Chat GPT

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March 28, 2023

Nothing puts a pit in my stomach like someone asking me to sign a card for a coworker. I hated writing in yearbooks. These days I am finding retirement cards are no better. A friend of mine has six sons, and when the oldest was in the army, a younger brother signed a birthday card to him, “Anything I put here would be awkward.” (Picture me doing Katniss Everdeen’s three finger salute here) Solidarity, my wise friend, solidarity.

Facing yet another retirement card last week, I consulted the internet for something to say. Elbert Hubbard’s “Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive,” seemed inappropriate, as did Dr. Seuss’s advice, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” What to write?

Chat GPT is making the news. It seems that somebody decided computers can write better than, or at least as well as, people can. They developed “Chat GPT” to prove it. Chat GPT- and soon to be many other similar programs use AI or Artificial Intelligence to mimic human behavior and choices. In this case, it is being used to write, but AI is also being used to create visual art.

I logged in and asked “What should I write in a retirement card?” The program spit out 10 generic responses. Here are three: “1. Congratulations on your retirement! Enjoy this new chapter of your life. 2. Wishing you all the best in your retirement. May it be filled with joy, relaxation, and new adventures. 3. Your dedication and hard work have inspired us all. Enjoy your retirement, and know that your legacy will live on.” 

It seems you can ask Chat GPT to write anything for you, including term papers. In fact this has already happened. A professor thought the writing seemed off in one of his student’s essays, so he investigated and discovered Chat GPT had written the paper. The student admitted to plagiarism and was subsequently expelled from the university. As the technology improves, and you can be sure it will, plagiarism will be more difficult to detect.

Accuracy is another problem Chat GPT users are encountering. The program is learning from the internet, which isn’t always accurate. If the program finds conflicting information, it can’t determine which pieces are correct, so it guesses.

While I was logged in, I asked Chat GPT to compose a vision statement for the library. It came up with this:

“The Gering Library is a vibrant hub of community engagement, where people of all backgrounds and ages come together to learn, create, and connect. We strive to provide innovative and responsive services that meet the changing needs of our patrons. Our goal is to foster a culture of lifelong learning and civic participation, and to promote equity and inclusion through the power of knowledge and information. Through our efforts, we hope to inspire a sense of curiosity and wonder in all who enter our doors, and to be a catalyst for positive social change in our community and beyond.”

I liked it a lot. So did everyone else on staff. It doesn’t feel bland like the retirement suggestions, and it covers what I think is our vision for the Gering Library.

I will play with Chat GPT more, but I don’t see an algorithm replacing interesting writing. Could it write a library column for me? I promise, if I experiment, I will let you know.  I write because I enjoy putting my thoughts together. An algorithm will never replace a personal touch, either in writing or in visual artworks.

In the end I avoided both the bland and the inappropriate notes. I reminded my friend to come visit us, now that he has free time. My response made me sad, because he wrote the most thoughtful and funny note in the card he sent for my wedding. I let him down. I should have done better, but I drew a blank. I can write on paper, but faced with a greeting card I am useless.

The Library’s BFFs

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April 4, 2023

Our library has three boards that support the library in very different ways.

The library board is appointed by the mayor, and each member can serve two three-year terms. They provide oversight of the library and the director, while providing guidance in the library’s management. Some of their activities include reviewing the administrative functions of the library. This includes the monthly bills and library policies, among other things. They also support and promote the library and its services.  

Friends of the Gering Library are enthusiastic supporters, whose mission is to help provide library services of the highest quality to our community. The Friends are volunteers. They raise money and then donate it back to the library where it is used for programming and other items like our popular storytime backpacks. Last year they purchased a hot air balloon ride for the adult summer reading program. Their biggest fundraiser is the annual book sale, scheduled for April 19-29 this year. The book sale will be open during library hours. Friends do not expect more than you can give, but they might ask you to help at the book sale or at the annual holiday Mingle & Jingle. With a $5.00 annual Friends membership you receive a quarterly newsletter and an opportunity to support something you believe in.

The Gering Public Library Foundation, Inc. is organized as a not for profit organization to develop enduring sources of capital for strategic projects and support through conceptual ideas and partnerships that enhance and advance literacy, lifelong learning and community activity. Their vision is “Building a Destination for Generations.” The library foundation is also run by volunteers. Foundations handle big money for big projects. The Scottsbluff Public Library Foundation was instrumental in raising money to fund the library expansion and renovation in the early 2010s.

The Foundation, like the Friends, is completely separate from the city and both are 501c3 entities. The boards are filled with volunteers who feel passionately about the success of our library. Neither is connected with the city, whereas the Library Board is appointed by the mayor.

I did some research, and there are 173 public libraries in our state, all of which have a board. Of the 173 libraries, 118 have Friends groups, and 126 have foundations. All have at least one of the two groups. Even Gering’s City Parks Department has a board and a foundation that function much like the library board and foundation. They promote our city parks and provide for improvements when they are needed.

The library has regular openings on the library board, since members are term-limited. If you are interested in being part of our board, please contact Library Director Christie Clarke. She can pass your name along to the mayor when there is an opening. The library board doesn’t involve a large commitment of time, only two hours a month (at the most). 

Public involvement is one of the most important components for a democracy to function. None of these boards require a large time commitment, just the desire to be part of what makes our library function well.

National Poetry Month

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April 11, 2023

Happy National Poetry Month! I believe that’s the traditional greeting.

I am highlighting some of the books from our poetry section this week. Ted Kooser is Nebraska’s most famous poet. He served as the Poet Laureate of the United States, (“PLUS” as the Secret Service might say), from 2004-2006. His poetry is conversational and often focuses on day-to-day life. We have a number of his books on the shelf at the library. 

Loren Eiseley is another Nebraskan with poetic roots. He published a number of essays on paleontology and history of the natural world. He also published some poetry on similar subjects.

You can also find Frost, Longfellow, and Dickinson, Maya Angelou and Mary Oliver on the poetry shelf as well. Baxter Black might be considered a classic poet in our area, and we have one of his books. 

Two books of more classical style poetry caught my eye. “Aim for a Star” by Helen Lowrie Marshall is inspirational and heartwarming. “Bless the Children: Poems in the spirit of childhood” by Bette Milleson James.

Are you a member of the Red Hat Society? The idea for this group came from a book of poems and essays called “When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple.” The title comes from the poem, Warning by Jenny Joseph about growing old. This book was published in 1987, but it rings true today, and it’s on the poetry shelf at the library.

Poetry is evolving, and we have a number of books by newer poets.

“Haiku for the Single Girl” written by Beth Griffenhagen and illustrated by Cynthia Vehlslage Myers is a relatable little book with charming illustrations.

Singers and songwriters often write poetry. We have a book of poetry written by Halsey. Her poetry addresses the same themes as her music, and is very personal in nature. Singer/songwriter Lana Del Rey also published a book of poetry. “Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass” includes poetry illustrated with photographs taken by the author. Jewel also wrote a book of poetry called “A Night Without Armor.”

Two of our most popular poets are Rupi Kaur and Amanda Gorman. Kaur (a Canadian) writes about being an immigrant and a feminist. She illustrates her poetry with evocative art. Amanda Gorman read her poem, The Hill We Climb at the 2020 presidential inauguration when she was 22 years old. It is included in her book “Call Us What We Carry.”

The children’s shelves host a healthy poetry collection as well.

A couple of the Newbery Award winners are poetry. Most recently, Kwame Alexander won for “The Crossover,” a novel of poems about basketball. I read this out loud to my son and we both enjoyed it.

Aside from the classic Shel Silverstein, we have “The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: a treasury of 572 poems for today’s child.” This book includes classics from poets like Kate Greenaway and Langston Hughes as well as a large number of modern poets like Jack Prelutsky. We even have a book written by child poet Mattie J.T. Stepanek.

We have two new playful books of poetry in the children’s section. “Marshmallow Clouds: two poets at play among figures of speech” was written by Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek “Yuck, You Suck: poems about animals that sip, slurp, suck” was written by Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple.

Gering Public Library is hosting a poetry reading on April 17 at 7:00 p.m. Participants can read poetry they wrote or a favorite poem from someone else. Contact the library at 308-436-7433 if you would like to sign up, or you can contact us on Facebook or in person as well.

These are the last lines of  If Librarians Were Honest by Joseph Mills: 

“If librarians were honest,

they would say, No one

spends time here without being

changed. Maybe you should

go home. While you still can.“

Chaos Explained

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This page is a combination of three blogs. This is where they all live, not necessarily in harmony, since they are all listed in the order that I posted them on this homepage rather than any sort of order that makes sense.

Blog 1 I currently write a weekly library column for a paper which, I have been told, has 151 subscribers. I know my mom reads the column, and sometimes dad does, but I want some more exposure. If you are here for the library stuff, I recommend clicking on the Library Column tab.

Blog 2 Presumably I will have something to write about that is not library-related. It will be posted under the Personal Blog tab.

Blog 3 I started a blog in 2007 on a wonderful site called Xanga. Xanga went broke in 2013 because they grew too fast and weren’t prepared, either financially or technologically. I no longer have access to edit the site where the posts are languishing, but I can repost my archived blogs. I am going to pick through the backlog and post what I believe is still of general interest.

As a stay-at-home mom, I had three kids and nearly four. For privacy reasons, I called my kids by their middle names. I am planning to fix that as I post them here, but I may miss a few instances. I miss the babies, but not the husband of those days. If you are here to walk down memory lane and marvel that my children have survived their childhood, this is your place. Click on the Archived Blog tab for peek into the unraveling mind of a woman who preferred reading to housework.

Book Sale

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April 18, 2023

We are lucky to live in a community with multiple libraries. Not only do Scottsbluff and Gering have public libraries, Lyman, Morrill, Mitchell, and Minatare do as well. 

Within Scottsbluff, I know of two privately run libraries. If you are interested in history or genealogy, you can get a card at the West Nebraska Family Research and History Center. Our local Christian radio station, KCMI calls their library the Cross Reference Library (which may be the cleverest name ever used for a library). 

A common fact about libraries is that if you add books to the collection you have to make room for them, which involves getting rid of books. When the Gering Library removes books from the collection they go to the Friends of the Gering Library which in turn use the library community room to set up a sale. Gering holds their book sale in the spring during National Library Week. The Friends of the Scottsbluff Library holds their book sale in the fall each year, so we are only six months between community book sales.

The Friends of the Gering Library annual book sale will be held during library hours from April 19-April 29. The City of Gering recognizes Arbor Day, so the library (and the book sale) will be closed April 28. 

Many of the books for sale have been removed from the library shelves due to age and the need to make space, but a lot of them are also donated. Right now the Friends are not accepting donations for the sale. We don’t have a good place to store books in the library, and what little space we do have is packed full right now. I just checked and we have well over 200 boxes of books. This means we will have a lot of books on the sale, but our donation space is full right now. If you want to give books to the Friends for the sale, bring them to the library after May 1.

Here are a few guidelines for donated items. People like to donate books to the library book sale. It seems like the right thing to do. Just this week someone donated an old dictionary with no covers, two National Geographic Magazines from the 1990s and a 2008 calendar. We can’t sell any of this. The Friends don’t accept donations of magazines or VHS tapes. I recommend recycling the magazines and tossing the VHS tapes.

The Friends can’t sell books that are water damaged, have torn or chewed covers, or are falling apart. And we do get donations that are in this condition. The best place for a book like this is the recycle bin. If you tear the covers off a book, it can be recycled. You can put books in your blue city bin, or you can take them to the large roll-off dumpsters placed around town.

We cannot sell textbooks. The information in the $75 book you purchased in the 1990s is not going to be useful to anyone today. Please recycle it. We cannot accept encyclopedias for the same reasons. A student using an old encyclopedia to write a paper on space travel isn’t going to know that Challenger blew up in 2003 if the encyclopedia they are using was published in 2000. They won’t have any way to determine what might be dated information and what is still current. Please recycle your encyclopedias. 

Books aren’t often rare or precious. Classics are reprinted with more engaging covers and print that is easier to read. The old book you have that looks like a first edition might be the first edition of the title but released by a secondary publisher. 

When the West Nebraska Family Research and History Center finds themselves with excess books, I believe they sell them online. I suspect the Cross Reference Library also occasionally discards worn books or sells excess books from time to time as well. With over one million different books being published each year, no library can hold on to all of them, not even the Library of Congress. 

Reading to Children

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July 2007

Before I was even married, I read to my step-kids. It was a stupid Sesame Street book. When I got done and had put them to bed, their father said to me, “I know why you like to read so much, you read really well.” He is probably right. My mother was a librarian, and my father should have been. I got read to a lot, and I got to see adults reading for fun. Both my brother and I still read quite a bit.

They say you should read to your kids 30 minutes a day. I don’t do that, but I do read to them a lot, and I have learned a couple of things about books. As a parent, you have to make a quick decision. If you think you will not like reading a particular book to your kids, get rid of it as soon as possible, before they have a chance to get attached. This way reading to them is still enjoyable to you. If you aren’t enjoying it, they will catch on.

I don’t have a vendetta against Sesame Street, but their writers just aren’t the same caliber as other contemporary writers. Some of their books are better than others. I really like There is a Monster at the End of this Book. However, none of their books holds a candle to Sandra Boynton or Dr. Seuss. I literally have read Mr. Brown Can Moo over 500 times, to just two kids, and I’m not finished, I still have two to go! Luckily for me, I am not tired of it yet, although the book is looking pretty tired these days. I’m not even bored with Goodnight Moon, but I do have both memorized. I also can recite large portions of Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by heart, and if you are under 10, I’ll even sing it.

When I read, I don’t always read exactly what is on the page, so my kids can’t call me on making the story shorter that it is supposed to be, although I don’t try to do that. Some authors write well enough that their words flow off the tongue with ease, and others’ phrasing just isn’t right. I guess that is the writer in me coming out. I also make my kids participate. When we read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day you can guess what I had my kids do. That is a lot of words to memorize, but my three-year-old Sarah did pretty well. Some of the best books don’t even have words, like the Carl the Dog books.

When Lydia was really little, we belonged to the Cat in the Hat book club. After several months, I cancelled my subscription, for two reasons. Some of the books were lousy, and as I told the lady with whom I canceled, we have more than 100 children’s books at our house as it is, and I probably should not be acquiring more on a regular basis. As my Mother-in-Law helped me pick up one day, she suggested putting away most of the books and only keeping a few out at a time. I was appalled! I would rather take away all of their toys than all of their books!

I am anxious for my daughters to become old enough to enjoy Laura Ingalls Wilder, and the Betsy Tacy books. Unfortunately, I yawn when I read out loud. A lot. I can only imagine how many yawns for each chapter, probably upwards of 50. Even Skippyjon Jones ranks about six. For some reason I do it when I am singing too, but not when I am talking. I try to project, so I can inhale more oxygen, but haven’t had good results, fortunately my kids are patient.

Sesame Street

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July 2007

I don’t let my kids watch Sesame Street. Why? Good question. We don’t watch much TV at our house, we get the Prairie Package: Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS. Since I don’t watch soap operas, women gossiping, or people suing or exploiting each other for entertainment, the TV sits off until Jeopardy comes on at 4:30, (although I have been known to sneak in a little Rachel Ray). I do let the kids watch TV for a while during the day, a half hour here and there, usually when we are eating lunch, or when I need a diversionary ploy. The TV is not on for noise at our house.

Back to Sesame Street. It was great when I was a kid, in fact my brother learned to read by watching Sesame Street before he went to Kindergarten. The program has changed though, and not for the better. The first half isn’t so bad, but the second half, the half aimed at younger children, specifically Elmo’s World, is lousy. Although we don’t know what causes autism, it is widely assumed that children should not watch things that “flash”. The whole premise behind Elmo’s scenery is flashing and throbbing. Several other segments like “one of these things doesn’t belong here” flash as well.

The other thing that offends me about Elmo’s World is that when Elmo wants to learn about something, for example music, he asks Mr. Noodle, who is silly but harmless, then he watches “the music channel” on a TV then he asks a baby. I don’t see anything specifically wrong with these things, but as an adult, I would not be able to learn anything useful from these sources, even a grade school child would not learn anything from these sources. Apparently the Sesame Street neighborhood lacks the basic fundamental of learning, a library. As annoying as he can be, at least Barney has a library card.

(2023 side note: One day Lydia Mae came to me in the kitchen and very solemnly said, “In Germany sometimes women wear a dirndl for special occasions.” I was floored. Then I went to a dictionary to look up dirndl. Sure enough, Lydia was right. Where did she learn this? Several weeks later I was walking past the living room and there was Barney’s Colorful World, and Barney was explaining just that same thing in those same words.)

Personally, I love Curious George. He has a great personality, he doesn’t speak English, and the show focuses on his imagination and how he learns through trial and error. I also love Mr. Rogers, and so do my kids. He isn’t flashy and modern, but he is engaging and interesting, his program provides the kind of television environment a young child should expect. George and Fred have both visited the library, although George didn’t go there to look at a book.

Barney is a little sappy, but also good. I don’t mind Clifford or Calliou either, although we don’t watch them as much. I wish these things were on Saturday mornings. What passes for children’s programming Saturday mornings is awful, and what isn’t is very scattered. I don’t mind Babar or Veggie Tales, but finding them and having the TV off in between isn’t easy. We either leave the set off or watch a movie. There is nothing wrong with having the TV off, but sometimes I just want the kids somewhere that doesn’t involve being under my feet.

I now take an active role in my children’s television viewing. When my oldest child was a few months old, I wanted to mop the floor, so I put her in a swing, in the living room and turned on Saturday morning TV then left for the kitchen. When I got done mopping and went to get her, she was watching some kind of skanky women’s wrestling. I felt horrible for exposing her to such programming, but I atoned by setting aside a special “counseling account” for her.

June 21 2007

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This was the first post in my first Xanga blog. I was a stay at home mom, and pregnant with my fourth child when a friend suggested blogging. I didn’t know what I needed, but this was it. Xanga saved my sanity. And believe it or not, I still have several friends I made on the site.

Organizing Recipes for Fun

What a luxury, today I spent all afternoon organizing my recipes. These would be the ones I tear out of the paper, various magazines and get from the Country Woman subscription Grandma gives me for my birthday. I purchased a binder, made some tabs and stapled recipes to sheets of paper. To deal with the magazine ones that took up a whole page, I simply used my punch to make three holes along one side. It would take too much time to copy them all out, and they might not be any good anyway, so this way I can rip them out and toss them if we don‘t like them.

I found some really sturdy plastic Post-It tabs that were tough enough to flip through. Now I don’t have to mess with cramming teeny pieces of paper into slots. I first used the tabs to make dividers for my recipe box several years ago. The dividers that came with the box were woefully lacking. If I wanted to find a breakfast casserole I never knew if I should look under “casserole” or “egg and cheese dishes.” Now I file it under “breakfast.” I never used the “lamb” tab, so now I have a “snack tab.” It works very well for me.

Why do I save so many recipes, when it is mathematically impossible to use them all in a single lifetime? I come by my recipe problem honestly, and from both sides of the family tree. My step-dad accused Mom of having too many recipe books and claimed that she had never used some of them. That was a mistake, because she is now working her way through them making a meal from each one to prove him wrong. She said he’ll be surprised some day because she has a book of just cookie recipes.

My father’s mother, the one who blesses me with Country Woman, has an archive of stuff she’s clipped out of the paper for over 70 years. It must rival the Library of Congress’s recipe collection. I need to remember to ask for a tour next time I am home, or she will surely think nobody will want to deal with it when she is gone, and she will toss the whole collection. God forbid! My dad gave my great grandmother’s original Better Homes and Gardens cookbook to me for Christmas a couple of years ago, and I use it occasionally. It has her notes in it, and she was quite a cook. On my wish list is a Fanny Farmer cookbook. I think that was one of the first cookbooks widely published.

I heard an essay on National Public Radio by a woman who made every dish in her Julia Child cookbook over the course of a year. She must not live in Grand Island. Even though I shop in a town of over 40,000, I am unable to find “exotic” ingredients such as bean sprouts in my regular store. I do have the option of several stores, but hunting through ethnic Mom and Pop groceries, or unfamiliar supermarket floor plans for obscure ingredients with three pre-schoolers is not my idea of fun, especially since none of the other stores have carryout. Recipes with ingredients such as prosciutto and gruyere strike fear in my heart because I know I will never find the right stuff. I know that ham or Swiss cheese would work, but surely these others are better, or the recipe would call for ham and Swiss cheese. I long to get my hands on some fresh mozzarella. Until then, I will just hang on to my recipes and wait 50 years until I can bequeath my recipe collection to an unsuspecting grandchild.

National Library Week

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April 25, 2023

National Library Week falls on April 23-29 this year. The American Library Association chose “There’s More to the Story” for this year’s theme.

What is the Gering Library’s story? In 1895 a handful of women started the Gering Women’s Literary Club. They solicited donations of used books and the collection rotated between various members’ houses. As the collection grew, it moved to a series of businesses like the Gering Irrigation Office, the Swan Hotel, and City Hall.

By 1920 the City of Gering was supporting the library with tax dollars. When the library outgrew City Hall in 1962, it was moved into a new building, specifically designed to be a library. By 1980 the library had outgrown their quarters again and added an addition which more than doubled the size of the library. 

But there’s more to the story.  

After more than 40 years the library is ready to grow again. Moving things around inside the building has helped, but the building itself poses a lot of restrictions.

Because of the limitations of our building, we hold some events in other locations. Last fiscal year, our community room was used 163 times. Some of those were library programs, and others were community members using the room. If you add the events the library was not able to hold in the community room, that number becomes 187.

Our ADA compliant lift is an easy target for discussion. My understanding is that no local business installs or repairs lifts of any sort. I have also heard lifts are notorious for breaking down. Every time something happens to our lift, we have to contact someone in Colorado to repair it. If they didn’t bring the right parts, they have to reschedule. It’s my understanding this happens everywhere in town, not just at the library. This is why most new buildings are built on one level. 

While our library met ADA regulations in 1980, these regulations have changed. We have a patron in a wheelchair who must pull themselves up the ramp using their arms and the handrail because the ramp is too steep for them to wheel themselves up on their own. We can’t see them coming, so we can’t help until they are nearly all the way up the ramp and in the library.

Our building is woefully lacking in space where someone can study quietly or attend a Zoom meeting. Out of town businesspeople, hoping to catch up on work, stop in and ask where they can set up their laptops. Oftentimes our one space that works for this is being used. 

I wonder how many people have turned away simply because we cannot offer basic library services to them, like access to the building or an electrical outlet.

Moving on to what we could have. I like to visit other libraries when I am out of town. If we had more room we could add so much.

One thing I would like to see is a maker space with items that would be unique in our community. We have the beginnings of a maker space with a Cricut, a button maker, a heat press, and a spiral binder. All are available for the public to use. What if we had a leather sewing machine and other leatherworking equipment like Casper does? Access to this equipment could help someone start a career.

Podcasts are very popular right now. The Legacy of the Plains Museum has a podcast called Voices on the Prairie Wind. Every time I listen to it, I think “they need a recording studio.” But the museum doesn’t need a recording studio, they just need to be able to use one from time to time. If the library had a soundproof room, anyone could use it to produce their own podcasts. If we had a green screen people could produce YouTube videos as well.

We hold an annual program called the Local Author Showcase. I never have difficulty finding local authors who want to promote their books. If we had the space, we could get a book publishing machine (about the size of a large copy machine) and help people publish their own books, right here in the library. 

There is more to our story, we are writing it every day. The story will continue next week with the fun changes we have made to the children’s section of the library.

There’s more to the children’s section

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May 2, 2023

In the late 1890s libraries began adding children’s rooms, mostly with the intention of getting noisy children out of the adult library areas. Patrons in our library may have felt the same way before we moved the children’s section downstairs. 

The children’s room is now located in the old community room. This allows us space to set out most of our educational toys. If you haven’t been in lately, bring a child and come play with our toys! (Or come without a child, I won’t tell.)

In the back corner we have puppets and a theater. There is also a play kitchen stocked with delicious plastic food and an assortment of dolls to feed it to.

For the kid who likes to build, we always have lots of different kinds of blocks out in all kinds of shapes and sizes. We have other types of construction materials too, like connecting fish and foam tangrams you can use to make designs.

The computers in the children’s section have an internet filter. We even have a special computer called the AWE which has a touch screen and games that were developed specifically for preschool aged kids.

The BEAM is a light-display which projects games onto the floor. Kids can stomp on monsters, sweep leaves away, or play letter identification and simple math games. Not to brag, but I hold the high score on the whack-a-mole game.

Youth Services Librarian Ms. Kira has a huge stash of educational toys and activities. She sets out different things for kids to investigate each month. Recently she had some magnetic blocks that stick to each other. Now I see she has some plastic shapes that attach to each other in unique ways. These different toys help kids learn through trial and error as well as helping develop those motor skills.

Speaking of motor skills, Ms. Kira got some tinker kits. These kits have motors and batteries and instructions to build different machines. Remember erector sets? They are kind of like that. She plans to use them for an after school activity later this year.

You can still find books for all stages of readers in the children’s library. We also have a variety of educational backpacks which have all kinds of fun activities and books in them.

If things get loud or too busy, you can use one of our sensory kits. These kits are to be used in the library. Each contains activities people use to calm themselves like noise canceling ear muffs, weighted items, and fidget toys. We have one on both levels, so if it gets loud upstairs, you are welcome to ask for one at the front desk.

We changed the space where the children’s library used to be into a tween and teen section. McDonald’s of Gering graciously sponsored this space and provided money for some furniture, including some chairs, a rug, and a table with a charging station. This is a great place for teens to hang out and read the latest issue of their favorite manga or to catch up on the latest hot tea.

I have a personal theory on quiet children in the library. Children are our future taxpayers. We want them to have an opportunity to have fun while learning in the library. Unfortunately, learning is not a quiet activity. It’s okay to ask questions and be excited about what you learned. Most of all, we want people to have fond memories of the library. Today’s libraries are more than a place for kids to read quietly. There’s more to the story.