Letter to Editor

Reader asks for support of library budget

Dear Editor,

A very important meeting for the city of Grant which will impact all citizens will be held at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 23 at Grant City Hall. This is the city’s budget workshop for the upcoming 2017-2018 Grant City Budget. This meeting is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend. 

I would like to share with you the many excellent programs the Library offers to the citizens of all ages who live in Grant and the surrounding area. 

The motto of the Hastings Memorial Library is “Learn...Grow...Create...Each Day”, its priority is to provide the patrons the tools and services they need to make each of these things possible. Providing regular programming and various services to the community are important facets of the library’s mission and goals. In 2016-2017, a total of 1,773 patrons of all ages attended 105 different programs. 

The theme of the 2017 Summer Reading Program was “Build a Better World”. During the five weeks of programming, with seven programs, the library had an average attendance of 120 children each week. 

The reading portion of the program had 81 participants who read: 1,201 books, 7,188 pages and 4,735 minutes (over 78 hours).

The adult summer reading program is going on now, stop in and sign up when you get a chance. 

Robin does regular outreach story times at the Hugs-n-Teddybears preschool and the Perkins County Schools Early Childhood Program. Three story times a month reach over 44 children. 

The After School program continues to be extremely popular. The program has expanded to Tuesday’s and Thursday’s with 20 children attending each session. There is a waiting list of children who wish to attend. The library also continues the backpack food program through the summer months when school is not in session. 

The Early Childhood Literacy Imitative is the newest program. The program has three main areas of focus: literacy at home, literacy in the library and literacy in the community. Stop in the library for more information. 

The library also checks out books, lots of books. There are 1,314 registered borrowers who checked out 16,049 books in 2016-2017. They also checked out 3,082 e-books and audio books through the library’s digital collection. Just last month 1,848 materials were circulated, 714 new books were added to the system and 509 items were checked out electronically. The library is open year round and welcomes people of all ages. If you haven’t been in lately, stop in and see what the library has to offer to you. 

The Library board has approved a budget that was presented to the City Council at the July 25 meeting. The library asked for a modest increase of $4,882.00. This increase will be used to increase the Assistant Librarians part time hours by four per week and a modest cost of living wage increase for all staff. The proposed budget would also help to cover some of the cost of insurance increases that at this point is still unknown, but by indications will certainly increase. 

Grant has a wonderful library and staff that everyone can be proud of. It continues to grow in usage each and every year. In order to continue offering the library’s many programs, circulating items and services I am asking for your support at the upcoming workshop meeting Wednesday, Aug. 23 at 6 p.m. If you can’t attend the meeting please give your councilman/councilwoman a call and encourage them to support the library budget. 

Avid Reader, 

Larry Peterson

Grant

The Grant Tribune-Sentinel

308-352-4311 (Phone)
308-352-4101 (Fax)

PO Box 67
327 Central Ave in Grant
Grant NE 69140
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