Floating Along!

Meinders Library had a float in the Water Tower Festival Parade here in Pipestone. The theme of the parade was Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales so how could we not?

Jim and Pat Adams helped me to paint two water heater boxes and two range boxes grey. I then used a darker grey to paint 'stones' onto the boxes, so they would look like castle towers. Maria Korthals helped to put the boxes on the flatbed trailer, loaned by Maurice Bickford, and we hung flower garlands between them to make ourselves a fairy tale castle.

To make the float complete, we asked some of our storytime girls to wear princess costumes and ride the float! They all had silver princess wands and glittery rings and were between the ages of three and ten or so: we had two snow whites, a sleeping beauty, a cinderella, a pochahontas, and several other princesses who had a blast being the center of attention!

And, of course, there had to be books involved. I borrowed a speaker from the school and a headset from Mike Solma so I could read fairy tales from the float as we followed the route. Poeple said they could hear me and everyone really liked our float.

We didn't win, but we had so much fun it doesn't matter. Maybe we'll try again next year!

Summer Reading Update

Summer Reading Program is in full swing and is going great! We've had between 70 and 100 kids each week and they are so excited when they're here! Prizes have been flying out the door, as have the books, and we are so happy to be providing this service.

Our first week involved making pizzas from construction paper and crayons, which was a lot of fun. The variety of the pizzas was staggering.

Week two was a project that involved colors, a paintbrush color wheel that could be hung on a wall. It was a fabulous project.

Week three found all the kids outside the Superintendent's Office painting the sidewalk with home-made sidewalk paint. The art was amazing and we were very sad it rained a day later and washed the masterpieces away.

Summer Cleaning

Okay, so I’m one season too late. Most people get their cleaning done in the spring, but the library had to wait until school was out to begin a few reorganization projects that were sorely needed.

Most people now have DVD players and very few still have a VCR. I do, but only because the DVD and the VCR are the same machine. Our VHS section was completely full and many of the movies had not been checked out for a very long time. Any VHS tape that had not been checked out since 2006 has been weeded from the collection. What’s weeding, you ask? It’s just like a garden: you get rid of things you’d rather not have. And if no one has checked it out in three years, it is highly unlikely it will ever be checked out again. So keep an eye on the next book sale. If you’re interested in VHS tapes, there will be quite a few!

We also weeded our books on cassette section. Cassettes, like VHS tapes, are becoming an old technology and once again, our section was enormous. Following the same rules as the VHS, we have taken anything that has not been checked out since 2006 off of our shelves. Once they are removed from the catalogue, they will go onto the book sale for December.

Magazines were another area where we had too many copies taking up too much space. Most back issues of popular magazines can be found on-line, so keeping five years of each issue was becoming obsolete. Because of that, we now only have the last three years of our magazines. If you need help finding older issues, please let a librarian know so we can assist you.

In other news, we received a grant from Sioux Valley Energy to begin yet another project! We were given $1500 to improve our juvenile non-fiction section and Heather can hardly contain herself. She has chosen several series of books that will be a great asset to the library and that contain current information that will be useful for the kids who read them. The books have not arrived yet, but they should be here by August. Thank you, Sioux Valley Energy!

We also received $300 from the Pipestone Kiwanis to replace some damaged books that were classics. It’s always hard to get rid of a book, but when the book is worn and ragged, it’s definitely time to replace it. Who wants to check out a book that is falling apart? Thank you, Kiwanis!

We have also changed the theme of the children’s library from a jungle/forest theme to a castle theme, so be prepared to see some construction coming soon. Anyone who feels like painting stones or making a few banners for the walls, please let us know!

If you have any questions, or you have a book you need to reserve or renew, give us a call at 507-825-6714. Summer hours for Meinders Library are Monday through Thursday, from 10 AM to 8 PM, and Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM. We are not open on Saturdays from Memorial Day to Labor Day.