Bristow Public Library Awarded Nearly $85K In Grants

The Bristow Library is getting nearly $85,000 in grants to help build up its library.

Heather Hutto is the executive director of the Bristow Public Library and has revamped everything the library has to offer over the last year. Hutto has worked to get more funding to improve mobile hot spots and literacy programs for the library which she says serves almost three times the number of people who live in Bristow.

"Libraries, whether they're recognized or not, are really the cornerstone of our society,” said Hutto. “They're the only remaining institution that is free and available to all people, no matter your walk of life. We provide and fill so many gaps for so many people."

She says the library is trying to help give more people in the Bristow area access to the internet and training on how to use it. She interned in San Francisco and when she got here, she saw a big gap in how people use technology here versus there.

“And I realized just a huge gap, a huge discrepancy between levels of ability that technology literacy and fluency that people in the Bay Area had compared to people in Oklahoma, especially people who lived in rural and tribal communities,” said Hutto.

Her coworkers say Heather has changed the library for the better.

"The children's library,” said Tina Van Zant. “The children's, that's my favorite part. It's a whole transformation. I love everything about it. And all the grants the library has gotten over the past few years? Yeah, it's great."

Heather hopes people will see the library as more than just books on shelves and others will see how important rural libraries can be.

"We offer programs, we offer services, we've secured all of this grant funding to help with initiatives that only serve to uplift our community, and that, I believe, is what libraries are really for,” said Hutto.

Hutto has also applied for several more grants but is still waiting to hear back on them.