If you have been searching for a way to make Valentine’s Day extra special for your sweetie, I have just the evening for you. On February 13th and 14th the Humboldt Area Arts Council is offering You Know the Old Slaying, a murder-mystery dinner. The cast is local, many encore performers from last summer’s The Odd Couple. The venue is Rustix. In case of inclement weather, you won’t even need to leave town. Your evening will begin at 5pm with a social hour, followed by dinner at 6pm. Rustix is providing a special, upscale dinner. The performance will begin at 7pm. Tickets are $30 per person. Seating is limited to just 75 each night, so don’t put it off ‘til the last minute. Tickets are available @your library!

Many of you will have read about the Jessup Library recently. They had a patron who failed to return a library book. Shocking, isn’t it? What’s more, she refused to pay the $14.58 book replacement cost. My, my. That would never happen here! The lady was arrested for theft and held at the county jail until she could post bail. The library community is beside itself. One faction states that this is such bad publicity for all libraries. The other side argues that the Iowa Code states that failure to return library materials is theft. Plain and simple. She is an accused thief and should be treated as such.

If a large grocery store chain filed charges again someone who took $14.58 worth of merchandise, would the other grocers protest? “You’ve created bad publicity; now, all grocers look mean. “ What if a driver filled her gas tank with $14.58 worth at a convenience store and left without paying? Would we think it were unreasonable for the store to call 911?

Of course, not. Both cases are well accepted instances of theft. Failure to return a library book is also theft. It’s an even more serious form of theft. If one steals from a grocery or convenience store, the stores’ owners may raise prices to compensate for the loss. What can the library do? Our materials are available for public use at no cost. There is no price to raise. Free is free.

When a person steals from the public library, we all lose. That book or dvd is unavailable to all others who had wished to read or view it. If the library chooses to replace the item, it does so by NOT buying another title. Give the poor Jessup librarians a break. They are just trying to be wise custodians of public funds.

The six library directors in Humboldt County take turns, rotating alphabetically, in appearing before the Board of Supervisors to make an appeal for funding. This year I drew the short straw. It’s not actually my turn. It is Gilmore City’s, but their director is brand new on the job. It didn’t seem fair to expect her to do it before she gets her feet wet. She can take my turn next year.

I was very nervous the first time I appeared before the Supervisors. Such an imposing building, our courthouse. Such an important-looking room. But, such a nice bunch of people. They made me feel welcome and were interested to hear what our libraries were doing with the funds they gave us.

As I sat down to type up some notes for my presentation, I thought you might like to see what I found out about Humboldt County Public Libraries.

-Our libraries are open a combined 173 hours per week.
-We have 7,845 registered library card holders.
-More than 120,000 library items checked out each year.
-There are 33 public computers in Humboldt County libraries used by almost 400 people per week.
-7,000 children attend library programs ear yearin Humboldt County.
-There are more than 65,000 items available for checkout including 4,500 movies available free.
-79,000 people enter our buildings every year.

Isn’t all that amazing? That is what we have been able to do with the limited funds available so far.
But, these are desperate economic times. Many families are struggling. Tough economic times put big demands on library facilities, materials and staff.

Many people use our library computers for job searches, to compose resumes and cover letters and to complete online job applications. Kum & Go no longer takes paper job applications. All applications must be submitted online. That, of course, requires a computer with internet service. We have both at our libraries and the service is free to the users.

We have seen an increase in library computer usage. Perhaps when someone’s home computer needed replacement, funds weren’t available. Perhaps home internet service was cancelled to save money. Sometimes a person may have both a computer and internet service at home, but the printer needs ink. At ten cents per page it’s easier to squeeze a couple of copies at the library into the budget than a $40 ink cartridge.

DVD checkouts are also on the rise. That’s one more place families can cut down. There is no charge to borrow a library dvd. We checked out more than 1200 dvds in December.

Nothing in today’s world is really free. Computers, library internet service, library staff salaries, books and movies have all been paid for by our tax dollars. Libraries are like streets and highways. They have been paid for with city, county, state and federal tax dollars, they aren’t truly free. However, there is no additional cost to the user to drive on them.

If you see your city council persons, your county supervisors, your state senators and representatives, tell them thanks for paving roads and funding libraries. Remind them that difficult times are not the right times to cut library funding. Difficult times are when we need libraries the most.

We get lots of interesting questions at the library. We almost never KNOW the answer, but we usually know where to FIND the answer. If you have lost Aunt Tillie’s phone number in Timbuktu, we can find it if she has a listed number. If you want to know how tall the Taj Mahal is, we can find out. If you want to know how to spell octogenarian, we’ll look it up. But, alas, once in a while we are stumped. This week a young man of rather short stature came in to find a book about “how to talk to girls.” We sent him to his elementary school library. However, after doing a small amount of research, we discovered that a young man from Castle Rock, Colorado has just written a book with that very title: How to Talk to Girls. It was written when the author was eight years old. So, young fellow from Humboldt, we ordered the book. Check back with us in a couple of weeks. I hope she will wait that long.

There are particular areas where we tread very lightly when answering questions. Medical and legal questions are especially tricky for librarians. We aren’t trained in either field. We do have access to books and websites where you might be able to find your own answers. Another field that gives us problems is income taxes. Libraries have long provided space for stacks of tax forms, but that’s it. The IRS doesn’t give us a class in how to know one form from the other. Truly, you don’t want to take tax advice from us. None of us does her own taxes.

If, however, you know the name or number of the form you need, we know the secret website for access to all IRS tax forms (www.irs.gov). Links to that website and to the Iowa Department of Revenue are on the library’s website: www.humboldtpubliclibrary.com. Another great source for tax advice is our resident expert, Jim the Tax Guy. Jim comes to our library every Wednesday during tax season (January 28-April 15, this year) to complete tax returns and file them immediately online. Can you believe he does this voluntarily? All you need to do is call us at the library for an appointment. No charge, no income or age restrictions. Believe me; he knows more about tax law than the average librarian.

We have just launched a winter reading program: Pop Open a Good Book. It runs through February 28. The program is for readers of all ages; however the rules vary slightly for children and adults. Check with a librarian for specifics. By filling out an entry form you will have an opportunity to win great prizes including movie tickets. Stop in!

Our newest Humboldt Reads! is ready for checkout. This time we are reading The Rope Walk by Carrie Brown. This is the book chosen by the Iowa Center for the Book as the All Iowa Reads title for 2009. We usually eschew All Iowa Reads selections. They often seem a little too high-brow and unreadable for normal folk, but this one promises to be more on my level. It’s my favorite type novel, a coming-of-age story; there’s my favorite word again –bildungsroman. It is available in paperback, large print, audio on cd and in downloadable format. We will meet to discuss the book on February 26, at 5:30 at Vinny’s. Try it; I hope we like it!