She wanted to be a police officer.
That dream changed when Isabella Sharpensteen moved to Southwest Colorado in 2017. She was hired as a part-time cataloger at the Cortez Public Library. Fast-forward four years, and she’s the library director.
Growing up in Germany and pursuing paralegal and criminology degrees, it isn’t the life she had dreamed since childhood.
While she misses home – she hasn’t been back in five years – the nature-loving, Facetime-reliant, bookworm soul is excited for the future she’ll help to build at the library.
“I want to be the best director ever,” she said. ”I want to make the library kind of like a home for people that they feel comfortable to share — and literally everybody is welcome.“
She has high aspirations, and she’s applying to graduate school programs to begin earning her master’s in library science remotely.
“I want, first of all, (to) get through this COVID mess and kind of get back to normal,” she said.
Sharpensteen has reached out to nonprofit organizations with the hope of setting up classes at the library that would foster employment opportunities and offer mental health resources to the public.
She also is excited that the library is back to acquiring new books after budget cuts during the pandemic.
Her ascent to library director saw her transitioning from part-time cataloger to full-time employee as she took on the additional role of interlibrary loan technician.
From there, she became the interim director in April until the position was officially granted to her in July.
When it comes to selecting a novel to read, she is most thrilled when devouring mysteries – particularly from Scandinavian authors. This makes sense, given her German nationality – and her penchant for gore.
You can even find a few such reads in the Cortez library, she said.
Before moving to Colorado, she lived in Texas and Arizona.
The Phoenix heat proved to be too sweltering for her, though.
So, after nine months of living there, she and her husband packed up and moved to Mancos, where her friend looked after her horse at the time.
Sharpensteen was 9 years old when she first begged her parents to ride horses. She now has two, and this corner of Colorado has proved to be a freeing sanctuary for Sharpensteen and her four-legged friends.
On weekends, you can find her stationed in the saddle. She’ll be adorned in wide breeches, long boots and a riding jacket as she competes in dressage.
“Isabella is the right person at the right time to lead our staff and oversee operations at our library,” said Cortez City Manager Drew Sanders in a news release July 19. “I look forward to watching our library programs and services grow to meet the needs of our community while under Isabella’s leadership.”
