@ Your Library
Thursday morning, March 19th at 10:30 am a senses storytime will be held in which young children and their caregivers can explore the world through books, rhymes and more. Storytime is a wonderful opportunity to discover books, reading and libraries in a controlled (alright, semi-controlled) environment with other toddlers and preschoolers. Come for storytime then stay to play with our early childhood toys.
Each Wednesday afternoon until the end of April, from 3 – 4:30, school age children are welcome at Libratory. Each week is different with explorations of the world through science, cooking, robotics, sewing and other crafts and more. Join the crazy hijinks and shenanagians.
The Library of Things, made possible by Knudson grant, continues to grow. The latest additions include a portable DVD player (with screen) and CD player. We also have a basic tool kit, a label maker and a serger with an iron and ironing board available. The collection also contains a variety of games like “Say Anything,” “Telestrations,” “Pictionary,” and “Carcassonne” and lots of jigsaw puzzles (a great thing to do while waiting to get outside). Don’t be shy, plan a family and/or friend game night, discover a new talent, skill or start again an older skill you’d acquired in the past and see if you can still do it – like riding a bike.
The library has been the recipient of several KTI grants to help us develop our technology resources. Libratory received some really cool technology pieces including Dash, Dot and Cue to help us all learn coding and other programming skills. We also have the Nintendo Switch and their Labo kits, and Spheros. Most of these items will be used in library programming like Libratory (see above) and available for teachers to borrow and use with their students. We are also working with Koochiching Aging Options on a KTI grant to get Oculus Go headsets for use with community groups interested in exploring Virtual Reality. In fact, we’d love to partner with a group to create content for VR. We can provide the camera, you provide the labor to film the lake, the area trails, you decide!
Have you ever thought about starting a podcast? Don’t forget our recording studio with access to microphones and editing software. You can also create newsletters, logos or other graphics with Adobe Creative Suite. We are excited about the many things we can now assist the community with learning and doing. Stop in and ask for a tour of the many amazing tools you can explore. Stay tuned for details on our new newspaper scanner and what it can do.
The world (and International Falls community in particular) lost a librarian this month. Former librarian, Waiva Menefee passed away earlier in March. She was the librarian following Marie Knudson and served as city librarian from 1978 until her retirement in August 1993. I had the privilege to meet her several times after I came to International Falls and always enjoyed our conversations. She will be missed.