morrissey, the borough’s community services director, told the assembly in an update at its Jan. 6 meeting. The borough has been operating community libraries for 50 years.

Besides providing reading materials, the libraries are “hubs” for community services including distribution of nutrition assistance for children when schools are not in session and workshops on topics of local interest, the most recent being on the use of Artificial Information systems, Morrissey said. Rooms in libraries are set aside for community meetings at no charge; wi-fi for internet access is provided and the libraries also have computers available for public use. Programs for senior citizens and for children after school and during school breaks are also offered.

Big Lake’s library serves a community of over 3,000; Willow serves about 1,300 local residents; Sutton about 1,000; Talkeetna serves about 1,000 at mid-year when its population increases with summer workers and visitors, while Trapper Creek, Mat-Su’s smallest library, serves about 500. In total, the borough’s libraries handled over 100,000 requests for books and materials last year, Morrissey told the assembly.

Mat-Su’s library board is sensitive to local concerns over inappropriate content in materials children have access to and now reviews books and DVDs proposed for purchasing for the libraries. In 2025 titles for about 2,000 books and DVDs to be purchased were reviewed with five flagged for further review.

A new service offered by the borough’s libraries is a system to notify parents when children check books out although parents must sign up for the service, which requires a visit to the library by a parent to verify identify and email addresses. So far two families have signed up but the service is now available, Morrissey said. Assembly member Dee McKee had asked that the service be provided and, after some juggling of software the borough was able to make it available.

To further protect children from inappropriate material an initiative planned in 2026 will involve the redesign of interior shelving in libraries to separate content more appropriate for adults.

Community libraries have local support associations and these are organized as nonprofit groups to raise funds and publicize local activities, Morrissey said. This prompted a discussion within the assembly over library web paged and social media marketing that is independent of the borough’s own library websites, because it sometimes creates confusion. An example was cited where a Sutton resident wanted to attend a borough library board meeting but instead wound up in a meeting of the local Sutton library nonprofit.

Another incident was more concerning. It involved a social media message from one of the library nonprofits urging children to read banned books. It is important that it be clear that the public understands that this is not a message from the borough or its library board, assembly members said.

Morrissey said the borough hopes to address confusion like this through a planned redesign of the separate library websites that will follow the recent launch of the borough’s website. The new borough library websites should make the distinction clear from those of the private nonprofit groups, she said.

Dimitri Fonov, a member of the assembly, asked how much the borough spends yearly for purchasing of books and other materials. Morrissey didn’t know off-hand but said the amount has been calculated to be about one cent per year in property tax impact for a $300,000 home. Borough manager Mike Brown said he would get the actual dollar amount for library purchases.

Fonov also raised the question of whether the increasing trend toward digital materials and reading, and away from traditional printed book and materials, should be an item for discussion. “I know this will be an uncomfortable topic,” but the shift toward digital can’t be ignored, he said. Morrissey said there is still a vibrant check-out rate at libraries for traditional book as well as digital e-books. “People are still reading,” but across multiple forms of media. Assembly person Stefannie Nowers said there is the trend toward digital information but she hasn’t seen a decrease in demand for traditional books.