Summer 2015 Has Arrived!

June 2, 2015

June is here and it is summer at the Library! Time to check out books, magazines and DVDs to add to the summer fun. If you need a quick read or want to see the latest DVD releases check out our Lucky Day collection. It has the most popular books and DVD’s for those who get to them first. Lucky Day Books are available for a 7 day checkout and Lucky Day DVD’s for a 3 day checkout. Go past the Lucky Day collection to see all the New Books that have been added to the shelves. We have paperbacks, fiction, Inspirational,non-fiction, large print and audiobooks in the new books area. UnMask! Show your Superhero, summer reading program will be starting on June 15th and running through July. All ages are welcome to participate. What else do we have? Our teen area has lots of great books and audiobooks for the teens this summer. Our children’s area has gone through some changes and there are books by subject to look through and checkout to read with another reader or you favorite stuff animal. Looking for a great summer activity, check upstairs in the chapter book and children’s nonfiction areas Same can happen for adults and teens in the NonFiction Area downstairs. Lots of topics to explore and add to the summer bucket list. Come and visit the Barron Public Library this summer. You can find us at 10 N. 3rd Street right next to Subway. For more information check out our new and growing webpage at Barronpl.org. Have a great reading summer!

Check this out!

[Visit every library blog]

Barron, Wisconsin Public Library
This was a serendipitous visit. With a friend, I'd already visited two Wisconsin libraries (and the annual tent sale in Glen Flora!) and we were headed for home in Minnesota. A needed stop in Barron put us right across the street from the library, and the sign about their 100th year. And they would be open for about 20 more minutes! I had to move fast!

In the lobby, I saw the old card catalog file, still filled with cards. I should have asked about it. Card catalogs have been turning up more and more--see the entry for Philips Exeter, for example. The lobby also held the Friends book sale; $1.00 for a bagful this week, but there was no time for shopping.

I headed upstairs, following a sign to the children's area. Moving and scribbling notes faster than I would have liked, I found a the kids' books shelved on classic wooden shelves, Playaways and recorded books in turntable slots, a cabinet full of shells and coral, kid-sized chairs and couch. Someone had made a large structure of Duplo blocks. A notice by the computer says that the library now has access to the Accelerated Reader lists. [Mixed feelings about that, folks.] A sign points out that parents are responsible for their children: "Do not leave young children unattended through age 11." This seems especially important since the children's area is on a separate level of the building.

Back downstairs I found the adult fiction and non-fiction collections, DVDs and genre paperbacks in spinners, lots of large print books, a section labeled "Inspiration Fiction," a microfiche reader, and four public computers. Although it was very close to closing time, a librarian was giving detailed technical help to one computer user. How the librarian's job has changed!

Clerestory windows add brightness to the browsing area. A free-standing shelf in this area holds books on languages, including ESL, and on citizenship. It was nice to see these featured. The reference section includes several 3-ring binders of Barron County history.

I talked to a very enthusiastic librarian who wanted to be sure that I realized I was in a Carnegie library--and I hadn't known that, although the older part of the building gives all sorts of hints, at least one of them not at all subtle--see second picture below. It's the Carnegie part of the building that is celebrating a centennial this year. The design was done, or at least influenced, by Frank Lloyd Wright; my notes are sketchy, perhaps someone reading this will clarify in a comment...please?