NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK IS APRIL 8-14 !

TRL Foundation Director Describes New Responsibilities

Victoria Wortberg, the new Director of the Timberland Regional Library Foundation, was the guest speaker at a recent Olympia Friends Board meeting. She described her responsibilities and her hopes for a more active Foundation that is a collaborative effort between the Foundation, Friends groups and Timberland Regional Library. She has been meeting with Friends groups to get input on what the Foundation should be doing. She will be working extensively in capital campaigns to raise funds for new facilities. Property taxes and the timber tax will not sustain growth. She wants to work with Friends groups to coordinate fund raising efforts. Her duties include:
* Manage capital campaigns for all libraries
* Support district-wide programming
* Build a network of Friends groups.
She said we can work together to identify needs; identify possible donors and develop and maintain relationships with these donors; maintain an accurate data base of donor gifts, needs and desires; and to be good stewards of the gifts through wise investment of resources as well as accurate monitoring of uses of funds.

Board Meeting Highlights

• The May meeting of the Board has been moved to May 15th.

• The Olympia Library staff won second prize in a national contest to design a book cart. The gaily decorated cart was entitled “Support Glitteracy.”

• Timberland Reads Together launches on Monday, April 23 with simultaneous readings in all TRL counties. Each event will feature government leaders who have endorsed this community wide event. Cheryl Heywood urged Board members to read My Antonia, by Willa Cather, plan to attend the opening event and invite other people to join in The Big Read.

Youth Services Provides Variety of Programs

The Friends of the Olympia Timberland Library is a strong supporter of the Olympia Library’s youth services programs. During the December meeting Carrie Dye, Youth
Services Coordinator, and her staff described some of their activities. In the period January through November, 2006, they handled 18,018 reference transactions, presented 201 programs which were attended by 7,429 people, presented 46 outreach programs attended by 5,436 people and recruited 49 teen volunteers who provided over 400 hours of service.

On-going programs are the Pre-school, Toddler and Book Babies story times throughout the year and Reading Explorers and Teen Book Discussion groups for older children and teens. Special programs have included Good Reads for a Frosty Day, Family Read-Aloud Month and the Summer Reading Program, Paws, Claws, Scales and Tales. Meet Curious George was a popular program.

Their activities are not limited to the library setting. Outreach to schools included family literacy nights, book talks, database training, and a puppet show at 11 elementary schools. They regularly present programs to low-income children at Evergreen Villages. They received an American Library Association/ Oprah grant to discuss books with at risk teens; provided library information at the Ethnic Celebration, Sand in the City, and Healthy Kids programs in Olympia.

So if you wonder where the money goes that Friends raises through book sales take a look at the Youth Services Program. The Friends Board recently approved a budget request of $2,890 to provide support to their many activities this winter and spring.

Friends of Thurston County Hold Summit

Two dozen representatives of Friends Boards in Thurston County met January 30th at the Yelm Library. Cheryl Heywood facilitated the discussion. Topics centered on membership, publicity, book sales and other fund raising activities, challenges, disposing of books that don’t sell during the book sales, and online sales such as E-Bay.
Each library has its challenges depending on its location. Olympia Friends has the largest and most active membership.

The members of the summit agreed to meet again sometime after the Friends Forum, April 28th, in Aberdeen. The agenda will include the TRL Foundation, liability/insurance issues, handling Friends money, mentoring new board members, and the Friends of the Library, USA.

Timberland Reads Together in April and May

Timberland Regional Library (TRL) has announced that it has received a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for TRL’s The Big Read:Timberland Reads Together program. The book selected for this year is My Antonia by Willa Cather. The book is about a poor immigrant family in Nebraska which struggles to succeed in a foreign land. The story is told by a boy on a neighboring farm. Event calendars, reader’s guides and other materials will be available in local libraries in March. Events will take place in April and May. The opening event takes place April 23rd at noon at the Olympia Library.

Adult Winter Reading Program Ends Soon

There’s still time to enter the Adult Winter Reading Program: Bringing Home a World of Stories which ends March 31st. To join in pick up a program brochure and forms at the Olympia or other local libraries and report on five or more books you have listened to or read during January, February and March. Return the forms to the library by March 31st. Prizes donated by local businesses, and Friends groups include overnight stays at resorts and inns in the area, gift baskets and books. Drawings for the grand prizes will be held on April 10th. Participants must be 18 or older and have a current Timberland library card.

Treasures In Your Email

If you enjoy reading book reviews in the Sunday paper but haven't yet discovered the TRL Great Reads E-Newsletters, you are in for a treat. This new program has more than twenty free e-newsletters to choose from. Your choices will periodically arrive in your email box with all kinds of fresh information. You can even reserve the books in the library catalog from your emails. Some of the choices are: Business, Best Sellers (New York Times), Children?s Picture Books, Fiction Hardcover Best Sellers, New Fiction, Mystery, Science and Nature, and Teen Scene. Sign up for as many as you like by going to www.trlib.org and clicking on Great Reads E-Newsletters.