Full House

We had a full house for our Halloween party last Thursday night, 27 children and 12 parents. All the little children came in costume. I especially liked the little lady bug!

Can you guess what this little boy came dressed as? How about a tornado!!!! Mom made sure to incorporate a few items that got caught up in the storm! This little boy's mom is actually our new Youth Services Librarian......very original costume Charis!

Oh my, and I must not forget to mention our volunteer, "June Cleaver" who helped put this program together for our library. Thanks Kristi for all your help.....now back to ironing and baking those yummy brownies!!!!!

Kids Halloween Program

Thursday October 27th @ 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Children ages 3 -8 years old are welcome to attend a Halloween program just for kids! Come and enjoy story book readings about Halloween tales, make fun craft projects and even make an edible project to eat that night or take home! Kids are encouraged to attend in costume. No registration necessary and this program is FREE.

Not Closing......

New Update: The library will be open next week due to the general contractor's work schedule. At the last minute, it was decided not to take out the large east library window since the new windows have not arrived. The new windows are not expected until mid October....yikes! Honestly, this is making me nervous since we had 32 degrees this morning. Let's hope the cold weather doesn't settle in early, otherwise the library will have some chilly days in mid October. If anything changes again, I'll be posting!!!

Lisa

Under Construction Again

The Colfax Public Library will be closed September 19-23, 2011 due to asbesto abatement and new windows. There is a possiblity of re-opening sooner in the week, so please check our blog, webpage or Facebook for daily updates.

Shelves Are Done

The shelving project was completed last Friday, and the library staff was ready to put all the juvenile books back on the new shelves. It truly was an exciting moment for all of us here at the Colfax library.

First thing we realized was, yikes, we have more book space! After getting all the books back on the shelves, we ended up moving and re-moving the books around to even out the shelf space. You know, the wood stain blends in so well with the existing wood that most people who come in to the library don't even realized we replaced the shelves! Don't you think they would notice the strong varnish smell??? Well, we librarians notice it every day! Can't wait until the smell subsides.

Happy books, happy librarians.....that sums it all up!

They Finally Arrived

The shelves arrived this morning, 7 am! This is the first time I've gotten to see the new shelves. Wow.....so nice and the wood grain is beautiful! It took about an hour to move all all six shelving units into the library. Our carpenter (and his wife) did a great job slowly moving the units into the building, one by one.

I couldn't stand to look at that bare wall yesterday, so I'm very happy today to see all the richness of the wood return. Honestly, there is no comparison of metal shelves verses wood shelves. Wood is number one with me, and has always been the theme for our historic Colfax Public Library.

Luckily, we were able to move the Internet computers about 12 inches so our carpenter had plenty of room to work without bumping into customers. If customers don't mind the mess and noise, they are welcome to come in and use the public computers. Not the most ideal situation, but it works for now.

This is just phase one of our changes happening here at our library. The electricans started upgrading the electrical in our entire building this week. The windows on the third floor level will soon be uncovered and the windows will be reglazed, with storm windows added. Our library will also have the front (east) window totally replaced and the side windows (south) will all be reglazed, asbetos removed and storm windows added. No more cold winter drafts for the librarians to deal with! I'm also hoping the new window work will solve the problem with lots of wasps that find their way into our library in the fall and spring.

Lastly, the building will receive a new roof, which will help with water leakage during the winter/spring. Old buildings are wonderful, but they also come with lots of problems!

Construction Has Begun!

Good-bye old ugly radiators!!!!! On Monday, the plumbers came and removed all four radiators from our library. Now that we have a new heating system, we no longer need the silver radiators. I waved good-bye and said "hello" to the 21 century!

By Monday afternoon, the local carpenter came in to begin his construction project that involved taking down the entire south wall of the juvenile shelving.....juvenile fiction and non-fiction collections. Wow, the wall looks so spacious after removing 2,000 books!

So where did all that old wood go? Awwwwh that's me, the little library director, hauling loads of wood downstairs in the municipal basement. I got my exercise for the day....and mighty dirty too. Really glad I had that extra pair of running shoes in the closet!

After the entire wall was stripped yesterday, the new shelves will go up beginning tomorrow, Wednesday. I am so excited to see the brand new custom built oak shelves.....should be amazing.

Besides the carpenter work (which is funded by the library), our municipal building is also in the first stage of a large federal grant to restore and upgrade the windows, electrical and much more. Construction started today and will continue through the month of October. Nothing will be normal for several months, but we've prepared ourselves.

No access to the juvenile books.....sorry kids, but all this mess will be worth it in the end. Stay tuned, I'll be documenting all the changes. With all the stress of construction, the librarians would appreciate some treats from the public.....chocolate chip cookies would be nice......maybe some brownies!!!!