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Towanda Busy Bees 4H fall clean-up at the library in November,
2007.
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Mary Pasek
Williams receiving the ‘Librarian of the Year’
award along with
DeAnna Belz, who nominated her. |
Towanda District Library Director Mary Pasek
Williams was awarded the Alliance Library System "Librarian
of the Year Award." The ALS' Librarian of the Year Award is
presented to an outstanding risk-taker, innovator or change agent
contributing to the field of librarianship and library development.
Library board member, DeAnna Belz, nominated Mary,
citing Mary’s transformation of our small town library into one that
rivals many big city facilities. During Mary’s tenure,
library circulation has tripled and visits to the library have
increased five-fold. The
ALS noted that Mary is a
librarian’s librarian; skilled as an administrator as well as a
community and library leader.
The Alliance
Library System, headquartered in East Peoria, is a high tech
training and continuing education center covering 256 libraries
across 31 counties in central Illinois.
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Logan
Maughan's Eagle Scout project.
He and
Scout troop 56 (Towanda Boy Scouts) completed two jobs at the
library on June 9, 2007:
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Installed a new shelving system in the library's storage closet
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Pulled
bushes, excavated a plot around the flagpole, laid down mulch
and planted lilies
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Busy Bees 4-H group at
their annual spring clean-up at the Library, 2007
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Volunteers Pat and Bernice planting flowers at the library, spring,
2007 |
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Towanda Junior Girl Scout Troop #243, Nov,
2006
4th graders at Towanda Grade
School, the girls are working on requirements for their Junior Girl
Scout Bronze Award. "The Girl Scout Bronze Award, the highest
honor a Junior Girl Scout can earn, requires her to learn the
leadership and planning skills necessary to follow through on a
project that makes a positive impact on her community. Working
towards this award demonstrates her commitment to helping others,
improving her community and the world, and becoming the best she can
be."
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Book Sale Patrons, July 4, 2006 |
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Book Sale Volunteers, July 4, 2006
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Bloomington-Normal Kendo Club Demonstration, June 21, 2006
The Kendo Club of
Bloomington-Normal gave a demonstration of Kendo (Japanese martial
arts) to participants in the 2006 summer reading program - Voyage to
Book Island.
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Internet Provider Forum, Nov., 2005
This
was an informational meeting on how
to choose an internet service
provider in the Cooksville-Towanda area,
with representatives from Frontier Communications (dial-up and DSL),
DTN Speednet (broadband) and MediaCom
(cable).
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Hurricane Horror:
Aftermath of Katrina and Rita,
Nov., 2005
An
Illinois Farm Bureau photographer presented a slideshow on the
hurricane-ravished agriculture industry in Louisiana. He showed the
impact on the dairy, poultry, fishing, timber and cattle
industries.
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Children who came in costume to the October,
2005, library program:
Chilling Stories and
Creepy Crafts. |
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One way to get to a small town library
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A patron checking out books at front desk |
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Story hour
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Story hour pumpkin carving |
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Story Time
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Story Time Crafts |
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Making Cider
On a fall evening
in October, 2004, David Williams, ISU biology professor and apple
enthusiast, demonstrated cider-making using an oak cider press.
Children took turns grinding the apples in the press. After the
demonstration, there was a hot-dog roast over an open fire with
marshmallows to roast and special variety apples for baking. After
the meal there was a showing of the "Abbot and Costello Meet
Frankenstein" on the library lawn (moved inside when it started to
rain).
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Fourth of July Parade
17 patrons
represented the Towanda District Library in the 2002 Towanda Fourth
of July parade.
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Reading Rocks
The Towanda
District Library summer reading program for 2002 was "Reading
Rocks." It was a fun and educational program that focused on
geology. The Wednesday morning programs
included two geologists who came in to talk about the formation and
identification of rocks, a show-and-tell dinosaur program, a
juggling/balloon act, a rock painting session with the Ecology
Action center, and a season finale Flintstone party on July 17th.
Participants who read at least 3 hours every week received
tokens to buy geology-related prizes from the library store and
received a new paperback book thanks to donations from local
organizations. Contributors included the Towanda Senior Citizens,
the Home Extension Assn., the Towanda 4-H, the Lions Club, the
Junior Women's Club, and Upper Limits Rock Climbing Gym. The 4-H
Busy Bees provided cookies for every program. Over 70 children
participated in the program!
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Story Time
The Towanda
District Library holds four 8-week story hour sessions during the
school year for preschoolers. These programs take place on Wednesday
mornings from
10am-10:30am for 3-5 year-olds. During each program, Shirley
Porter reads two or three stories and does finger-plays, songs or
activities and works on a craft with the children. Registration is
required. Children begin each session by finding their nametags and
taking their places around the story circle. Children for this
session should be able to sit for 15 minutes on their own while
their parent or guardian is in another part of the library.
If you are interested in a story hour for 18-month-olds - 3 year
olds, we will offer one if a minimum of five children register.
This program will take place with the child sitting on the
parent/guardian's lap. We will do lap songs and games with the
children and short books will be read with emphasis on sounds and
identification of pictures. Children in this story hour will learn
how to sit still for stories with the comfort of their parents or
guardians nearby. |
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Redbird Readers
The Redbird Readers
program involves ISU/Towanda Elementary/Towanda District Library.
Every fall and spring, an education class comes to the library to
tutor 1st and 2nd graders (usually) in reading. Usually, the entire
1st or 2nd grade class comes to the library and is paired up with an
ISU student who works with that student for the entire semester on
Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Towanda elementary students range in
reading abilities so that the ISU students have as good a chance at
working with a good reader as they do of working with a struggling
one. The ISU students’ grades for the course are based on the work
they do here. The professor lectures, has discussions, and gives
exams here before and after the elementary kids are here, so the
entire university course is held at this library. These photos were
from the last day with the kids for the spring, 2002 session, and
each group/pair had a little party. The kids and the ISU students
take this class very seriously and get to know their partners quite
well over the semester. |
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Volunteer Appreciation
A volunteer
appreciation dinner was held at the library in April, 2002, to thank
the library’s many wonderful volunteers. For more on this event see
the
Volunteer web page. |
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Getting Ready for ‘Internet for Seniors’
Internet classes,
called "Beginning Computer/Internet Course for Seniors", were held
on Tuesday evenings in February, 2002, in two sessions of one hour
each for four weeks. The laptops that were used in the sessions
were borrowed from the Tremont District Library, who had purchased
them for this purpose. We hope that we can reserve the laptops
again in the fall or winter for additional classes. The response
from this course was great. |
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"Spooky Stories and Creepy Crafts"
2nd annual Halloween Program for 4th-6th graders, October, 2001, at
the library.
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