View from the Library: Impact grant helps out

We would like to thank the Greater Polson Community Foundation for awarding our library an Impact Grant to purchase a TV and sound system for our renovated meeting room. We are so grateful to them for the support they have given us over the years.

Tying into that grant, we also received a $20,000 grant from the American Library Association’s Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities Initiative. That grant will allow us to install a system in our renovated meeting room to help those who are hard of hearing.

If you are hard of hearing, wear hearing aids or have a cochlear implant, or have a family member who is hard of hearing, please join us in our Community Conversation on Tuesday, July 25, at 11:15 a.m. We will hear from James Rowe of OTOjOY on hearing loop systems and discuss the pros and cons of installing this type of system in our meeting room. Light refreshments will be served.

Registration is required as the meeting is being held offsite with limited space. Contact Library Director Abbi Dooley to reserve your spot.

Our annual Summer Reading Program continues this month with some great programs. It’s not too late to sign up to log your reading and earn incentives and great prizes from our amazing local businesses.

This month we held our annual Boat Day event with the winning boat holding 283 pennies before it sank. Thank you to Gary Teggeman for showing us the boat he is building and talking to everyone about the parts of a boat.

Join us Thursday mornings at 10 a.m. for a Dance Party on July 13; a visit with Lavender Lori on July 20; and Animal Wonders (with real animals) on July 27. We are also super excited to announce that published children’s author Valerie Bolling will join us at our Ice Cream Social on Aug. 17. Valerie is the author of five picture books and an early reader series.

Our Teen Advisory Group meets at 4 p.m. July 17. Kids between the ages of 12-18 are welcome to sign up in advance or just come and see what it’s all about. Our pen pal program for children ages 6-12 will meet again to read letters from Philipsburg and respond on July 18 at 2 p.m. Mother Goose continues Mondays at 9:15 a.m. for our littlest patrons (0-3) with Stacey from Public Health joining us July 24 with a special activity.

We celebrated our first two graduates of the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program with a graduation ceremony, complete with decorated caps and doughnuts.

The library also offers a Babysitter Certification incentive for teens 13-19. Complete the certification by the end of summer using the Libby App and get a coffee card on us.

We are celebrating Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library’s 200 millionth book milestone this month. Dolly is gifting a special bookmark to seven children in her Imagination Library program as part of “200 Million Reasons to Celebrate.” All children in Lake County under the age of five are eligible to register for the program to receive a free book each month until their fifth birthday. Children must be registered by July 31 to be eligible to receive one of the seven bookmarks and win some amazing prizes. Register your child anytime online at www.imaginationlibrary.com or stop in and see us.

Our Shoutbomb texting service has been converted to a new SMS service through our library’s patron database. Shoutbomb users will be automatically converted to this new service. If you’d like to begin receiving text messages for hold notifications and more, you can go onto your online account to sign up or stop into the library.

Adding to our new services, you can now download the Palace Project app to access thousands of free eBooks and Audiobooks in addition to those on Libby. Speaking of free digital books, from July 13-27 you can download “A Very Typical Family” on Libby and join the Big Library Read. Use #biglibraryread on social media to be entered to win a selection of bookish prizes.

The library is open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday at our temporary location on 16th Ave. E. Please call us at 406-883-8225 or email us at polsoncl@polson.lib.mt.us with questions or to request curbside pickup. Visit our website at www.northlakecountylibrary.org for more info.