Be thrifty at the Fergus Falls Library

Guest Editorial

Walt Dunlap

Published Friday, December 26, 2008

During a time when everybody seems to be pinching pennies, the library is the best bargain in town. From youngsters to oldsters, Fergus Falls Public Library has something to offer everybody.

For the very youngest children the Library offers a wide variety of books parents can read to them. Even infants benefit from being read to. Board Books, sturdy little books with a limited number of pages, are a great way to introduce toddlers to reading. Easy Readers with their profuse illustrations are the next step for youngsters, and the Library has a wonderful selection of them thanks to gift money received during the past few years. Chapter Books offer challenges as children begin reading to themselves, but are also great selections for parents reading to their children. Juvenile Fiction and Non-fiction sections of the children’s area round out the wide variety of reading opportunities for children. Magazines and Audio Books supplement the book selections on their shelves.

Library patrons old enough to drive can find help in choosing a new or used car with Consumer Reports magazine and its evaluations. The NADA price guide, “the blue book,” gives customers an idea of what used car prices should be, and the recently-arrived 2009 US Department of Energy Fuel Economy Guide will provide its readers with realistic miles per gallon and annual fuel cost figures. A variety of Chilton repair guides is available for older vehicles and ISD 544 Communty Education 55 Alive classes are held in the Meeting Room for older drivers.

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Fergus Falls Public Library has received notification of a grant coming from the Otto Bremer Foundation. The $3,450.00 gift, expected after the first of the year, will help establish a new collection of heavily illustrated “graphic novels” for young adults. This will be the first new collection type since DVD format video was introduced a number of years ago.

Three library staff members attended the annual conference of the Minnesota Library Association. Children’s librarian Erin Smith and circulation librarian Emily Millard joined me in making the trip to Bloomington November 19 – 21. A scholarship from Northern Lights Library Network, the regional multi-county, multi-type library system, made our attendance possible. As usual with conventions of this kind, the programs offered, conversations with colleagues from around the state, and the displays of vendors to libraries made the three days a profitable experience. Erin Smith, incidentally, was one of three panelists who presented a program on the Big Read, the community-wide reading project Fergus Falls has been a part of.

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