Children—with their energy and enthusiasm—are some of the best friends a library can have. Mille Lacs Lake Community Library is lucky enough to have two young people who really care about the library.
This winter Hannah Hemen came to me with the idea of starting a book club for kids. We made a plan deciding what age groups we would target, when we would meet and how we could get kids to join. We decided on Tuesday afternoon. I asked Tarja Maunula, a sixteen-year old girl who is an avid reader, if she would be the group’s leader. She agreed.
The group has been meeting since February and there have been some challenges along the way, including finding a book that everyone wants to and is able to read. But there’s also been some fun. The group has talked about books, read books out loud, did activities about a certain topic and made posters. Probably the most fun and interesting thing the group has done is take a survey of their fellow classmate’s views and use of the library.
Holly Grap had this idea when she attended a Friends of the Library meeting with her mother and grandmother. She decided to do the project through the book club, since she and Hannah were the most active members. Holly, Hannah and Tarja wrote up a half a page survey with questions about what kids like about their library and what they think should be improved. They talked to classes and teachers. They received 104 responses from Nyquist Elementary Children in grades 4 through 6.
Some valuable things were learned from this survey, including that kids still like books, they’d like more library hours and computers and they’d like to get information about the library from school.
Thanks Hannah and Holly for your help in making the library a better place for kids.
