Library Closed, Resources Still Available

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

The Litchfield Public Library is closed indefinitely because of COVID-19, along with all other libraries in Pioneerland Library System.  The book drop is closed, as well.  For now, please keep public library books and movies at home, and once the library reopens you may return them.  Due dates will continue to be extended while the library is closed, so there’s no need to worry about late fees.

All library events and programs that had been scheduled for April and May are canceled or indefinitely postponed.  This includes storytimes, Brickheads Lego building, book clubs, craft and activity programs for adults and kids, and the May book sale.  We are hoping to offer some virtual programs or online content that you can access from home.  For example, I’m hoping to host my April 14^th book club meeting via Zoom or Facebook Live so that we can discuss “O Pioneers!” without the health risk of gathering a group of people. 

Some resources are available while the library is closed.

Pioneerland’s downloadable ebooks and audiobooks are available at pioneerland.overdrive.com or by using the free Libby or Overdrive app on a smartphone, tablet, or Kindle.  To find your local collection, search Overdrive for your local library, and that will lead you to Pioneerland.  If it lists a library system name other than Pioneerland, you may have chosen a Litchfield or Grove City in another state; it’s a common mistake.

Most titles are available to only one person at a time, just like a physical book, but a collection of classics is available for unlimited numbers of users to borrow at one time.  Another option is the current Big Library Read, a book that Overdrive chooses for unlimited checkouts for a limited time.  The current title is Funny, You Don’t Look Autistic: A Comedian’s Guide to Life on the Spectrum by Michael McCreary.  This is a teen-oriented memoir that adults can also enjoy.  It’s available for unlimited borrowers through April 13. 

Even though the libraries are closed, our library system is adding more downloadable titles all the time to meet your need for books.  Looking for something you can check out immediately, instead of putting yourself on a waiting list?  Choose “collections,” then “available now,” and you can view your many options for checking out a book right away. 

Don’t have a library card? There’s a new way to sign up for a digital card online.  Go to Overdrive or Libby on a computer, phone, or tablet, and choose the option to sign up for an instant digital card using your cell phone number. You should only use this option if you don’t already have a library card. Ebooks are only available to people who live within the service area of each library system; Meeker County residents can access Pioneerland ebooks, but residents of some of our neighboring counties cannot.

If you have a library card that has expired within the past year or that was about to expire in the coming two months, your card’s expiration date has now been extended to June, and you should be able to use it to check out ebooks.  If you have trouble using your card, you can email me at elizabeth.cronk@pioneerland.lib.mn.us and I will find out if someone from our headquarters can resolve the issue. 

You can also send me an email if you need assistance with research, and I’ll do what I can with online resources from home.  Another option is AskMN, the 24-hour information and research help service from Minnesota libraries.  Visit askmn.org for real-time online chat assistance from a librarian for help finding information on any topic, including college research. 

Prefer to do the searching yourself? The Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM) is a massive online resource that’s free for Minnesotans.  You can access magazine, academic journal, and newspaper articles, encyclopedias for all ages, test prep resources, résumé guidance, and federal government documents.  It’s a fantastic resource for students as well as the general public.  One unique collection within ELM is called Minnesota Reflections; it’s made up of images and documents from throughout the history of Minnesota, contributed by museums, archives, colleges, and libraries across the state.  Access ELM at elibrarymn.org.

Free public wifi is available outside the library.  If you park on the street or in the parking lot near the building, you should be able to pick it up, and no password is required.

I hope you are staying home as much as possible as our whole society works together to control this pandemic.  I am hopeful that we can care for each other and each do our part for the greater good.  I wish you health and happiness in the midst of this stressful time.

April and May programs canceled or postponed

All April and May library programs and events are canceled or indefinitely postponed. We hope you will continue reading, singing, crafting, building with Legos, and using technology from home while we take this break from gathering in groups. We'd love to see some of your creativity shared on our Facebook page! We're working on offering some content, ideas, and discussions virtually.

Eclipse party at the library

National Library Week: Love and transformation

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

It’s National Library Week!  National Library Week was created in the 1950’s by the National Book Committee to encourage reading and library use to better Americans’ lives.  The American Library Association now sponsors this celebration.

This year’s theme is “Libraries Transform.”  This slogan refers to the ways libraries can transform lives by providing free access to books and other materials, computers and internet access, storyhours, and classes and programs for all ages. 

We’re joining in on the celebration by giving our customers a chance to say why they love the library.  All week we’ve got sheets of paper available with speech bubbles printed on them, like in a comic strip or graphic novel.  We invite you to write or draw the reasons why your library is important to you.  We’re hanging them up around the library, so take a look at other people’s reasons, too!

One sign of love for the library is the generosity of our patrons.  Just since the beginning of the year, one couple has given us a donation to use for the purchase of popular fiction, Mike Johnson has given us a donation to use for purchasing mysteries, and the family of Boyd Anderson has given us a donation for the purchase of history books.  We are so grateful to all of them.  The generosity of members of your community has increased the number of books that are available to you.

Another sign of love for the library is participation in our adult winter reading program, which ended on the last day of March.  We had over 70 people sign up for it this year, turning in almost 300 book reviews.  The most popular authors were Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, Julie Garwood, Joanne Fluke, Gillian Flynn, Tess Gerritsen, Lois Lowry, and, surprisingly, Carolyn Keene.  This year James Patterson was not as popular as in the past.  Many people reviewed nonfiction history books on a wide range of subjects, and books on food and cooking were pretty popular, too.  The reviews will be available on our front desk this month if you’d like to browse through them for reading ideas.

An activity that I think the participants are loving this month is our watercolor class, taught by area artist Joyce Young.  This class is funded with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.  The three-session class is full and already underway, so I’m sorry to say we can’t accept any more sign-ups.  However, you can come to their art exhibit on Thursday, April 28, from 1-2 p.m. in the library meeting room.  The artists will be there to display their paintings, and we will serve light refreshments.  We plan to display the paintings in the library for two weeks afterward, too.  This would be an example of libraries possibly transforming some people into watercolor artists who haven’t tried this before.

And, finally, our library transformed a few late fees into food for local people in need this past month.  We held a Food for Fines program during the second half of March, which is Minnesota FoodShare Month.  During this time, patrons with late fees could have $1 of their late fees waived for each food shelf donation brought to the library, up to a maximum of $5 per card.  Litchfield, Grove City, and Dassel library users donated a total of 92 pounds of food to the Meeker County Emergency Food Shelf through this program. 

Stop in to look around the library during the rest of National Library Week to see what responses there are to the prompt “I love my library because ___.”  We look forward to seeing the results!

New Fiber Arts Club

This is the re-boot of Knitting Club.  Join us for a very informal gathering to work on your project and visit with others doing similar work.  

Take It From Our Teens

by Tiana Schweim

Litchfield library’s teen section of shelves is labeled YA, for Young Adult.  I got to thinking about that label recently.  You know, young adults are capable of juggling life and multi-tasking with the best of us!    Adolescents are a wonderful wealth of comedy and tragedy all wrapped up in eclectic packaging.  Their labels could all be stamped the same: YA Seeks Adventurous Relationship with Life!  I’ve learned not to judge a book by its cover.  Cracking open the cover of a teenager can encompass any genre you can imagine: Drama, Mystery, Romance, Adventure, Futuristic, Realistic, Historical, and Fantasy.  The challenge for me is to design teen programming that will offer a little bit of the abnormal anchored to good old-fashioned, non-fiction life in Litchfield.

Our teen program launched just a few months ago.  The handful of kids that were showing up to monthly book club discussions has grown into almost three dozen teens who are interested in getting involved in the decision-making process and advocating for event programming for their peers.  These young adults are academic, athletic, and have real-life families and part-time jobs that they are committed to.  They have relationships and friendships and they make time for reading as well.  These kids are as different as the content found between the covers of our YA books, but they all have one thing in common: They like to hang out at our library!

In October, we promoted Teen Read Week by hosting a short story contest.  We had twelve wonderful writers contribute their original manuscripts.  Our teens are authors!  We also hosted a teen advisory group event where we held our inaugural election of officers.  Our teens are voters and leaders!  The group decided to plan an event for December 1 to do a service project at the library.  This past Sunday, we had nine young adults who cleaned and decorated the library for Christmas.  Our teens are volunteers!  Our teens are decorators!  Our creative teens are inspired to see the work of their own hands and hearts come to fruition; they’re interested in investing in the community!

Tonight is the first big snowfall, and yet the library remains open to serve this community.  I sit here in our cozy public library with the reflection of twinkling lights all around me.  I wonder as my eyes wander around this giant room filled with shelves of every genre.  How many books were checked out today? How many hands have made use of our free computer stations, or our free Wi-Fi?  Will we ever know what we offer to the public as we hand them a book, a video, or a smile?  How lucky we are here in Litchfield to be blessed by the dreams and sacrifices of those who made our beautiful library a reality.

As Litchfield’s city sidewalks become busy sidewalks all dressed up in holiday style think of this.  Each day brings unique opportunity.  Maybe it’s time to get involved.  Maybe volunteering will be your resolution for 2014.  Don’t let the label on your shelf define who you are.  Take it from our teens, life is full of exciting new adventures, all you have to do is open the cover!

Note: The next Group Of Advising Teens (G.O.A.T.) event is scheduled for Monday, December 23, 5:00-8:00.  Bring a white elephant gift to exchange and $5 for pizza.  We will be watching the movie “Elf”.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL GOATS, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!!

Don't Let Summer Slide Away

by Tiana Schweim, Litchfield Library

Watercade marks the mid-point of summer for many of us in Litchfield.  With the final flash of fireworks, the distant cadence of the Mean-Green-Marching-Machine, and the Medallion tucked away for another long year, teens might just spiral into a self-proclaimed state of boredom until Labor Day!  My advice is to take a deep breath and exhale as you ponder opportunities at your local public library.

Our summer reading programs are in full-swing!  We have 46 students in grades 6-12 who have officially signed up for Groundbreaking Reads for Teens and are participating by keeping track of their titles and submitting book reviews for weekly drawings.

 New additions to our collection are Hunger and Fear which complete our collection of Michael Grant’s Gone series.  Our monthly teen book club has chosen to read the first book Gone for next month.  I encourage tweens & teens to checkout or download the book and join us for our next book club meeting on Monday, August 19^th at 3:00 here at the library—all students entering grades 6-12 are invited to show up!  We’d love you to join our discussion by telling us what you’ve been reading this summer.

Also new to our collection:

Close to Famous by Joan Bauer.  Younger fans of television cooking shows will delight in this quick-paced story laced with current trends including domestic abuse, inter-racial relationships, and a main character with a learning disability.  Bauer says the book is infused with humor.  About the process she says, “My best times as a writer are when I’m working on a book and laughing while I’m writing.”

Speaking of becoming famous, our teen book club participants have also recently had the pleasure of critiquing an original manuscript by Chantal Boon.  Boon is a local author from Dassel, MN, and is in the process of securing a publisher for her story The Sky is Watching.  It was interesting for the kids to meet and talk with Chantal about her background and the ideas for her book.  We certainly have some very talented writers in our book club groups and it’s a cool thought to ponder some of them becoming future authors as well.  We plan to keep in touch with Chantal and cheer her on through the process.

One big change to the programming calendar is the switch from an All-Night Lock-In to a 4-hour event.  All students who are entering grades 6-12 are invited to stop by the library and sign up for our July 31^st event which will begin at 8:00 PM when the library normally closes its doors and conclude at midnight.  We will provide a pizza party for everyone who has registered.  The night will also offer the chance to play various group games such as Ghost in the Graveyard, and participate in the Great Library Scavenger Hunt.  Best of all, prizes will be awarded!  What a great opportunity to hang out with your friends!  We need to thank SAMMIE (Southwest Area Multicounty Multitype Interlibrary Exchange) who has awarded us a grant to partially fund this event.

Don’t forget Gaming Night, every Monday from 6-8 PM, and Teen Tea with Tiana at Cricket Meadow on Tuesday, August 13^th at 10:00 AM.

So, you see, even though the Annual Watercade Book Sale has come and gone for another year, there’s no need to hang your head in sorrow.  Visit the Public Library today!