Book Club of Washington Honors Trio Who Saved Local Library
The trio accepting their award
Tanya Patton, Elise Severe, and Deb Fortner are this year’s recipients of the Book Club of Washington’s Emory Award - presented annually “to a Washingtonian who has made an extraordinary contribution to the culture of the book" - for their efforts to save their local library.
In 2023 the Columbia County Library in Dayton, Washington, faced the possibility of permanent closure after a group decided to pursue dissolution because library staff refused to remove more than 100 books relating to gender, sexuality, and race from the children’s and oung adult collections. The closure of this library would have deprived all the residents of Columbia County of public library services.
Patton, former chair of the Dayton Library Board, helped save the library a second time through last year’s efforts, as she also led the 2005 campaign to create the rural library district that restructured the library’s funding model so it could remain open and continue serving the community.
Fortner is a wheat farmer in Columbia County who worked alongside Patton to save the Dayton Library by building community support for the library in the face of the 2023 dissolution challenge.
Severe founded Neighbors United for Progress, a political action organization that successfully sued to stop the library dissolution measure from getting on the November ballot. Severe was also one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The Book Club of Washington is a non-profit organization founded in 1982 to foster collecting, preserving, and appreciating fine books, which includes recognizing book-related accomplishments of individuals through awards and promoting the important role of all types of libraries.
