Lincoln Highway: Norelius Community Library
I had a very nice time visiting the library!
Visiting the Norelius Community Library was fun! In some libraries, the staff are gently puzzled about what I’m doing, but happy to chat. And in some, they get excited and walk me around to show me all of their great stuff. This was the second kind!
I was happy right away when I arrived, because: bikes! I love to see people riding their books to the library. Fun, good health, not contributing pollution to the community - all kinds of good reasons to ride bikes. Mix fun bikes with fun library stuff, and you are really on to something!
One of the things I’m looking for in my library survey is what kinds of languages public libraries are providing to their communities. Of course the best way to know what kinds of languages people might be speaking at home is to ask them! But also check some of your community demographic information, look at community organizations - basically look around and see how you can be ready to serve your patrons. This looks like a nice collection of different materials in Spanish!
Ahh…the puzzle table! I’m a library puzzle fan - it’s such an easy way to provide a nice community activity that people can work on together. It’s fun, and without the pressure of figuring out how to solve every single part of the puzzle. Giving people an opportunity to work together, even if they are solo in the moment, is always going to be a valuable service.
An escape room!!!! Sadly, I missed this one - but what a great idea! I’ve seen a bunch of school libraries have good success with this kind of program; and I think it’s been filtering into the public libraries too. Coming up with these new ways to offer programs, and to connect patrons to your library in new ways, is always a good idea!
Look at this cute children’s room! (It’s not blurry in real life; my phone is apparently getting tired and blurry!) Bright colors! Graphic designs! Fun patterns on the rugs! Cute art! It’s not rocket science to make a good room for kids; but providing all of these things really makes it a good place for them!
Just an example of something you can do: look at this fun paper project! You could involve kids (or patrons of all ages! many of us are kids at heart!) to create the leaves, or other shapes. Stringing enough of them together to make this kind of cool chain gives you automatic fun decor, as well as reminding the patrons they can do fun things at the library!
Oooohhhhhh….I had to fight off the urge to whisper in this very fancy board room! (Well, the Friends were meeting on the other side of this space, so we were actually kind of quiet anyway.) This old, fancier part of the library can be used by all kinds of people, and I have to say that if I lived there I would 100% work to have every meeting I went to scheduled to be in this library room!!!
This is the Friends sale material! Most libraries have some sort of Friends organizations, and they exist to provide money to fund good things in the library. As a very dedicated library fan myself, I’m definitely in favor of working to help support the library’s mission!!
This library was so fun - maybe today is a day we can all find something fun to do in celebration of their work! Work on a puzzle, make a craft, ride a bike, or heck: read a book! Whatever small thing you think will be fun and bring you some joy today - give it a try!