Here are some highlights from 2020 at the Ellinwood School/Community Library.
PAC Reading Night: The library joined with Ellinwood Grade School’s Parent Advisory Committee for a Storytelling Reading Night. Parents were invited to bring their children. We borrowed 30 tubs from Central Kansas Library System with a variety of books and stuffed animal characters. Hot chocolate and cookies were served, pictures were taken with various backgrounds, and prizes were given. We had 58 in attendance.
Coding: Joseph Kern restarted our after-school coding for the spring, with a pretty good turnout of kids who learned about Raspberry Pi micro-computers and created games and animations with Scratch. We averaged 14-15 people attending coding every Thursday afternoon. This was up from last year, and we hope to continue providing this activity in the future.
Displays: In January, we had LaRena Hildebrand’s stamp collection on display. In February we had a display from St. Joseph’s School. We hosted the Twilight Stitchers Quilts display until March 24, when the quilts were returned to the guild because of the pandemic. Later in the year, Jerry Smith allowed us to display his amazing canvas photo display.
Furniture: Ellinwood City Library Board purchased a glider from Millers of Claflin; two adult chairs with trays and two adult chairs without trays from Demco; and two children’s sofas and two children chairs from OPI. They are all in storage until it is safe for them to be used.
Pandemic: In April, displays were replaced with Facebook posts. I encourage you all to follow the Library Facebook page and interact when possible. This will help us with funding in the future.
March circulation was down due to the virus. We had 106 new requests to access the Hoopla and the Sunflower e-Libary apps from March- May. We offered curbside services through mid-June. Other safety precautions were added such as having hand sanitizer available to use before touching the books.
Summer Library: Summer Library began the week of June 30. We utilized the band shell for outdoor programs. The State Library purchased a program to assist in tracking our patrons’ books or minutes read. Our staff is very excited about this program, which the State Library plans to provide again.
Summer Library numbers were down. We appreciate the Day Care for allowing their students to attend! Melody, Treva, and our high school helpers did an excellent job with our program.
Fines: Fines have been suspended from the beginning of the pandemic. The Library Board will reevaluate this in January.
Library Intern: Monica Hammeke is our Library Intern for this year and Grace Hoskins is in Career Readiness for the Library. They are both doing an excellent job!
Smithsonian Partner Exhibit: The Crossroads exhibit ran from Oct. 16 to Dec. 2. David Kreider from the Kauffman Museum came to install a “healthy” kiosk from Humanities Kansas.
A video of the exhibit, filmed by Grace Hoskins, was shared with Ellinwood Grade School students during their classes.
Christkindlemarket: The library participated in Christkindlmarket by inviting the KAYS to create gingerbread houses with littles, and Mike Westerman read “Gingerbread Baby” in costume as the German Saint Nicholaus. There were 31 people in attendance for Mr. Westerman’s presentation. Overall the display was a great success considering the circumstances.
Grade School Library: The Ellinwood Grade School library looks totally different than it has in the past. Classes have been shortened to allow for sanitizing in between, and we have a separate time for checkout. We are busy pulling books for every student on a biweekly basis. Karie does a great job of learning our students’ preferences.
We appreciate the guidance and support of the administration and library boards as we continue through this time in our lives.
Wishing everyone the best in the New Year, and we look forward to seeing you!
Sheri Holmes is the director of library and media services for the Ellinwood School and Community Libraries. She can be reached by email at sholmes@usd355.org.
