Ark Valley News - From the library

From the library
By Janice Sharp, director
Last Updated: April 26, 2018

Pages won't be moving with us to new library

The City Council and the Library Board met recently to discuss progress on the new facility and to openly share issues that have separated the two entities over the last several years. City Administrator Scott Hildebrand and his staff have prepared many documents, including proposed regulations for the building.

One of the regulations is that no animals will be allowed in the building with the exception of certified service animals. Sadly, Pages will not be allowed to move with us. She will become a member of the Sharp household where hopefully she and Chester will get along. Pages will need to win over my husband, Gene, since we've never had a cat in our family previously. I'm not sure yet when Pages will make her move.

We are still collecting inscriptions for bricks from those individuals who donated a minimum of $1,000. If we have not contacted you regarding your inscription, please call us or come by the library. If you have an unpaid pledge, now is the time to fulfill your pledge. Unfulfilled pledges will not be allowed to have a brick in the designated area at the new facility. Nancy Anderson has been helping to contact individuals.

Donations are still appreciated for the furnishings of the new library. The shelving has been ordered and is in the process of being constructed. Some tables and chairs have been selected and ordered by staff at City Hall. The furniture for the children's area is being chosen by a family whose donation was specifically for that area.

There are many miscellaneous items that will be needed, but we are delaying making decisions until we have moved and know our available space. We will be taking some tables and chairs from the current library as well as some of the shelves. Every effort is being made to use what we have to eliminate unnecessary costs.

Be sure to attend our book presentation / discussion of “Twice a Soldier" at 7 p.m. April 26. The author, Russell Babcock, will be here to share his experiences, as he served in several wars beginning with Vietnam. He has received three Purple Hearts, the Bronze Star and the Silver Star for his service. Come and listen as he shares his experiences in his military career. Books will be available for purchase.

We will have a workshop from 10 a.m. to noon April 28 for adults to learn how to make a fabric wreath. Participants should bring a 12-inch wire wreath base and five yards of 45-inch cotton fabric. The fabric choices can be a variety of colors or a specific color of your choice. Please bring cutting mats, rulers and rotary cutters, if available.

The 2018 Summer Reading Program, Libraries Rock, is right around the corner. In planning for our reading program, we will need the following supplies: round cardboard oatmeal containers with lids, plastic coffee cans with lids, Pringles or Lay's chip cans with lids, paper towel tubes, wide-mouth plastic bottles with lids (such as Gatorade, vitamin water or juice bottles) and bottle caps (plastic or metal). Donations will be accepted at the library at any time. We appreciate your help to make our summer programming a great success for our kids. The May water bill will have detailed information.

The library will be closing May 29 to begin our move into the new facility. We are anticipating being closed for three weeks. We will allow a six-week checkout period from May 15 through June 26 for books only. Patrons who are in good standing (all fines paid; all outstanding over dues cleared; current contact information and state-approved identification on file) will be allowed to check out 50 print materials per library card.

We will not check out DVDs after May 17 so all movies are returned prior to the move.

Audio books may be checked out until closing May 26.

We will stop all interlibrary loans on May 8 and resume the service on June 18. We will stop all interlibrary service for that period, incoming and outgoing.

Individuals with questions regarding if their accounts are in good standing should talk to Janice or Terry.

We realize this schedule will be an inconvenience for our patrons but we are excited to be able to relocate to our new library that so many of our community members donated money for.

We are planning to have the public Internet computers available from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday until the computers are moved. The moving schedule for our technology equipment will be based on the schedule of our technology consultants.

This is a reminder for adults and teens that logs are due for those who participated in our latest reading challenge. The deadline to return the logs is 6 p.m. April 30.

Upcoming events

April 26 — Book talk

April 28 — Wreath workshop

April 30 — Adult / teen reading challenge ends

May 1 — City Council

May 4 — “Star Wars" Day / amnesty day