NEW WAITE PARK BRANCH MANAGER

The newly hired Waite Park Branch Manager is Marilyn Patterson. Most recently Marilyn has been employed as Operations Coordinator with Minnesota Center Chorale, responsible for publicity and promotion, general administrative work, and grant-writing. Marilyn also has retail sales experience. She has taught community education classes on bird-feeding and wildlife habitat creation and given presentations on birds to children at area schools. She has served on the Sauk Rapids City Council since December 2002. She serves on various council committees, including the Personnel and Finance Committee. She has represented Sauk Rapids on multiple regional committees over the years, including the Regional Human Rights Task Force and Life Cycle Housing Board. She holds a BA degree in Political Science from St. Cloud State University (SCSU). She is trained in civil and family mediation and serves as a mediator for the Institute for Alternative Dispute Resolution at SCSU.

ST. CLOUD FRIENDS PLEDGE $75,000

The St. Cloud Friends of the Library recently made two donations totaling $75,000 to the Library Plus You fundraising campaign for the new St. Cloud Public Library. The Friends will be the exclusive supporters of the Friends Bookstore in the new St. Cloud Public Library, with a $50,000 commitment to the campaign, according to Friends president Sarah Gewirtz. The remaining $25,000 from the Friends’ campaign commitment will support Pat’s Place, a Northwoods-themed interactive play area in the new Children’s Library. It is named in memory of Pat Christianson who worked for Great River Regional Library for 35 years, with most of her career in administration.

EMERGING LEADERS PLEDGE $50,000

The Emerging Leaders Forum has committed $50,000 to support a Teen Place at the new St. Cloud Public Library. The donation from the Emerging Leaders Forum (ELF) will equip the 2,000 sq. ft. Teen Place with ten state-of-the-art computers, a young adult collection, and other amenities. The space also features two quiet study rooms and two small group meeting rooms. "ELF's commitment to the Teen Place at the new library is just the kind of project that ELF was looking to support,” said Melinda Sanders, chair of ELF’s Library Committee. On March 29, ELF hosted a focus group at the library to gain input on the materials and activities the teen space should provide.

GRRL CATALOG LINK TO NOVELIST ADDS FEATURE

The database NoveList has been linked to fiction records in the GRRL catalog. This addition will make it easier for readers to take advantage of NoveList and find books that they enjoy. It will also make it easy for them to link back into the catalog, place holds and get those books from GRRL. What has been added is a link on book information pages that takes you to “NoveList reviews and other information.” That’s where the fun begins. Some of the NoveList features are links such as Other Books By Author, Reviews, and Book Discussion Guide. There’s also a link for “Find Similar Books.” Because not all cataloging was done with the intention of one day linking to NoveList, the process doesn’t always work perfectly, but mostly it does. This new feature is an enjoyable enhancement to the catalog and to the fun of finding new books to read.

DIRECT GRRL/TDS DELIVERY ROUTE

On February 4, the MINITEX Delivery Unit started a delivery pilot project between GRRL and Traverse de Sioux system (TdS) in Mankato that will run through June 30. This daily delivery route will move materials between those two specific libraries. After June 30, MINITEX Delivery staff will examine the delivery statistics and gather other information that will help determine whether the direct route should be continued. The volume of materials moving through the MINITEX Delivery System to answer requests sent via the MnLINK Gateway has increased a total of 78% in the past two years. Much of this increase has come in the number of materials moving among public libraries. In a published report, MINITEX Delivery Manager Fred Finch was quoted as saying, "Up until this last fall, it would not have been cost effective to establish a delivery between two locations. Now volume between Great River Regional Library and Traverse de Sioux has reached a point where it is cost effective." According to 2007 interlibrary loan statistics, GRRL loaned more than twice the numbers of items to TdS (1574) than it borrowed (717).

MAGAZINE SUBJECT ADDED TO CATALOG

The local subject heading of “Magazines” has been added to GRRL catalog periodical records that are primarily for the public. This was in response to a suggestion that very few people ask GRRL for “periodicals” on hunting. They ask for magazines. Now, library users will be able to put that information into a search and get a list.

PERIODICALS LINKED TO DATABASES

Records for periodical titles in the online catalog have been enhanced by the addition of a link that reads “Check Online Availability.” Click on the link, and the next screen lists which databases, if any, include the magazine. Further links allow you to search the databases. This should be helpful for those library users who suspect that information they need was published in a particular magazine.

LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE

Did you know that more than 100 language courses are available to download as audiobooks? Whether you want “Korean: The short course,” “Portuguese (Brazilian): The complete course” or “Inglés/English For Spanish Speakers,” check out the Netlibrary offerings. The courses are all Pimsleur Language Programs, which are very well regarded.

WINTER READING PROGRAM SUCCESS

Thanks to everyone who made the Winter Reading Program a big success this year! This is the 5th year of the program and 1968 people registered. That is more than twice as many as any other year. GRRL received 2035 drawing slips this year. That is several times as many as any other year. The grand prize of a cell phone holster and a $50 gift certificate from Best Buy was won by a patron from Elk River. Western mugs containing Barnes & Noble gift certificates were won by one patron from Delano and one from Big Lake.

BIRCH DIRECTORY DONATES AD

The Birch Directory Midbook, a telephone directory that covers a large part of the GRRL region, has donated a substantial yellow pages ad to GRRL. The ad is valued at $4,890. “This is an avenue that we have chosen to again be part of helping, not only our community, but the entire Central Minnesota area in which we serve,” said John Anderson, Birch Midbook General Manager.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES ACTIONS

The GRRL Board of Trustees met on Tuesday, March 18, and took the following actions. Lease Agreement For New St. Cloud Library
The Board approved a preliminary understandings maintenance agreement between GRRL and the City of St. Cloud for the new St. Cloud Public Library. It included provisions for staff to have free parking at the library during their work hours. The understanding will now be used to create a formal lease.

FMLA Active Duty Family Leave
The library’s Medical Leave Policy was amended to include FMLA Active Duty Family Leave. An employee whose spouse, son, daughter or parent either has been notified of an impending call or order to active military duty or who is already on active duty may take up to 12 weeks of leave for reasons related to or affected by the family member’s call-up or service. This leave may extend up to 26 weeks in a 12-month period for an employee whose spouse, son, daughter, parent or next-of-kin is injured or recovering from an injury suffered while on active military duty and who is unable to perform the duties of the servicemember’s office, grade, rank or rating.

Big Lake Relocation
The Board approved a move for the Big Lake Public Library out of its current building into a larger facility. The Big Lake Public Library does a lot of programming and is a hub of activity for the community. The current building is not adequate for those purposes. Another building has been identified that is conveniently located and much larger.

Staff Training Day
The Board approved closing all GRRL libraries for business on Columbus Day (October 13) so that staff may attend a day of training.

PUBLIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Approximately 30 staff attended the Public Library Association National Conference in Minneapolis the last week of March. The PLA conference is generally considered the best of the library conferences for people who work in public libraries. It offered dozens of workshops scheduled in tracks so that people could attend multiple sessions dealing with their own specialty, such as collections, or children’s services. Staff had an information sharing meeting after the conference, and a special page has been set up on the library’s staff web site to share session notes.