Grants and Stuff
Again, some weeks this is so easy, this is not one of those weeks. I have been sitting here for 45 minutes waiting for the words to flow out of me. Ten minutes later and I am realizing that the countdown of wasted time might be the whole bookworm. Just kidding, maybe.
How about I just touch on a variety of library things?
First off, the Imagination Library is moving along, beginning stages, but there is a general excitement that seems promising. Please contact The Friends of the Morgan County Library if you are interested in becoming a community partner for this program.
I also wrote two grants in the late fall, one for Continuing Education for me and the other for added fun for the upcoming Summer Reading Program. The Show Me Continuing Education and Summer Reading Program Grants are supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Missouri State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State. On November 30th I was notified that I had received $1,833 dollars in grant funding to attend the PLA conference in Portland, Oregon in March of 2022 and on January 12th the library was granted $7,125 dollars for 2022 SRP.
I am so grateful for these grants, without them there would be very few conferences attended, probably none at the national level and there is no way we would have 2 authors coming for SRP this year. If you remember, I mentioned we would have pretty cool news if we were awarded the SRP grant. Drumroll, please. On June 29th, Kevin Sherry, the author and illustrator of many children’s picture books including “I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean” and the creator of the hilarious chapter books series “The Yeti Files” will be at our library! July 27th we will host our other author, Bruce Hale, creator of the popular series including Chet Gecko Mysteries, The Monstertown Mysteries, and another drumroll, please, Clark the Shark. If I have not told you yet, the theme for 2022 is “Ocean of Possibilities”, I am so excited to have authors with titles like, The Biggest Thing in the Ocean and characters like, Clark the Shark, coming to see us. Mark your calendars!! This is a pretty big deal!
Geez, that wasn’t so bad, why did it take me so long to get that information written? Hmmm, maybe because I am in a little funk, no worries, it will be over by the time you read this. Why do I have any reason to be in a funk, we were just awarded almost $9000 in grant money? Well, this place is fine, but I am more than the Morgan County Library. I am someone that just found out they will not flush my port every 6 weeks as they have for the last 3 years, because of a lack of supplies. I am someone that was weighed yesterday at a doctor’s appointment and am now second guessing “being good to myself.” I am someone who doesn’t sleep well and found myself stuck in my recliner for 6 straight hours’ yesterday, I read and napped and it was glorious, but I feel guilty about it today. Being a human is not always easy, being a human that writes a weekly article is no exception, am I right, Bryan?
Upcoming Events: 2/1 Book Club at 6:30pm, 2/2 Story Time at 10am, The Young Adult Reading Challenge has started (Adults can participate), swing by the library for more information.