- From the Director’s Chair –
60 Days – that’s it. That’s how many days we are from June 30, from making a lasting change in our community for the better – or – for squandering it, letting our neighbors down, and giving Illinois $1.2 million back.
If you’ve taken a look at our programming in the last months, you’ll see just how jam packed our offerings are. If you’ve been to our programs, you’ll experience just how jam packed they are!
We’ve got a great program on Tuesday’s at 4:00 p.m. called Crafternoon (Penny's brain child.) Children get to make a new craft each week and each week, our group gets a little bit bigger. Add to this, students after school working on homework and we’ve got standing room only for parents.
So that’s a group of about 20 or so. Now this last Thursday we had our Poetry Afternoon which had a much smaller group, about 6 or 7, plus our 7 or so students. Which keeps me thinking – how on earth do we fit all of these people in here comfortably, safely, and still allow the library to function?
I keep thinking about our upcoming Saturday Book Club too, which I know sees about 7 regular members and they need more room than one table. We need to move the tables around, it’s the only solution. But we only have three tables and 14 chairs that go with them and the little bit of space between them.
So, Elizabeth and I made a plan and we worked it out this morning and after our board president, Bob, and I came back from the Law Day Breakfast with the Bar Association, we moved tables. Now, we’ve got it where two rectangle tables can be moved together easily and the round table is in the front with new materials. We’ll still have to move new books on evenings with programs to accommodate our students, but it should work better, right?
And that is where I get back to the issue. And it’s the same conversation I have with the patrons that come into the library and use our library. No matter what we do, there just isn’t enough space to do what we do and what we WANT to do for our community. We try to make the space work. With how many times we move books and furniture around, you’d think we’re Walmart or Costco trying to get you to spend more time and buy more groceries. It’s just when there’s not enough room, there’s simply not enough room.
The simple solution is this. Please remember to vote on June 28 or request an absentee ballot. Help tell your neighbors. Believe it or not, there’s a lot of people who don’t think we need a library or don’t support us – why? Because they don’t go into the library. They’ve never experienced a program or the frustration of not having enough room or being able to provide something to a patron.
If you live in the Library District (Village Limits) NOTHING changes. If you live outside, we’re just asking that you pay for services that you’ll get to use – and trust me, we’ll find something for you to use because libraries are so much more than books.
Thank you all for your continued support. Win, lose, or draw, we're going to make these last two months count! - Nichole L.