On March 3rd, 35 adults and 70 kids attended Sylvan Way Library's Hero Party, celebrating real-life heroes and superheroes. Officer Jason Glasgow and K-9 Lance, Chris Rotter from the Bremerton Fire Department, and submariners Paul Tomshack and Allen Burgess talked about how they help people. The kids had lots of questions, including "How do submarines stay in the water?" and “How fast does your fire truck go?”
For the rest of the program, the local heroes posed for pictures and answered one-on-one questions. Also, Firefighter Rotter let the kids try on the boots and other firefighting gear. Parents seemed to especially appreciate this way to connect their children with real-life heroes in a community setting. And families enjoyed the crafts, particularly the Spidey snacks (two Ritz crackers, eight spider-leg pretzels, two raisin eyes, all stuck together with peanut butter).
At each branch of Kitsap Regional Library, we receive stories from staff and patrons that give us a smile or a boost, stories that help pull us through our greyest of days. It's always nice to hear how much KRL is needed and appreciated, and for many library employees these stories are the pride of working for such a great institution. Café has recently received some of these heartwarming stories from several of our smaller branches around Kitsap County and I would like to share them here.
KRL likes to let our patrons hold onto their library materials for as long as they need them and our policy is to give everyone the opportunity to renew their items up to three times when possible. Annabell, who works at our Little Boston branch, wrote that she has received many thanks from patrons who were not aware of the various ways to extend checked-out items. Of course, as KRL employees we know how operations and day-to-day tasks are taken care of at all different levels. But patrons may not know (or have forgotten) that something as simple as renewing can be taken care of with a phone call to any one of our branches; they also have the opportunity to renew their books online.
A patron who was in Arizona called because he was having trouble placing holds online. After a quick phone call, he learned that his card had expired. It was updated and we had another happy patron with holds to look forward to when he arrived back home. Another patron on vacation called to get our mailing address so she could send her books back to us using the postal service. After a conversation about extended checkouts and a few renewals, we had another satisfied patron (who also saved a few bucks on postage!) Little Boston recently had a conversation with an elderly couple who were having health problems. Staff set them up with an appointment at their home for some much-needed help from our Outreach department. They were so grateful to KRL that they have shared their story with family and neighbors.
At the same end of the county we have Linda, who works in the paging department at our Kingston branch, wanted to share some great news about how her community is working together. The Kingston branch recently partnered with Kingston Farmer's Market to offer story sessions at the market. And thanks to the amazing community volunteers, the Village Green Park is now open. This is the campus that will eventually include a new and enlarged Kingston Library. For those interested in more information about The Village Green Foundation, they meet on the fourth Tuesday of every month. You can find more at kingstonvillagegreen.org. A website is under construction for related projects.
And finally, I would like to share one last story from Heidi at our Manchester branch at the south end of Kitsap County. Every branch has its regular patrons that everyone recognizes and calls by their first names. But at the smaller branches like Kingston, Little Boston, and Manchester, that is true for almost every patron that comes through their doors. Many times library support goes further than casual conversation. A while ago, the Manchester branch had a member of their community pass away. Branch staff attended the memorial service on their own time and flowers were brought into the library in honor of this patron. Heidi mentioned this because she wanted to show everyone that at a large branch you are only going to be able to meet and get involved with a small percentage of the community. The degree of community connection at these smaller branches is great. I have to agree with Heidi that the stories and relationships that we build with our smaller-branch patrons are a rare and beautiful gift.
These are but a few of the great stories that happen at Kitsap Regional Library on a daily basis. I hope to be able to share many more stories with KRL staff and our public. Thank you, and please keep us posted with your own stories and ideas.
Ambassadors are the face of Kitsap Regional Library. They are the ones who go forward in our community to spread the news about KRL and what we have to offer. They are also the ears of KRL. They listen to the public and find out what the community has to say about their local libraries. They gather this feedback so that KRL can better understand what the people need and would like to see in the future of their libraries.
Most importantly the Ambassadors are out at Kitsap County’s local events to teach. They help our community understand how the library operates, give out specific information on everything from programs put on by librarians to statistical information on upcoming levies. Teaching these important facts to our community is an important job. Many people do not know about the many programs and classes that go on at their community library or understand how we operate. As an Ambassador you get to show them the details (although many of our dedicated library users do know a lot about us.) One of the best reasons to be an Ambassador is learning for yourself the wealth of knowledge our community already posses.
2009 saw the debut of KRL’s Ambassador team. Most events took place over the summer months and it was often a challenge to spread our Ambassador team throughout the county. This year we may have even more events coming up that KRL and the Ambassadors would like to participate in. For that reason, we will surely need to call out to our KRL employees to join in on the fun.
Now that we all have a little information on what our Ambassadors do, I would like to ask all employees of Kitsap Regional Library to think about joining this wonderful program. Meeting the community and talking one-on-one with patrons (and soon to be patrons) is not only fun but gratifying. Whether you are giving out important information or just handing out bouncy balls to the local children, it’s sure to leave a smile on your face at the end of the day. If you have further questions about the Ambassador program, feel free to seek out someone who has been a member or talk to someone on the Café committee. And to all the KRL patrons, look for us at upcoming community events.
