Greetings from Your Great Bend Public Library. This coming week is National Library Week. For this special occasion we are offering amnesty on one damaged or lost item. Just come in and we will take it off of your account no questions asked.

We have a new artist display up. The artists are Judy Schartz and Barbara Stevens. They work mainly with ceramics and mixed media. They will be having an art reception here at the library this coming Sunday April 8th from 1:30pm-3:30pm. Make sure to stop by and see them.

One of the questions that is often asked is “Why do we still need libraries especially since we have search engines online?” The main response to this is generally “A search engine can get you over a million answers but Librarians have been trained to get you the correct one.”
Over the years libraries have been and still are a place of learning. They just look and act a little different from what they used to. Instead of being strict quiet zones we focus more on engaging our community and offering access to information and knowledge to the life-long learners out there.
We are one of the only places that provide computers and internet access for those that do not have a home computer. We teach early literacy skills through our activity centers and Story times that get kids to sing, dance, rhyme, and read. We provide classes and programs in new and growing job markets like Coding or 3D print design.
We have study rooms available for those that need extra space. We have a Teen room that is great as a study space as well as a place where they can relax with a video game or even deconstruct various odds and ends. Not to mention the amazing programs that have been going on in the Teen Room like Cooking Classes, Escape Rooms, Paint Day, Spa Day, and so many more.
We also provide one on one classes including but not limited to technology classes on your choice of tech, 3D Printer Classes, Tinkercad 3D design, and Pinterest Problems. I could easily go on about our Book Club, Adult Crafts, Adult’s Movie Night, and others but I’ll leave it to you to come in and check out what we have going on this month.
We have an amazing Newsletter that we started in February that is only available in-house currently but it gives you a great deal of information on our monthly activities.
I will leave you with this factoid: We are part of a Library Consortium of over 50 libraries that share their resources. This transforms us from a Library with 60,000 items for check out to a Library with 600,000 items available for check out. This does not take in to account items that we get that are outside of our system, state, and sometimes country.

Elizabeth Dukelow is the Data/Materials Manager and Marketing Librarian at the Great Bend Public Library. She can be reached by email at edukelow@ckls.org.