Library district expands services to rural areas

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

With the exception of Wellington and Red Feather Lakes area residents, people in northern Larimer County are now paying taxes to support the Fort Collins Regional Library District. Voters approved the district in 2006, and residents pay a 3-mill property tax to fund it.

As a result, library officials are looking for ways to better serve outlying district communities such as Livermore, LaPorte, Stove Prairie and Timnath. Children's story times were inaugurated last year at The Forks in Livermore, and they will be expanded this year to Stove Prairie.

Story Express programs are scheduled for seven weeks this summer in Livermore and Stove Prairie, beginning June 18. Story times will be held each Wednesday at the Stove Prairie School and each Thursday at The Forks.

Each location has two programs each week, at 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. The all-ages programs are about 45 minutes long and feature storytelling, songs, fingerplay and crafts.

On July 23 and 24, Puppet Express will present a puppet show at both locations.

The library district is also looking for ways to better serve adults in the far reaches of the district. Head children's librarian Lu Benke is in charge of outreach for the district, and she plans to have a library presence at community events this summer to solicit input. The district is considering several approaches to better serve outlying communities, Benke said.

Traditional methods of outreach, Benke noted, have included bookmobiles and small branch libraries. While these options are being considered, they are not always cost-effective in this high-tech age, she said.

"We want to make sure we're good stewards of the taxpayers' money," she said.

Approaches being discussed include books by mail, probably limited to paperbacks. The district might test this service using children's books as a starting point.

Another option would be "express kiosks," installed at convenient locations. The kiosks are structures similar to community mailboxes, each containing about 20 locked boxes for library materials. A person could request library materials, and they would be dropped at the kiosk by courier. The individual would access the materials in a specific library box, using a code number.

A kiosk could even include Internet access, allowing a person to access his library account and order materials.

Benke noted that the trend for libraries is to engage in more e-commerce, making access to information more convenient. This approach includes the idea of a virtual library branch, allowing access to databases and materials from home on a 24/7 basis.

For more information about the library district's programs, go to www.fcgov.com/library.