Best Moments of My Week @ the Library-Nov. 15

-a patron who told me that she was cancer free!
-the confidence to not panic this past week during Storytime when the building's fire alarm went off- the ladies next door burnt their toast in the toaster oven! All the kids eyes sure got big!
-I followed a Christmas tree bailer into town on my way to the library...it's almost Christmas!
-one of the kids asked me after school, "Lori, did you forget to brush your hair today?"
-the kids at the library named the spider up in the corner, "Bob".
-the very next day, "Bob" went missing. I know he'll show up...when I least expect it!

Hope you had many wonderful "moments" in your week too!

Best Moments of My Week @ the library-- November 3rd

-two boys running into the library saying "Yeah! No one's on the kid's computer, we can have our turns!" (poor kids, they didn't realize there was only 3 minutes left before the library closed)


-teaching a patron how to print out a 52 page document double-sided and seeing the joy on his face to learn something new


-birthday flowers from Gloria!


-telling a patron "Yes, the new rotation of Large Print books will be here on Saturday!"


-having a volunteer tell me that there was compost under the chairs in the teen area! (how was I supposed to know that someone left a banana peel there during the summer?)


-coming in every day and seeing the large spider still up in that unreachable corner. Hey, if it's still up there it won't come running out at me when I move a box of books!

Patiently Waiting...

Yes, we are still waiting to break ground on the new library! After working on it for 3 years now, it can seem a little slow moving; even to me. Not a day goes by without someone asking at the library just how the new building project is coming along. So I thought that I would update the blog (wondering if anyone really reads this!) just in case we have anyone who is peeking in to see where we are at.

This past Monday we had our monthly South Benton Library Project board meeting. Each month, our faithful group gathers to report on the progress they've made for the past few weeks. There are our fund raising gurus, our event queen, our construction wonderguy, our city council liaison and more who each bring his or her dedication to the table. All in all we have about 12 very loyal and hard-working volunteers behind the scenes. They are making it happen. Getting the job done.

You might not see the progress they are making... but it's happening, I assure you. Grants have been written and submitted, meetings with Benton County Commissioners have happened, City Council members' hearts have been won over to the project and construction drawings have been drawn. There has been tons of action going on behind the scenes.

So why, people ask me, isn't the train on the depot sign moving? Good question! It's because we have been sitting on our 44% dollar figure for a long time now. But we have been making the most of that 44%! At this past meeting I heard a wonderful phrase used by our construction wonderguy. He said we are "bid ready". Meaning all we need is the rest of the money and we can start with the bidding process and then break ground and build. So what's the hold up? We are waiting to hear back from grants that have been written and submitted. The total amount on all these grants, if awarded to us, would bring us to 100% of the funds we need to break ground and build the new library.

That's why I'm waiting... patiently.

Wine in Paradise!

On Saturday, April 3rd, South Benton Library Project will host a benefit to raise money for the new library in South Benton County. This event is being billed as a "Winemaker's Dinner Art & Wine Auction. The evening will be filled with fantastic wine, food and art and is being sponsored by Broadley Vineyards and Paradise Springs.

6 PM No-Host Bar with viewing of Art & Wine Auction items
7 PM Dinner by Marche' of Eugene - followed by Auction

At Paradise Springs Event Center
25674 Cherry Creek Rd.
Monroe, OR 97456

Tickets are $75 and available at the following locations:

Monroe Community Library: In person or by telephone
668 Commercial St., Monroe 541-847-5174

Corvallis-Benton County Public Library: no telephone reservations
645 NW Monroe Ave., Corvallis

Another Author Visit this Saturday, Feb. 13

This Saturday, Feb. 13th, at the Monroe Fire Hall the South Benton Library Project will welcome author Diane L. Goeres-Gardner to speak. Award winning Ms. Goeres-Gardner has written two Oregon history books; "Necktie Parties: The History of Legal Executions in Oregon, 1851-1905" and "Murder, Morality and Madness: Women Criminals in Early Oregon". We will be entertained and informed with her research using photographs and slides focusing on how women were treated by the legal system in Oregon during the 1800's. Ms. Goeres-Gardner has another book, "Roseburg" due to be released in March 2010 also. Here are the details:

Where: Monroe Fire Hall
680 Commercial St.
Monroe, OR
When: Saturday, February 13, 1:00-3:00
Cost: Free!
Contact info: Lori Pelkey 541-847-5174

Different Christmas Readings

I shocked one of my patrons the other day by telling him that I owned a Kindle 2. I was similarly shocked to find that I had shocked him! I have had my Kindle 2 for several months and I am in no wise ready to throw books out the back door to make room for a library full of e-book readers. But it made me think about a conversation I had earlier that very day with a 90 year old patron who was scandalized that someone would want to "read" a book on CD or cassette! To him, a book on CD was just as shocking as an e-book reader was to another "younger" patron. Makes you wonder what will sound strange and scandalous to my generation on the book front in another 40 years!

In the mean time I have enjoyed my Christmas reading this year on several book fronts. I've read, the old fashioned way with actual books in hand, several Christmas stories to the kids here at Storytime. Including a new favorite, "A Pirate's Night Before Christmas" by Philip Yates. I've read, on my iPhone, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. I've read, via Book on CD, "The Christmas Sweater" by Glenn Beck and I've read, on my Kindle 2, (my personal favorite) "A Night Before Christmas" by Clement C. Moore. One book I'd really like to get my hands on is "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss. The $3.99 interactive version can be bought on my iPhone through iTunes... but I think I'll hold out for the real thing. I'll put it on hold using our library's catalog and anxiously wait my turn for it to get here.

Oregon Community Foundation Grant Awarded

South Benton Library Project is the recipient of a $25,000 grant from the Jerome S. and Barbara Bischoff Library Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation! This grant will be used to assist with the capital campaign to build a new library for residents of Monroe and South Benton County. This is another wonderful show of support for our new library. Each time a grant is awarded to our project we get closer and closer to seeing our dream of a new library become a reality!

On behalf of the South Benton Library Board a big round of applause goes out to our architect, Lori Stephens of Broadleaf Architecture in Corvallis, Oregon. She's responsible for the design of our future library building. We all love it and anxiously await the reality of seeing our new library on the corner of HWY99 and Ash St. in Monroe!

Please also see the nice article in today's Corvallis Gazette-Times newspaper.

http://gazettetimes.com/news/local/article_0728265a-eab2-11de-85b5-001cc4c03286.html?mode=story

Library Closed for Veterans Day

The library will be closed tomorrow, November 11, in honor of Veterans Day. We will open again on Thursday at 10:00.

Gazette Times News Article!

Please click on this link (the word "share" below to be taken to the nice article that was in the newspaper on Oct. 29, 2009.

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Bob Welch coming to Monroe Library!

Welch Poster

10 things seen at the Monroe Library...

1. 12 tiny pumpkins waiting to be picked up by Story Time kids
2. Children's author Alexandra Day and her dog Carl
3. The newest Skippyjon Jones book, "Skippyjon Jones, Lost in Spice"
4. 10 shelves full of patron holds waiting to be picked up (it used to be 3 shelves!)
5. 8 shelves full of DVDs waiting to be checked out (it used to be 2 shelves!)
6. A $500 check granted from Sterling Savings for SBLP (thanks Bobbye!)
7. The entire back room spotlessly shelved in Dewey Decimal order... thanks Monroe Subs!
8. A few sick patrons looking for books to tide them through the flu. (Yikes!)
9. 8 little boys crowded around one children's computer playing one game together!
10. One happy Lori back from vacation and taking care of everyone's information needs in Monroe.

Long Time; nothing posted

It's been a long time since I've posted anything about the new library. I apologize for the long delay between posts. It's been an extremely busy Spring and Summer here at the Monroe Community Library. Fall is upon us, our Monroe school children will be back to school next week and that gives me some hope that it might quieten down long enough for me to post some updates! I will be posting more in the next few days with all the latest that's been happening toward the new library and some fun things that have happened here in our old library. Here are a few things that I'll be posting about:

1. Our awesome South Benton Library Project Board.
2. The new sign that was just made for the Train Depot showing how much money we've made toward the new library
3. Our wonderful Summer Reading Program and how extremely kind Monroe's Fire Chief, Rick Smith was, who moved out the fire trucks each week so more than 100 kids would have a place to enjoy some great performers!
4. An exciting childrens' author coming to visit with her friendly dog she writes about!

Stay tuned!

This is a picture of the sticker I made to wear at the library today... I want to tell everyone in town that today is a great day for the South Benton Library Project! We now OWN THE LAND! It's been a long process and I'm so happy to be able to say, we now own the land where the New Monroe Community Library will be built and where the historic Monroe Train Depot now sits. This is a wonderful day and in the words of our Deputy Library Director, Teresa Landers,

"As we all know this is a MAJOR milestone in the process. A big thanks to Roger (Irvin, President of South Benton Community Enhancement) for understanding the technical details of such a purchase and to Lori S.(Stephens of Broadleaf Architecture) and Roger for following through on the various steps that had to happen to make this a reality. We also owe the (Benton) County Commissioners for putting their own interests aside and letting us negotiate on our own. And, of course, to our generous donor for providing the funds that made all this possible."

Please pass on the word to everyone in our community about this happy milestone on our journey to a new library!

All Aboard for the New Monroe Library!

Last night South Benton Library Project hosted a Kickoff Event at the Monroe High School Commons. South Benton Community Enhancement's President, Roger Irvin, was on hand to emcee for the event. First, City of Monroe's mayor, Frank Thayer spoke about the growth of our city and how the new library building will be a beautiful gateway into our town. Then Corvallis-Benton County Public Library's Director, Carolyn Rawles-Heiser spoke on behalf of our library system. After her, Monroe's Community Library Specialist, Lori Pelkey, spoke of how important it is to provide a place for our many young people who have discovered their library in the past few years. Having captured our children's attention with books and other library material, it's important to not lose their interest! A bigger library will provide a place for all ages to meet and enjoy what our wonderful library has to offer. From there, architect Lori Stephens, from Broadleaf Archtecture was there to show off the model of the new library and to give us a virtual preview of what the new library will look like, inside and out. We rounded out the evening with a question and answer session. Refreshments were served throughout the evening and everyone enjoyed viewing the model of the new library displayed along with a model train.

Register Guard Newspaper Article

Here's a great story on how we're growing and why a new library is so important to our local community.

http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/sevendays/11328894-35/story.csp

LIA Day 2

Sorry it's taken me so long to write about what happened on Day 2 of our Leadership in Action training here in South Benton. I've been crazy busy trying to digest and implement all the wonderful ideas from those two days.

So the bottom line is that on Day 2 most of what we accomplished was in break-out sessions where we worked within small groups to see... well, to see leadership in action! We ended up with 4 groups working on projects that will hopefully be put into effect with the next short few months. Here are the projects:
1. Restoring the beautiful flower baskets throughout Monroe.
2. Building and maintaining a community website for the South Benton area.
3. The South Benton Library Project!
4. Starting a Farmers Market that would include the selling of staple food products so that travel to and from the "big" neighboring cities would be kept at a low roar.

I can tell you that I know that the flower baskets group is headed in the right direction and we will have beautiful color in the next few months as we drive through town. I can also tell you that the community website is happening. Kathy Conn and myself approached the Monroe City Council to see if they would support us in this endeavor. They said that they would definitely like to see it happen and that there was already someone working toward it. So, I've emailed that other person and our group will be meeting soon to put our plan into action. Of course the South Benton Library Project was already underway; but most of what we learned at Leadership in Action was so applicable to what is going on right now in our Library Group! And finally, the Farmer's Market idea was put on hold because it seemed like this idea needed a full year to plan so that farmers in our area would have a chance to plan ahead on what they would like to plant that would sell good in a market in our area.

So, that's about it! I am really excited to be able to work on two of these projects. Having a community website will help our local government, our local businesses, our schools, our library and would become a place for visitors to our area to find out what we have to offer! And of course, the SBLP part is a natural to me! If you get me started on how soon and why we need an bigger library here in South Benton we would have to sit down for a full pot of tea!

See you at the library!

Day 1- Leadership in Action

Regional Field Staff Associate, Beth Gilden, and Benton County’s Jane Barth lead the Leadership in Action training and had each of us participants introduce ourselves, tell what kind of boat we thought our community was as a likeness and then tell what we hoped to get out of our weekend training. It was interesting to hear everyone’s idea of what kind of boat South Benton community is. We were likened to a rowboat without oars, a rowboat with different people paddling in different directions, a skull with many seats still left to fill, or a tugboat trying to get a bigger boat moving in the right direction. I thought we could be likened to a little boat with an outboard motor; the motor needs to get started and lots of people are trying hard to get that engine started but we need help.

Beth then told us about Leadership in Action’s training and that the Ford Family Foundation pays it for. She told how FFF ‘adopts’ communities in rural Oregon and for five years they help these communities with training of leaders, projects that help the community and financial aide for those projects. At the end of the five years, FFF hopes that the communities they have ‘adopted’ will go on and build on the relationships they’ve forged together and will move forward with projects on their own. My take on it is that Ford Family Foundation doesn’t want to just give money to a community and hope that the funds are spent well. Instead they entrust a community with the training they can then use to help and further themselves along and show them how to work together for common goals with the money they will give. I love this idea! It’s a kind of take on the “you can give a man a fish, and feed him for a day, or you can teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime” proverb. About halfway through the day’s training, Tom Gallagher of Ford Family Foundation came and surprised us and brought the wonderful news that our South Benton County community has indeed been selected to be the next community that the Ford Family Foundation starts their five-year program with. I cannot stress the honor that this is to our community. Our program with start in Spring 2010.

Throughout the afternoon there were great times of collaboration with each other and lots of visiting and hearing each others ideas. I thought it was a wonderful chance to look at our community through another person’s eyes. At first, it was easy for everyone to think that not much has been working or happening for good in our community. (the glass is half empty!) But by the end of the afternoon, through talking and collaborating together we were wowed by what our community already has done and the abundance of great things happening here. (the glass is half full!) I can only guess what monumental things can and will be accomplished here in South Benton County with leadership and the right training!

Leadership in Action

Leadership in Action training is coming to South Benton County today. What's this you may ask? Well, I don't know... exactly! but I aim to find out in these next two days. The website for LIA is here... Leadership in Action The site says that LIA is "a two day Leadership training for your community hosted by Rural Development Initiatives, and The Ford Family Foundation". Several of our group from South Benton Library Project are attending, so between us all we should get a good idea of just what Leadership in Action is. Our South Benton community has had several informal meetings with Rural Development Initiative/Ford Family Foundation and from what I've gleaned it seems that this training and what comes from it will be a good thing for our area. So, starting today, "emerging" leaders will be trained on how to actually be a leader in our community. I'll post some updates on what we learn at this two-day training. I'm really excited because there are around 25-30 people attending from our South Benton area. Stay tuned for updates!

Check It Out!

The Corvallis-Benton County Public Library Friends and Foundation puts out a publication each month called "Check it Out". The South Benton Library Project has a prominent place on the front page of this month's issue. Here it is: Check it out!

http://www.thebestlibrary.net/joomla/images/publications/cio_marapr09.pdf

SBLP Meeting Agenda- March 9, 2009

7PM AT THE MONROE FIRE HALL


INDRODUCTIONS/WELCOME

APPROVAL OF LAST MONTH'S MEETING MINUTES

TREASURER REPORT

OLD BUSINESS

1. ELECTION OF AT LARGE MEMBERS & DISCUSSION OF VOTING - TERESA

2. COMMITTEE REPORTS

A. MONROE COUNCIL - CATIE

B. FUND RAISING - MICHELLE

C. KICK OFF EVENT - SHARON

3, LAND UPDATE - ROGER

4. OTHER

5. NEXT MONTH'S AGENDA IDEAS AND ADJOURN