Waterville Public Library

Today, April 20th, I am having another Children’s Story Time at the library from 7-7:30pm. And, since the Easter bunny is coming soon, it only makes sense to make some Easter baskets in preparation for this weekend! Hope to see you there!

Heather Dreith, who has served as director of the Waterville Public Library for the past six years, will be leaving after December 31st due to family health issues. Dreith started as director in December, 2003 after a few years of volunteering and substituting for previous librarian Jeri Bourne.

During her six years as director, the library went to an automated circulation system, increased to five patron computers plus a lap top available for in-library use, went to a wireless Internet connection and digitized the Telegraph newspaper collection through the year 1929.

She also worked with Elizabeth Verschelden to establish the Central Branch Research Library, which is comprised of the papers pertaining to Verschelden’s research on her doctoral dissertation about school building on the Central Pacific branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad.  The two hope that this historical resource will draw researchers to the library.  Dreith also created and managed this website for the library.

Trinda Claycamp Chase, Waterville, will take over as director on January 3, 2011.  Chase graduated from Valley Heights in 1991.  She graduated from the practical nursing program at the Manhattan Area Technical College in 2002 and received a bachelor of science in accounting from Colorado Technical University in 2009.  She is currently working on her MBA through Grand Canyon University.

We are looking forward to fall storytime here at the Library.  Children ages 2-4 and their caregivers are invited to this program that incorporates stories, songs, rhymes and activities in a kid-friendly environment and are about 30 minutes in length.  Younger and older children are invited to participate as well, although the activities are geared to toddlers.

We will meet the first Wednesday of the month at 10:30am and three Thursday evenings at 7 pm(see schedule below.)  Children are invited to come in their pajamas for the evening sessions, and a “bedtime snack” will be served.

The schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, Oct. 6 10:30 am

Thursday, October 28th 7 pm “Bats at the Library”

Wednesday, Nov. 3 10:30 am

Thursday, Nov. 18 7 pm “Up, Down and Around”

Wednesday, Dec. 1 10:30 am

Thursday, December 16 7 pm “Pooh’s Christmas Storytime”

As I look out the window of the Library, I’m seeing snowflakes!  Again!  Spring will come though, and when it does, we’ll all be ready!  Stop in to the Library and see our special display of gardening books to get you prepared.  We’ve got several new books and magazines for you to read on these cold, blustery days, so stop in soon.

The Waterville Public Library invites you for tea and poetry at the Library on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 4 pm.  Visiting poet Debra Marquart will be our special guest. 

Debra Marquart is a professor of English at Iowa State University. She teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment at Iowa State University and the Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. Marquart’s work has appeared in numerous journals such as The North American Review, Three Penny Review, New Letters, River City, Crab Orchard Review, Cumberland Poetry Review, The Sun Magazine, Southern Poetry Review, Orion, Mid-American Review and Witness.

In the seventies and eighties, Marquart was a touring road musician with rock and heavy metal bands. Her collection of short stories, The Hunger Bone: Rock & Roll Stories draws from her experiences as a female road musician. Marquart continues to perform with a jazz-poetry rhythm & blues project, The Bone People, with whom she has released two CDs: Orange Parade (acoustic rock), and A Regular Dervish (jazz-poetry).

Marquart’s work has received numerous awards and commendations, including the John Guyon Nonfiction Award (Crab Orchard Review), the Mid-American Review Nonfiction Award, The Headwater’s Prize from New Rivers Press, the Minnesota Voices Award, the Pearl Poetry Award (Pearl Editions), the Shelby Foote Prize for the Essay from the Faulkner Society, a Pushcart Prize, and a 2008 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship.

A performance poet, Marquart is the author of two poetry collections: Everything’s a Verb and From Sweetness. Her memoir, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere, was published by Counterpoint Books in 2006. It received the “Elle Lettres” award from Elle Magazine and the 2007 PEN USA Creative Nonfiction Award. Marquart is currently at work on a novel, set in Greece, titled The Olive Harvest, and a roots memoir about emigration, geographical flight, and cultural amnesia titled Somewhere Else this Time Tomorrow.

Marquart will appear at several venues in Marshall County.  Her visit is sponsored by the Marshall County Arts Cooperative.

Story time for children ages 3 through 5 will begin at the Waterville Public Library on Oct. 14th from 10:30 to 11 am.  There will be two more sessions this fall, one on November 18 and one on December 9.  “Mrs. B” and “Mrs. Dee Dee” are coming up with stories and activities to help these young children “Make friends with books!” 
For adults, we have several good books that people have donated through the summer months, and we are about to place an order for several new books by popular authors. 
Tom Herrmann, LueAnne Roepke’s nephew, has been working on converting the microfilm reels of the Telegraph to a computer searchable form (pdf files).  Telegraphs from 1870 through 1910 are now available on a computer dedicated to that purpose here in the Library.  A few genealogical researchers from out of town have already used the new system and found it much easier to type in the name of their ancestor and see what comes up than to scroll through the microfilm. 
Of course, we enjoy just randomly searching the rolls of microfilm to catch the flavor of life in our communities in days gone by, and will continue to keep the Telegraph on microfilm.  The digitization project will take some time to complete, but it has already proven to be very handy.  Come to the Library for a demonstration.

Be Creative @ Your Library

   The Waterville Public Library has plans for a busy summer.  We will have story times for 3 to 5 year olds on Wednesday June 10, 17 & 24 and July 8, 15 & 22nd.  Three year olds will meet from 10 to 10:20 on those mornings. Four and Five year olds will meet from 1 to 1:30 pm on those same days.  Please call the Library at 363-2769 so we know how many to plan for.
     Sign-up for the Summer Reading Program, “Get Creative @ Your Library” starts May 22nd.  Children ages 3 years through 6th grade may sign up to read for prizes.  Children ages 3-6 may be “read-to.”  We are also planning a “Get Creative @ Your Library” one-time half-day library camp here and at Blue Rapids with the Blue Rapids Public Library.  The date for these events will be announced later.  We’ll need lots of help and would appreciate any volunteers.
     For the adults, we have a program at 7 pm at the Waterville Community Center on Friday, June 5th.  Kate Meyer from the KU Spencer Museum of Art will give a presentation on “Picturing the Dust Bowl.”  That evening, we will also “unveil” our Picturing America Grant prints.
    We have many new children’s books for the Summer Reading Program, including our “adopt-a-book” collection focusing on the arts.
     Both the Waterville and Blue Rapids Public Libraries will be Accelerated Reader testing sites for Valley Heights Junior/Senior High School students this summer.  We look forward to seeing many students in our libraries this summer.

Here at the Waterville Public Library, we are welcoming Spring!  Although many of you get too busy to read fiction, there are some great non-fiction books that pertain to this season.  We have gardening and landscaping books and a magazine called “Garden Gate” to help you outside the house.  For the inside, we have many books on de-cluttering, organizing and redecorating.  There are many healthy cooking magazines that offer lighter fare for warmer weather.  We are subscribing to several new magazines, which should be arriving at the Library in the next few weeks. 
Reading the Library’s magazines is just one way you can use us to save money in these economically difficult times.  You can also check out our movies for no charge and use the Internet on our four patron computers.  We have several books on personal finance and frugal living.  One of my favorites is “The Tightwad Gazette” by Amy Dacyzn.
We’ve spruced up for spring with a new bulletin board and some new bookshelves.  Darin Blackburn did a very nice job on the new shelves and on painting the children’s shelves.  They look so bright and inviting.
So far, 12 people and 1 animal have “adopted” books on all facets of the arts for our special children’s collection.  We invited you to stop in and look at the books and adopt one for $15.  A contribution of any amount will be appreciated.
We had many generous people donate books, magazines, movies and audio-books in February and March.  Our thanks to Jeannette Bergquist, Helen DeWycke, Becky Gillihan, Shirley Jensen, Sandra Isaacson-Bynum, Don and Sharon King, Stuart Lamoreaux, Bevy Roepke,  Melodie Sedivy,  Ann Walter and Vicki Whitaker for helping our collection grow.  We have almost 11,000 items now!  Check out the free shelf for older items weeded to make room for the new.  (Librarians have to weed just like gardeners do.)
New novels you might be interested in checking out include works by authors James Patterson, Kristin Hannah, Maeve Binchy and Danielle Steel.  We’ve also got new children’s books, large print and audio books in both cassette and cd format.
If you haven’t been in the library lately, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  We were happy to have the Waterville Lions Club visit us for their program on April 6, and they learned a lot about all the new things going on in the Library.

We are happy to host the Waterville Lions Club Monday evening, April 6th.  We hope you enjoy your tour of the Library and come back to see us often!