The Library Business: Win-Win

Traditionally, libraries get busy when the economy stumbles. People start looking for bargains when wallets start getting lighter, and the users of the Chippewa Falls Public Library know that we pack a lot of punch for a great price.

If you do the math, the average resident of Chippewa County pays about $15.00 per year for library service. With that $15.00, he or she gets:

>Internet access
>The newest fiction and non-fiction
>CDs and DVDs
>Civil service information
>Access to educational and enriching children's literature (and toys)
>New and back issues of popular magazines
>Access to the books held in just about any library collection in Wisconsin
>Public programs, such as Summer Reading Club and author visits

I challenge you to find dinner and a movie for one NIGHT for less than $15.00 anywhere these days.

Once again, if you do the math, a weekly user of the library can get hundreds and thousands of dollars worth of education and entertainment back on his $15.00-$20.00 tax investment. Economically, the State of Wisconsin gets about $4.00 back for every one dollar she spends on libraries, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Makes sense to me. I hope you'll think about it now and then...

Support your library, and then USE it. You can't beat the deal.

Community Advisory Board?

I've been learning so much the last two weeks about what people like about the library--the convenience, the speed with which holds arrive, the availability of technology--and making a mental note of what we've doing right so we keep doing it.

I've also been listening closely to what we may have been doing that people weren't crazy about--the slow computers, the noisy environment, the crowded floorplan--and trying to alleviate the problems as I can.

Maybe I need a "Community Advisory Board" to meet now and then and relay what people are saying about the library to us...a sort of semi-permanent focus group to help us get better. We want opinions from across the spectrum...men, women, young, old, girls, boys, blue collar, white collar and so on. We're trying to give this library to the community with both hands, and we'd love to know how we're doing.

If you think this is a good idea,
email me and let me know. Maybe YOU can be the first volunteer organizer? Help!

Among Friends...

Last night was my first meeting with the Friends of the Chippewa Falls Public Library (see photo above). That's (from left) Carl Miller, Mary Ann King, Jan Joas, Carol Peterson and the big guy is me. We discussed where the group might go in the future and the level of involvement a director might and should have in the regular operations of the group. It's still all open for discussion.

In my experience and estimation, a Friends group has enormous potential to do enormous good, even when the library in question isn't enormous. In a town like Chippewa Falls, there is always the opportunity to tighten and strengthen the bonds which already exist, and a Friends of the Library group can offer not just fund-raising, but FUN-raising opportunities.

Friends groups in some communities have done dog parades, trivia contests, bazaars, motorcycle poker runs, costume contests, etc. The sky is the limit.

So I thank the Friends who are now members and encourage anyone reading this who is NOT a member of the Friends of the Chippewa Falls Public Library to consider joining.

Everyone can have a role to play in the future of the library, after all, and can have a good time doing it. The public library is, truly, ALL YOURS.