The staff here at the library is really dedicated to spreading the word about all the great things that people can do or find at the library. Here’s just one example.

Last week one of our staff (I won’t name names, let’s just call her "Joanne") had a repairman working at her house. When he was finished, she went outside to pay him, and they started chatting. She suggested that he could find out more about the topic they were discussing in a documentary film that she could recommend. She added, that the library even owns a copy of the film and that he could borrow it. The repairman said that he didn’t have a library card. "Joanne" told him that she could fix that. She invited him in, turned on the computer, accessed the library online, let him to sign up for a card, and even placed a reserve on the movie using his temporary library card number.

As he was leaving the repairman noticed a bumper sticker on "Joanne’s" car, which led to a little discussion of the current political scene. As the fellow seemed very well informed, "Joanne" was surprised to hear him say that he had never voted, and that he didn’t even know how to go about registering to vote. She said that she could fix that, too. She told him that something that’s always available at the library is the mail-in voter registration form, and that he could get a copy when he visits the library to pick up his new library card and borrow the film.

So, "Joanne" inspired someone to become a voter, recommended and set aside library material that would help him learn more about a topic of interest to him, and made him a card-carrying library customer. That’s not bad day’s work for someone who was off duty and at home!