Rachel Baker is accustomed to pleading the case for the Elkins Public Library to the keepers of Canterbury’s municipal budget.
The community members who turn to the library for its free programming, for the safe environment it provides children and families, or for the joy of exploring numerous titles rarely need to be reminded of its value.
Elkins sees upwards of 14,000 patron visits a year. Without a local teen center or town-operated recreation facility, a sectional couch is set aside for readers under 18 years old. Supervised visitation centers have largely closed in New Hampshire, absent federal funding, and some divorced parents turn to the library as a neutral drop-off location. Members check out more than just books from the library’s panoply of “things,” and at least one person has visited Elkins for a clarinet repair.
However, library services aren’t part of everyone’s daily diet.
Baker, as the library’s director, often finds herself enumerating the breadth of those services and defending their vital role in the community.
“Canterbury is a town that loves its library. But every year, the budget is a struggle,” she said.
Her annual advocacy to keep the public library a priority was quietly equipping her to face the challenges of her one-year tenure as president of the New Hampshire Library Association, which ended on December 31, 2025. Unbeknownst even to herself, Baker was preparing to fight, tooth and nail, to promote the public library’s mere existence.
“Library directors and library professionals are constantly fighting for budgets. There has never been a time where we haven’t fought for our town budget. But what happened last year — it was a year where everything changed,” she said. “I’m sure there were a lot easier years to be the president of NHLA than 2025.”
The library association is a member-based volunteer organization that, in more halcyon times, would focus its energy on networking and collaboration. The existential threats that faced libraries last year, however, were nothing like those of before.
Baker’s tenure began marred by worry. In March of 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for the dissolution of the federal agency that issues grants to libraries and museums. Later that month, state lawmakers considered eliminating funding for — or altogether shuttering — the State Library.
Local libraries like Elkins don’t receive funding from the state or federal government, which Baker said is crucial to allowing them to maintain their independence, but they do use services provided by the State Library. Baker and other local library directors agonized over the fear that funding cuts targeting the State Library could destabilize the entire ecosystem.
For the visually impaired, the State Library offers a program called Talking Books that circulates materials like braille books, downloadable audio books and descriptive videos. All printed materials are sent through the mail postage-free and at no cost to the patron.
Access to the popular audio book app Libby and the operations of the inter-library loan, which shuttles titles across the state at patrons’ request, were also thrust into jeopardy.
The Elkins Public Library houses a collection of about 18,000 materials, according to Baker. Even so, community members may ask for titles the library doesn’t have, which is when the lending system, managed by the State Library, comes in handy.
“Last year we were like, ‘What are we going to do?’ Are our librarians going to just drive books around? Are we going to mail them to each other?” Baker said. “We’re very lucky, but some of these reading rooms have like 800 books. A lot of our small New Hampshire libraries rely almost exclusively on inter-library loans.”
Confronting the gargantuan task before her, Baker appealed to New Hampshire’s congressional delegation for help, meeting personally with U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander.
All signs point to funding being restored: Baker said she has every reason to believe that Talking Books, Libby and the inter-library loan system are safe. Her final count showed that, despite uncertainties, Elkins sent out 844 books and received 820 books through that network last year.
“I don’t want to say we’re at the happy ending, because we’re very far away from a happy ending, from those cuts that we experienced last year. We’re really just on eggshells, just hoping that, at the federal level, there’s no more cuts. But what it kind of allowed is this dialogue about the value of libraries,” she said.
The role of librarians has shifted as libraries themselves evolved. The primary mission of Elkins, Baker said, has remained the same: to support children and families during the foundational period from zero to five years of age. But most librarians are offering more than just story times.
Baker thought of her role as president as the representative for the complete spectrum of professionals who call themselves librarians: From country mice, like herself, who might help patrons understand their taxes or apply for a job; to city mice, like Denise van Zanten, who directs the Manchester City Library and succeeded Baker as president.
“You know, the cities are also doing amazing things. They’re administering Narcan, they are placing people in shelters. That’s the rich landscape of a New Hampshire library — these library professionals are really doing whatever their community needs,” Baker said.
She reflected on when, more than a year ago, she stepped up and took on the presidential mantle. No longer the same children’s librarian who would walk with her own kids down the hill from the elementary school to the library after school, Baker had become an empty-nester looking for a meaningful investment of her time.
As the funding cuts began to loom, she wrestled with reservations about her ability to meet such a challenge.
“When I started, I thought, ‘Oh, what have I done? Why did I pick this year?'” she asked herself. “But I had so many of my colleagues say, ‘Oh, no, no, you are the perfect president for this year’ because I could passionately speak to the power of a New Hampshire library organization in that it’s up to us as volunteers, as library professionals, to keep doing the good work for our community in the face of adversity from federal, state and town levels.”