CARSTAIRS - A delegation from the Carstairs Public Library has updated council on recent activities at the facility, as well as plans going forward.
The update came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting, with board members Sarah Chicken and Wendy Knudsen, as well as Mountain View County deputy reeve Dwayne Fulton appearing.
Plans of Service goals for 2021-2025 at the library include Grow Literacy with early years, child and teen literacy skills; Satisfy Curiosity with support of lifelong learning; Stimulate Imagination with reading, viewing and listening for pleasure; and spreading news about the library.
Regarding the Grow Literacy goal, 2023 saw 16 new families join the 1000 Books before Kindergarten program; between January and October 119 children’s programs were held for 1,232 people; 205 kids participated in the day camp programs and 61 kids completed 944 hours of reading in the reading challenge; 28 team programs were run for 176 teens.
Plans for 2024 including participating in the summer reading challenge, a four-week Kindergarten Kickstart program to be run in the spring, and a new sensory story time program being added in January.
“It was a very good year and we are looking at adding some new classes to our line up this winter/spring and to look at ways to grow participation in our summer reading challenge,” delegation members said.
Regarding the Satisfy Curiosity goal, successes this year include the job hunting kids used five times, 92 adult classes reached 560 people, and the Walk the Block and Comic Con events attracted many people.
Plans for 2024 include working with other Mountain View County libraries to develop programs, adding on-demand programs like 1on1 tech help to review resumes and interview preparation, and grow the Walk the Block event by connecting it with the town summer movie event.
“Providing classes and events for adults is an area where we’ve had significant growth. This is thanks to the addition of an adult program coordinator Douglas Gnida to our team.”
Regarding the Stimulate Imagination goal, 2023 successes included lending 50,213 physical collection items and 8,203 digital items, launching new website in November, flooring replacement in the main library space, and having 13,761 people visiting the library.
Plans for 2024 include updating the website to better reflect the community, continue to grow and manage the collections to match community interest and needs, and work with Friends of the Library and grant partners to update and refresh the engagement space.
“We expanded our holds pick up area, moved shelving to create a study space and created a space to showcase local authors. We are lending more items than ever before in our history and our library visits number is returning closer to normal.”
Regarding the Everyone’s Advocate goal, 2023 successes included 40 outreach events and two large community events, with 2,685 people attending.
Council accepted the delegation report as information.
