| Amanda Holley is an all purpose library director, handling phone and helping patrons. She is surrounded by several of the library’s amenities including the fax machine and copier and the public computers. |
Plans for changes to Helper’s library are picking up momentum and a special meeting this Saturday will hopefully push them into the fast lane, according to the library director.
Amanda Holley took the helm of the town’s book repository last summer and has been working closely with Helper City Councilman Dean Armstrong to expand services and to reclaim the facility’s state certification. The duo appeared before the council Jan. 3 explaining the upcoming certification process and lobbying for help in building a new library advisory committee.
“We have never had so many people willing to be part of the advisory board,” Holley said, referring to the response from the community after the Jan. 3 meeting.
With the advisory board in good shape, the next step, according to Holley, is to hold a community meeting to give residents the chance to say what services they want to see and what direction they want to see Helper’s library go. The three-hour get together Saturday at the city council meeting room will provide business owners, residents and anyone else interested in the library’s future the opportunity to be heard.
Rose Frost, grant coordinator and a consultant with the Utah State Library System, will be in Helper to facilitate the meeting. She said the community will help decide the long-term direction the library should take.
“We will look at what services are needed and create a services tree,” she said. “We will look at who is doing what in the community and what the library’s response can be towards filling certain needs.”
She said while a library can be a significant contributor to the surrounding it does have limitations. “There are notions about libraries, but they can’t be all things to all people,” said Frost.
While the library can’t fulfill all the community’s needs, Helper’s facility is working towards becoming a center of service and activity in the city.
Though the planning process is far from complete the library has been moving along steadily on it path to becoming a significant community asset.
There are four computers with Internet access available to library users, fax and copy services and a variety of reading programs.
In addition, Holley is doing her best to expand both book selections and help to the community.
She said that she wants to add after-school tutoring programs for the town’s youth.
As an extra bonus for showing up Saturday to share ideas, residents will be fed during the three-hour session, Holley said. Attendees will receive sustenance in the morning and the afternoon, she said.
Anyone interested in attending the Saturday workshop is asked to call 472-5601 to RSVP, but drop-ins will still be warmly welcomed.
The library planning meeting will be held, Feb. 9 from 9 a.m. to noon at the city council meeting room in the library, everyone is welcome to attend.
For more information on the planning process call Rose Frost at 801-715-6742 or e-mail her at rfrost@utah.gov.