So long and thanks for all the fun

The youth services desk at the Sweetwater County Library is usually a busy post, even during the school year.

Anyone walking by the desk will often see Youth Services Director Ellie Davis working on a project behind the desk or talking about the latest books with children.

Tuesday morning, she helped a trio of students from the Thoman Ranch School. The students, dressed in their best for school picture day, walked through the rows of shelves while Davis made suggestions and chatted about her visits to the ranch.

Oct. 4 will be Davis' last day with the library system. She recently accepted a position at the Teton County Library System as its teen program coordinator.

"I love Green River and it's probably one of the hardest decisions to leave here," she said about her impending move. "I love the people and the community."

For Davis, the position fulfills a lifelong dream she's had about living in Teton County.

"It's beautiful there and very peaceful," she said.

Davis said it felt like a number of things aligned for her in regards to the position. While visiting her mother in Star Valley, Davis read a newspaper advertisement looking for the teen program coordinator at the library system.

"It was just straight-up written for me," she said about the position.

She said recent events put things into perspective for her and decided to apply.

"I'm always telling the teens to listen to their intuition and follow their dreams," Davis said.

Along with living in Teton County, being a librarian was also a dream come true for Davis.

Initially, she worked as a DJ at KSIT prior to working with the library system.

"I love books, I love reading and the library and working with children," Davis said. "I knew I wanted to be here."

Davis applied seven different times before she was hired as a library sub, a fill-in position for instances when a library is short staffed. After being promoted to working as a part-time librarian, Davis quickly started helping out with the library's teen advisory group and its Story Times, programs designed for young children to allow them the chance to listen to a librarian read a book and play with other children during a fun activity.

Davis said there weren't a lot of library programs hosted through the system at the time. One of the first programs she had a hand in creating was the monthly poetry jam. She said the idea was modified from the Poetry Slam competitions hosted at the library. After the librarian handling the Poetry Slams transferred to White Mountain Library, the topic came up during a teen advisory group. Davis said many of teens weren't attracted to the competition and said a number of musicians sought a program where they could perform. Deciding the musicians needed a place and wanting to back away from competitive poetry reading, Davis started the monthly Poetry Jams.

The jams are a popular program hosted at the Sweetwater County Library, aimed at older teens and adults. A coffeehouse-like atmosphere accents the performances, which often involve participants reading poems about personal topics while giving young musicians a place to perform for a crowd.

The poetry jams are events Davis plans to introduce in Teton County, saying they help bring culture to the community.

"I can guarantee I'm starting it in Jackson," she said.

Other programs, such as the library's ghost walks and psychic fairs started as teen programs before being adapted to cater to adults as well. The ghost walks in particular started when Davis and other librarians wanted a forum to talk about the paranormal experiences many teens would repeatedly ask about. Davis and Micki Gilmore, the reference librarian who maintains the library's ghost log, sought permission to host a teen program where they would talk about some of the ghostly phenomenon reported at the library at a time the library would normally close.

Davis said the night they hosted the first ghost walk, a number of strange things happened while they talked about different reports throughout the library. The program grew into an active ghost investigation when Gilmore purchased equipment often used by ghost hunters to gather evidence of spiritual activity. Now, the ghost walks have morphed into an annual fundraising opportunity for the Sweetwater County Library Foundation, the system's non-profit organization, and tickets normally sell out within days of being announced. The ghost walks and Gilmore's ghost log also lead to a book the library system seeks to publish about the paranormal activity reported and the history of the library location.

One of Davis' greatest accomplishments while at the library was the earning a national recognition for the Zombie Walk and Prom annually hosted at the library. In 2012, Davis was one of 25 recipients of the Young Adult Library Service Association's excellence in library services to young adults award. As a result of the recognition, she was asked to present at the YALSA conference in Chicago as well as the Wyoming Library Association that year, discussing how to get teens and young adults involved with libraries.

She said moving on from Sweetwater County is difficult because of the amazing staff members she worked with as well as the teens and other patrons she's gotten to know over the years.

"The hardest part is leaving the kids and teenagers," she said. "We have a fantastic team here and I'll miss them immensely."