“The library card is a passport to wonders and miracles, glimpses into other lives, religions, experiences, the hopes and dreams and strivings of ALL human beings, and it is this passport that opens our eyes and hearts to the world beyond our front doors, that is one of our best hopes against tyranny, xenophobia, hopelessness, despair, anarchy, and ignorance.”
— Author Libba Bray
It seems like there has been snow on the ground ever since I took on the directorship of Caribou Public Library, but of course that’s not true. It’s just been a long winter, but the time spent huddled inside against the biting cold has not been wasted. A great deal has happened at the library since September, and we’d like to bring you up to speed on what we’ve been doing.
Passport application acceptance services — The library is now a certified passport application acceptance facility, and two of us here are certified to process your application. Lisa Wilcox and I are able to review your application, accept payment and forward your application to consular services, and issue you a receipt that will allow you to cross the Canadian border and back by land for 60 days while you wait for your passport book or card to arrive.
Formation of our foundation — The Caribou Public Library Foundation was awarded its 501c3 designation in February. In addition to allowing us to apply to more foundations for grants than we were able to before, we can now accept tax-deductible donations for either specially designated purposes or toward the general future of the library.
New Youth Services Librarian — Jean Shaw, the Youth Services Librarian for many years, retired from her duties in the Children’s Department last December and fully retired from the library in February. Katie Wilcox-Bosse is the new Youth Services Librarian and runs programs for various age groups year-round, and she is also carrying on with the Summer Reading Program and partnerships with many organizations in the community.
We also welcomed Erin Albers as our newest Library Aide in March. Erin and her family come to us with excellent library experience from the Pacific Northwest and now call Caribou their home.
Grant-funded programs and initiatives — Caribou Public Library is pleased to join with three other Maine libraries on one of four teams funded by a national grant to address a community problem with technology. iLEAD USA is funding grants to libraries in 10 states.
Our library, along with Vose Library in Union and libraries at the University of Maine at Augusta and The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle, recognized that many crucial services such as job-seeking, researching medical information, filing taxes, home education, and more require access to the Internet, which many citizens still lack. One of the biggest barriers identified was a lack of available Internet service in certain areas because of incomplete infrastructure or lack of equipment.
Our project seeks ways to “circulate the Internet” by identifying hardware and service providers for checking out hotspots to people who have no Internet access.
We are also looking at providing secondary equipment such as laptops that come pre-loaded with access to quality resources and critical sites without users having to wend their way through search engines. Caribou Public Library is also in partnership with Bangor Public Library to offer Flipster, which has over 70 popular magazines offered online. Citizens in our area — regardless of whether they live in Caribou — can obtain a Bangor Public Library card at our library at no additional cost, which grants access to Flipster.
We also have upcoming programming on earning extra income from home through Internet-based businesses that is funded by a Rudman Library Trust grant.
Expanded audio and DVD selection – If you haven’t seen our DVD collection lately, you might want to visit it. We have been adding new titles and popular series as able, including “Walking Dead,” “Breaking Bad,” “The Imitation Game,” “Boyhood” and much more. We have also entered into an audiobook leasing program with TEI Landmark Audio that will keep our audiobook selection fresh for a greatly reduced rate.
We can also allow visitors to purchase their own audiobooks now, should they wish, through TEI Landmark at a greatly reduced rate, with $2 from each sale going to the library. You can order your audiobooks at the library, pay us in whatever format works best for you, and the audiobooks are yours to keep or do with as you wish when they arrive.
These are just a few of the exciting things happening at the library. You can follow us on Facebook at www.facebook. com/CaribouMEPublicLibrary or visit our website at www.cariboupubliclibrary.org. If you have any questions at all about these or other events at the library, you are also welcome to call 493-4214 or email librarydirector@cariboumaine.org. We look forward to seeing you all at Thursdays on Sweden this year, and thank you each and all for your support. You are what makes this library special and unique!
