Storytime Volunteers

Mille Lacs Lake Community Library relies on volunteers to help out with storytime. They read the books, help with projects and interact with children and their parents. We've had some really good ones over the years, including Norma Thompson and Jack Overbaugh. Barb Stone has been a storytime volunteer for several years. She has a remarkable personality, the kind of person that you want to tell your life story to after knowing her for 5 minutes. This makes her great with kids who are often eager to have an adult listener. She always pauses to listen when a child has a story to tell. Carolyn Avaire has started volunteering this fall. She has some teaching experiences and it shows in how she handles the books. She always lets children know the author and illustrator of the book. She keeps children on track by involving them in the story through both pictures and language. These two volunteers have helped to create a very successful storytime season. We've had up to 11 children on occasion which is a lot for our small space. I really appreciate the skills, talent and time that the storytime volunteers put in at the library.

Second Graders visit the Library

The Nyquist Elementary second grade, along with their teachers Mrs. Exsted, Mrs. Perron and Mrs. Petty visited the Mille Lacs Lake Community Library on October 24th. To make the day doubly fun, the children visited the Isle Police Station which is also in the Isle City Center.

We were especially pleased to have the opportunity to share with the children all the joys and responsibilities that come with having a library card. I tried to impress upon them that the library is a place that everyone can go and everyone can find a book they like. I showed them some of the different kinds of books that are available. For the children that had filled out a form, they were able to pick up their library card.

We hope that the children will tell their parents about the library and that they will take the time to get to know the wonderful resources that the library has to offer. We gave each of the 37 children a bookmark and an hours card.

Seattle

My husband, Jim Johnson, and I just returned from a marvelous trip to Seattle. We took the train out, leaving St.Paul at around 10:30 p.m. and arriving at Glacier National Park in Montana at 8:30 the following evening. We had two beautiful days of hiking there before getting back on the train and heading for Seattle. We got on at 8:30 p.m. again and arrived in Seattle around 10:00 a.m. After a brief snafu related to car rental, we were in our PT Cruiser and on our way up to the ferry at Anacortes. We ferried out to Orcas Island--possibly the most beautiful place in America. After two luxurious days in a huge cabin, we ferried back to the mainland and then drove down to Mt. Rainier. We spent a few days there, hiking before returning our rental car in the city. We dropped off our bags at the Moore Hotel and then walked the city, stopping at the Seattle Art Museum and the public library. It really is a beautiful library, but the best part about it was the warm reception that I got from the librarians and workers there. We enjoyed the Pike's Place Market and the Music Experience in the rain the next day. Our final day, we took a bus to the Fremont area. We went to an Octoberfest there. Looking around we found ourselves to be the oldest looking people at the event Oh well, we old geezers can still have fun.

New, but not Improved

August 2006, East Central Regional Library of which Mille Lacs Lake is a branch, implemented a new automation system called "Horizon". It was said to be faster and have more features than the obsolete system the library was then using. Despite some problems such as software that wasn't completely operational, poor staff training and a system that overloaded easily, ECRL went ahead and implemented the new system. From the start it was a disaster--it could not do holds, the most basic function of a multi-branch system. It was much slower than the old system taking much longer to check in and out books and print receipts. Finally the system crashed the following October 2007. Six months worth of records, both patron and material were lost. After a month or so, ECRL began using the Unicorn computer system. Though this system works okay, ECRL patrons have had to adjust to poorer service in a number of different ways.

1) Holds come up to two days later than under the original system. Holds can only be received once a day and only Monday through Friday. The original system was able to generate a holds list several times a day. One Cambridge librarian always prided herself on running the holds list before she left work for the day.

2) Exchanges of materials used to be regular part of our routine. Every six weeks branches would exchange both print and nonprint items, such as videos and books on tape. Though we have had a few exchanges in the two years, this is no longer part of our service to our patrons.

3) Patron services brochures are no longer available. Because the software we are using is temporary, ECRL doesn't want to print up a new brochure. The old information is outdated, leaving librarians with nothing more than an hours card to give to new members.

4) Longer waits for new materials are also a problem. Initially this was due to having to catch up with all the lost records, but the time frame has not improved.

As a branch librarian, I try to give good service to the people who come in to the library. I know that people are often anxious to receive their materials. I wish I didn't have to keep blaming "the new system". I wish that this Dickensonian lawsuit with SirsiDynix was over and we could return to a system that could be modified to best meet the needs of ECRL clients. Maybe then we could return to our former level of service and Gosh, maybe even try to "improve" service!!

Isle Days Parade 2008

The wind blew, the rain fell and Alan Ilstrup drove the library cart for the Isle Days parade July 12th. It was wonderful to have such great help including from Carolyn, Kizzy and the kids who made the float. They decorated the three layers of books with cotton balls, markers, stickers and jewels on freezer paper. On the top of the cake were candles which we made out of straws and shiny stars. It was meant to celebrate Minnesota's sesquicentennial.

Everyone brought something or someone to help make our parade a success. Carolyn brought her camera and her lovely daughter Saffron. Deb brought along her daughter and baby grandaughter, Vienna. Hannah brought her wagon and her sister Katie. Ann brought daughter Allison and cousin. Kizzy brought Isaac and I brought stickers, buttons, bookmarks and flyers.

My co-worker Deb , her husband Alan, daughter Katie and baby Vienna started out at 5:30 at city hall. We were hoping to drive the cake and cart down to the starting point, but things wouldn't fit in my little car, so we had to push the cart down Isle Street. Happily the wind did not tip over our cake or blow our signs away. After pushing for five blocks we saw a couple of fellows with neon green vests holding clip boards and directing traffic. We asked them where we should should be in the parade line-up. They didn't find our names on the clip board list. They sighed and put us at number 19 and 1/2--between the tractors and the Dairy Princesses. The dairy princesses admired our hats and asked where we got them (Rhode Island Novelty).

As we waited for the parade to start, our helpers started coming. First we saw Hannah and Katie in their decoarted wagon. Next came Carolyn and Saffron. Then there was Ann, Alison and her cousin and finally Kizzy and Isaac. I handed out hats, but some blew away and some people just didn't want to wear them. I handed out goodies, so everyone would have something to give away as we walked down the street. We also took a few pictures.

Unfortunately, after we finally got going the parade went way too fast. I started out trying to hand out a sticker to every child and a flyer to their parents. The flyers I soon notices were far too cumbersome so I quit offering those. I never even pulled out a button from my pocket until the very end when I ran out of stickers. I handed out as many stickers as I could, but would soon have to run to catch up with our cart.

The end was a flurry of activity as children rushed the cart to try to grab stickers, bookmarks, buttons or anything. We had to say, "sorry all out", just to keep moving. The rain started to fall as we took the alley behind the liquor store back to the library. I was with Alan, the cart, Carolyn, and Isaac. Deb, Ann, Allison, Saffron, the cousin, Hannah and Katie were on the otherside somewhat behind. Soon everyone met up on the library steps. We were all exhilerated with the odd flurry of our running and stickering. It went extremely fast--less than half an hour. I asked Isaac and he said he thought it was fun. I think Carolyn did too and Alan didn't seem to mind pushing the cart. Deb said she thought he liked that better than watching the parade. We'll just have to see if we ever do this event again

Look What's Cookin'

This year’s summer reading theme is “Look What’s Cookin’ at your library.” It’s based on a wonderful children’s book by Debra Frasier entitled, A Birthday Cake is no Ordinary Cake. East Central Regional Library along with other Minnesota libraries have ordered reading records, bookmarks, stickers and other items with these colorful graphics for motivational prizes.
The Mille Lacs Lake program begins on Thursday, June 5 at 10:00 am. when Magician Matt Dunn dazzles with reading magic. After the show and throughout June and July, children can sign up for the reading program and get a free book bag and bookmark.

Prizes are earned by reading, either keeping track by the book or by the hour. It makes sense for older kids who read longer books to keep track of their time. Reading records are kept at the library. Check out the board at the library to see all the wonderful prizes.
Activities are also part of the fun. Two activity days have been scheduled—June 17 and July 8th both from 10:00 to 12 am. We’ll read books, do activities and have a snack. Come to the July 8th activity and we’ll make a cake with books that we can march behind in the Isle Days Parade.
Some of the activities can be done anytime you visit the library, like the Post-It Note Scavenger Hunt in June and Where’s the Chef? contest in July.
The closing program, as last year is sponsored by the Mille Lacs Driftskippers Snowmobile Club. Come and see Diane Gasch and her amazing gigantic puppets to help celebrate everyone’s reading accomplishments.
Remember that children who read over the summer actually show gains in reading skill over their classmates who do not. Help make sure that your child keeps their reading skills sharp.

Hannah and Holly: Two Great Library Kids

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.