| Booker to stay parked until further notice |
By: JIM HAMMERAND, Staff Writer
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Posted: Tuesday, November 3, 2009 11:56 pm
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NORTHFIELD — The Northfield bookmobile is on indefinite hiatus after the departure of a key library employee.
Outreach Coordinator Diana Tallent, the city’s only librarian with a commercial driver’s license, will start her new position as the Lonsdale Library director on Monday.
That leaves Booker, the city’s diesel-powered library bus, in park for at least the next three months, Northfield Library Director Lynne Young said this week, while the city contemplates further cuts to library services.
“As far as this year’s budget, it’ll help cut costs for the next couple of months,” Young said. She added that a new library position won’t likely be posted until 2010, if at all.
Young said the library is considering having two staffers on board the bus, but would need at least one new employee to get Booker back on the road.
Tallent, whose resignation takes effect Thursday, said the library will have to find just the right person.
“It’s such a difficult position to fill because you have to have some computer skills, some library skills, some people skills and hopefully an education background and the ability to work with children and the ability to deal with things like not having access to a bathroom most of the day,” she said.
The bookmobile carries more than 4,000 materials, mostly books for children and young adults. The bus has in recent years cut back on service to rural Rice County, most recently eliminating a stop in Lonsdale as that city prepares to open a public library in January.
The bus also services readers within city limits, including manufactured home parks and day cares.
Lil’ Sprouts child care owner Diane Taggart, whose seven 2- to 4-year-olds wait by the window for Booker to come by every other week, said the kids will probably be as disappointed as she is once they figure it out.
“It probably won’t be for a month from now and then they’ll ask, ‘How come Booker hasn’t come?’ They were always real excited when it was Booker day.”
“(I’m) just trying to figure out what I’m going to do to fill that void,” Taggart said.
— Jim Hammerand can be reached at 645-1114. |
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my children are in a day care that booker stops at and i am sad that they will no longer be able to enjoy it. it is something that they really looked forward to...so sad! good luck to diana!
It's really sad to see Booker go off the road. The people (low-income areas of Northfield)who need the literacy opportunities and library outreach the most will be the biggest ones effected- and they always seem to loose.
I'm not really clear on how the low income areas of Northfield will lose out if the bookmobile isn't running. The library is still open--they can obtain their books from there.
JackieS, low income people will lose out because they are least likely to have reliable transportation to the library, free time when the library is open, and parents with flexible enough schedules to bring them. booker bridges all those gaps very effectively. Our community certainly has enough people with that skill set to keep Booker on the road if we deem it important enough to do so.
It's sad people like Jackie S. don't have a grasp of the poverty right here in Northfield. And transportation is THE BIG factor often missing in accessing social services.
It is true that the library is open to all and free to all, but not everyone feels like they can access it equally. Some people who live in low income situations don't feel the same access to these public domains that the rest of the population may. Services like Booker are necessary to bring literacy to the masses. We need our children to read to help break the cycle of poverty.