Welcome to 2008! We have a ton of new programs coming up at the library this year! But, before we jump into everything that's new, this blog post is dedicated to remembering the old. Here's a look back at the Brooks Public Library in 2007:Programming and EventsIn 2007, we greatly increased the number of programs offered on an ongoing basis! Programs offered regularly included: monthly art exhibits in The Gallery, Toddler Time for ages 0-3 (and we increased sessions to twice a week!), Story Time for ages 4-6, Computer Classes for Beginners, English as a Second Language Computer Classes for Beginners, and our Outreach program in which we deliver books and materials to the homebound. We also added two new ongoing English as a Second Language programs: Family Story Time for ESL parents and their children, and an English as a Second Language Book Club for teens and adults.
In addition to our ongoing programs, we hosted a variety of special events throughout the year that had people coming to the library in droves! For the fourth year in a row, we held our Annual Medieval Faire! Hosted in cooperation with the Society for Creative Anachronism, the Medieval Faire is inarguably our largest event of the year. Featuring everything from dueling knights to belly dancers to fortune tellers to old-fashioned market stalls, this year’s Faire was our biggest yet with over 2,000 people in attendance. Of course, we also held our Summer Reading Program again this year! As popular as ever, classes were full again as the kids learned and read about pirates, dinosaurs, fairy tales, and mythology from around the world. We also hosted two other popular annual events this year: Cowboy Poetry to kick off Rodeo week, and Around the World in 28 Days – our February Lunchbox Talk series.
We also hosted some brand-new programs to supplement our annual programming! Some of the new programs offered in the library in 2007 included our very popular murder mystery nights, author talks and readings, our teen ‘Beadworx’ programs teaching teens the basics of fimo clay jewelry-making, and our new online book club which can be found at
http://bplbookclub.blogspot.com.
PromotionsBrooks Public Library has joined in several local events this year to “get the word out” about our great resources and services. In cooperation with the Shortgrass Library System, we participated in this year’s Brooks and District Trade Show and in the Brooks & District Rodeo Parade. Over the summer, we made an effort to “catch” people reading with our Library Detectives program and handed out a number of books to our community members. In the fall, we had our very successful “Punk the Library Staff” fundraiser which raised awareness of the library’s computer needs and also raised funds to purchase new equipment. We have also continued with our weekly “Library News” column in the Brooks Bulletin as well as our radio slot on ‘The Fox’ radio station every Monday.
The Collection: More Great ResourcesThe collection continues to grow at Brooks Public Library! We have added hundreds of great new materials this year and more are on the way! We recently added several fiction and non-fiction titles, CDs, DVDs, graphic novels, numerous new magazine subscriptions, and more online databases. For our CNIB patrons, we have purchased a DAISY reader and receive shipments of new DAISY audio books from the CNIB. And for community members looking to get more active, we have added pedometers for checkout! We have also continued to expand our online presence. Brooks Public Library can now be found via our
e-mail address, our
website, our
blog, our
MySpace Page, and our
Facebook Group.
Thank You!The City of Brooks Library Board completed our Plan of Service 2008-2012 this year and presented it to the community at our annual general meeting in September. The Plan of Service is our road map to meeting our community’s needs now and in the future. We appreciate the support of the residents of the City of Brooks and the County of Newell and we look forward to using this plan to “connect our diverse community to the world” beginning this January!
