By Karen Kelly | Special to the Times Vedette
One of my favorite memories from my childhood was Saturday afternoons because that was library day with my mom. The library was a magical place full of more books that contained interesting characters and that transported me to times and places I could only dream of going.
When I was little, even though the library was full of books, I quite often left carrying the same book – “My Mother Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World.” Mom read me that book so many times that I memorized it. I know this because Mom was so tired of reading the same book, she would try to skip pages. Luckily, I generally would point this out so she could go back and read the part she’d missed. Curling up with Mom and my brother every night for stories was like meeting up with friends who lived inside the covers of those books.
As I got older, we stopped reading together, but the library trips continued. I would spend the longest time choosing new friends who would transport me to new places in the coming week. Would it be Laura Ingalls Wilder taking me to her little cabin in the big woods or Clara Barton introducing me to life on a Civil War battlefield?
I believe it’s because of those trips my mom made to the library with me that I decided to study literature and spend a large part of my life trying to introduce students to my friends inside those books. It’s also probably the reason that after I retired from teaching, I worked first in a bookstore and then was drawn like a magnet to the library.
Because of those warm memories and my deep belief that curiosity and a love of learning begin between the covers of those magical books that libraries house, I am so excited for the project that we are embarking on at the MJB Library.
Thanks to a grant from the ALA, the library has been able to purchase $10,000 of new furniture for the children’s area of the library. Child-sized bookshelves and interactive wall hangings as well as inviting reading spaces will soon be added to the kid’s section.
Additionally, we are striving to update the children’s non-fiction section of the library. This is a daunting task because 83% of our children’s nonfiction book collection is more than 10 years old. While it may not seem that 10 years is too old for a book, the information in many 10 years old nonfiction books is often outdated. For the youngsters checking out those books, 10 years is quite literally a lifetime.
In addition, the nonfiction books of today are very different from nonfiction books from 10 or 20 years ago. Today’s nonfiction books no longer look like science or history textbooks disguised as library books. Rather, these new nonfiction books are visually appealing, with colorful illustrations and photographs, infographics, charts and sidebar texts. They are designed for children of varied reading levels and are intended to aid a child’s cognitive development.
We have an amazing collection of fiction books — beautiful picture books, classic fairy tales, new fiction series, graphic novels, and audiobooks. Fiction is important. It sparks imagination and teaches empathy.
However, I would argue that nonfiction is equally important in a child’s reading development. Factual reading helps to develop a child’s vocabulary, builds background information and helps children make connections to the world around them; it brings subjects alive in a way that fiction cannot. Nonfiction simultaneously challenges curious minds and improves reading skills while providing the knowledge needed to fully appreciate fiction stories.
Our library is beautiful and filled with so many excellent books. Change is not easy, but we are working to ensure that our youngest patrons will regard a trip to the library as magical as I did all those years ago. To do that, we need to continue to update and provide the best resources possible.
We here at the MJB Library believe that investing in our youth’s education is one of the library’s most important responsibilities, and we hope you will join us in making it possible. While we are constantly working on grants for additional funding for our youth, we would welcome any monetary contributions.
To see the changes we are working toward in the children’s area, stop in and ask Jerri to show you. If you would like to monetarily contribute to our fund to purchase new child-sized furniture, send checks to the Friends of the Library. If you have a particular topic you want to see added to our nonfiction book collection, your suggestions would be welcome. If you would like to contribute funds to add new books to the children’s non-fiction books, contributions to Mary J. Barnett Memorial Library would be welcomed. If you are donating specifically for the children’s section, please note this in the check memo.
Summer Reading Program
Be sure to sign up your kids from preschool to eighth grade for our summer reading program, which begins on June 3. Sign-up can be done online or in person at the library.
Golf Tournament
The second annual Friends of the Library Golf Tournament will be on Saturday, June 15 at the Guthrie Center Golf Course. The four-person best ball tournament will begin at 8 a.m. The cost is $60 per person; registration includes lunch and a cart. Sign up on the library website, call or email the library, or call Rod Robson at 641-757-1409. Businesses can still sign up to sponsor the event as well.
Seed Library
Remember to come in and see what we have in our seed library. Our seed library is completely free of charge. We just ask that you limit your usage to eight packages of seeds per month. We have a variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers.
This little patron enjoys the new reading area rug and the new log seats in the kids’ section of the library. These are part of the new additions made possible by the ALA grant.
The MJB Library hosted a STEM workshop led by the Guthrie County ISU extension on Monday, May 20. The topic was insects. Ainsley Schreiber is creating an insect.
Hadley Knobbe evaluates what her insect needs during the STEM workshop at the MJB Library
Merrick Schreiber concentrates on including all the required parts of the insect he is constructing at the STEM workshop.
Using Play-Doh and pipe cleaners, STEM participants at last week’s workshop created a unique insect sculpture.