Q+A with Mayor Brown: growing our future leaders.

Here, we will share a weekly update addressing Mayor Brown’s questions, which are probably your questions, too. (And, if you’re still puzzled, be sure to comment directly on this post or ask us here. We want to be on the same page.) Answers to questions 1 & 2 regarding location can be found here. The answer to question 3 regarding demographics can be found here and question 4 about the sales tax here.

Mayor Brown’s Question 5: Does the library currently serve as a safe place for kids after school?  Is this a continued, diminished or expanded role for the proposed new library?

Library Board’s A: If you have visited the Grand Forks Public Library recently, especially after school and on the weekends, you know that school-aged children are using the library in record numbers.

Children come to the library to:

• ask a librarian for help locating materials for their homework assignments,
• to study,
• to meet other students to work on school projects,
• to use the computers,
• and to find something fun to read.

They also come to the library for various programs and events. A sample of recent events for school-aged children includes:

• Kids in the Kitchen: Mission Nutrition,
• the 39 Clues Book Club,
• Wimpy Kid Day,
• a LEGO event,
• and twice-weekly story time events for the younger children.

The number of programs and events for children has expanded dramatically in the past two years. However, that expansion is limited because the library has only one meeting room, which needs to be shared with all other library events. With increased space in a new facility, the Grand Forks Public Library would be able to meet the community’s demand for more children’s programming and events.

Children often come to the Grand Forks Public Library to study. The library is used by students of all types, including homeschooled, distance education, tutored and college students. However, group work is very difficult in the current facility since there are no private areas for students to use. Instead, groups must sit at tables in the main library where they may disturb or be disturbed by other library users. The new facility would address this problem by providing several small, quiet study rooms and group study rooms.

Teens

There is also a great need for space in the library for the community’s teenagers. Too old for the children’s area with its knee-high book bins and pirate’s ship play area, yet too young for the hushed atmosphere near the adults, teens are in desperate need of a place to call their own. They are at an age where it is essential to keep them reading and hooked into literacy-promoting activities, yet our current facility isn’t welcoming to teens and doesn’t have the space to create the needed area for teens. A new facility would not only offer that space and the resources teens want and need, it would give teens the chance to help design that space.

The Grand Forks Public Library is an important place for children and their families, particularly after school. The current facility is being used to its capacity but is not large enough to meet the community’s wants and needs. A new facility would help to ensure that the children of Grand Forks today have all they need to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Growth is good. For all of us.

Much has been said about how much the Grand Forks Public Library has changed and added programs and services over the years. Here’s a rundown of that growth:

• The library now has 61 computers for public use, 11 of which are used for the online card catalog and databases. Over 50% of their total cost has been provided by grant funding.

• The library provides access to searchable online databases (Ancestry, Auto Repair Center, Ebsco and Gale journal article databases, Mango Languages, NoveList, Proquest Newspapers, etc.) for all library patrons, either within the library or from their home computers. These subscription databases are provided through library consortium funding and are not available from your local Internet provider.

• Computer classes are currently offered on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Topics currently being explored include Computer Basics, various Microsoft applications, Beginning Genealogy and Social Networking.

• Two self checkout stations have been added at the main circulation desk and one in the children’s department, making the check out of materials fast and easy.

• The library purchases the latest fiction and non-fiction books in print, audio, and large-print formats, making reading about your favorite subject an enjoyable experience. They also have downloadable books available through their Library2Go program.

• The library’s Grand Forks Room has area atlases, cemetery books, city directories, farm and plant directories, military records, obituaries, local reference books and yearbooks available in one research location. Local history resources such as these are generally not available online or as downloadable e-books.

• The Myra Collection features books on farming, agricultural practices and horticulture. This collection is partly funded by the Myra Foundation.

• The library has five active book clubs (Great Reads, Leaders Read, Current Affairs, Classic Re-Reads and This & That), with a sixth one starting this month (Poetry). They also have many Book Clubs in a Bag (everything you need for a great discussion in one tote bag).

• The Children’s Department is a very active place, with toddler and preschool story times, summer and winter reading programs, R.E.A.D. dogs and lots of special guests. They also have computers with homework help sites and kid-friendly search engines for their own information hunts.

• Teens will soon have their own space in the library for Young Adult books and activities.

This growth requires a new library. Vote YES.

If you believe in a new library, please share this post with your family and friends, either through email or Facebook. The May 3 vote is quickly approaching! Thank you.