| Pages help out behind the scenes |
By: DAVID HENKE, Staff Writer
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Posted: Saturday, June 27, 2009 12:04 am
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Members of the Northfield Public Library’s page program review a list of assigned tasks. The pages, 24 in all, are responsible for much of the behind-the-scenes work for the library’s summer reading program. News photo by David Henke
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NORTHFIELD — In the summer, the Northfield Public Library is the place to be for city youth.
Hundreds of students, out from school for the next three months, enroll in the library’s youth-oriented summer reading program. Voracious readers, they attend the library’s outdoor and indoor programs, earn coupons to Northfield businesses or vie for the library’s “Reader of the Week” award.
To help the library cope with all the increased traffic, Children’s Programming Librarian Kathy Ness turns to the library pages — local middle school and high school students who do much of the behind-the-scenes work to make the summer reading program possible. The local economy, and the library’s own budget cuts, have made the page’s presence even more important this year, Ness said.
“I couldn’t handle this without them,” Ness said. “We are seeing an increase in library usage that we think is partly related to the economy, and they help alleviate the crunch.”
Beginning in April, the volunteer pages spend four to 12 hours a week preparing the library for its seasonal inundation of kids. They decorate, make up book quizzes for Summer Reading participants, hide fake books with prizes in the library and run errands for the librarians.
But its not until the summer starts that their work begins in earnest.
As part of their summer duties, the pages read to infants during the library’s Infant Lapsit program, help out at the Books and Star’s outdoor concerts and events, hand out weekly prizes to the summer readers and help visitors find and check out books, not to mention a myriad of other helpful tasks and chores.
“I think it gives them some ownership in the library, and the responsibility of helping people,” Ness said. “They’re really not old enough to have a job, so this is kind of for in-betweeners.”
“You get more confident talking to people,” two-year page veteran Tate Maki-Waller said. “People come into the library and you help them with things and you have to be assertive.”
“I joined the page program because my summer was going to get really boring,” 10-year-old Jasper Egge said. “I just didn’t have much to do, but I had always wanted to join because it seemed so fun.”
11-year-old Hannah Mahr said she has admired the page program since second grade, and joined the program this year because she likes libraries and reading is her favorite subject.
“You can get a lot of stuff accomplished and you feel really good about yourself because you’re helping your community through helping out your library.”
— David Henke can be reached at dhenke@northfieldnews.com or 645-1100.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
This year, 24 pages volunteered for the library’s page program. According to Librarian Kathy Ness, the April through June activity allows kids to get an experience similar to a summer job and be involved in the community. Volunteers must be in the sixth grade or older. |
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