Friday, October 04, 2013
Falling into September
Chambers County Library System –
September, 2013
Fall
programming is upon us, and the library staff have been busy bees planning all
sorts of fun activities. I think they’re
having withdrawals since Summer Reading!
This time of year we welcome Toddler Time back into our regular
routine. Michelle, Yolie, and Missy have
been cranking out some of the cutest crafts, games, and stories for the little
ones. These ladies do a wonderful job of
keeping the toddlers engaged and excited about books and the library. One of the Mont Belvieu regulars even has his
own fan club for Missy, complete with a t-shirt that says, “I love Mrs.
Missy”. Now that’s a fan!
September
also starts festival time in Chambers County.
Starting with Anahuac, Gatorfest was once again a big draw for the
county. The library always has a presence
in the educational tent promoting services and handing out flyers to let people
know we’re here. The biggest photo op
this year seemed to be the big stuffed alligator in the center of the
educational tent. When not being used at
Gatorfest, the 11 ft. alligator’s home is at the library sitting on top of our
bookshelves. He gets quite a bit of
attention from the public. Thanks goes
out to the staff members who worked the booth.
On the 5th,
Anahuac branch librarian Aquilia De la Cruz attended a Small Library Management
advanced workshop in Diboll on Building and Sustaining Partnerships. Aquilia has almost completed the 2 year
program, which provides intensive training for library staff managing smaller
community libraries. Three staff members
are currently enrolled in the program.
In other
programming news, staff member Lesa Boutin coordinated with The Rose Mobile
Mammography to allow an alternative to the doctor’s office and hospital for the
public to get their mammograms.
Pre-registration has been a success and we anticipate this to be a
yearly event.
September
22-28 marked Banned Books Week for libraries.
Banned Books Week was celebrated, so to speak, at all three libraries,
with very interesting, and different, displays at each site. The displays
tended to generate discussion by the patrons with the staff, some of it not
quite what we might have expected! But that, of course, is part of the whole
effort behind Banned Books Week – to get people talking about censorship, the
books that have been challenged, and to get them thinking about their own
opinions of the same.
County
Librarian, Valerie Jensen and Assistant County Librarian, Annie Vass have been
able to spend a little time writing grants recently. Grants are usually left on the backburner
because they require quite a bit of office time to focus on the writing, and with
us out and about at the branches, we don’t get a whole lot of that. But we are proud to say we were both successful
at our attempts to get funding for a couple of items we’ve had on our “wish
lists”. Annie wrote a grant to the Ladd
& Katherine Hancher Foundation to purchase 2 Early Literacy computer
stations. These computers provide kids
with over 60 educational games on a very durable touchscreen computer. All of the libraries now have these computers
for public use, and the little ones just love them. Valerie wrote our second grant to ask for the
digitization of The Age newspapers. The
Age was the first newspaper in Chambers County and has information dating back
to the late 1800’s to present day reporting various happenings throughout the
county. The papers will be scanned and
housed at the University of North Texas’ Portal to Texas History website. One of the goals at the library is to
continue to provide access to the rich local history Chambers County has to
offer. The Age will soon be available
for public access to view, search, and print.
Adalyn Hoskins enjoying teddy bear storytime at Anahuac
Banned Books Week display at Mont Belvieu
Missy's littlest storytime fan at Mont Belvieu
Noe Mejia and his son enjoy the new kids computer at Anahuac
# posted by Valerie @ Friday, October 04, 2013 
