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At the current time, we at the Ellsworth Public Library are not providing any programs or services for adults. I have been bringing it up to my board about the lack of services in this area every month but nothing gets done. I am in hopes to get a computer class going after I am finished with PLM 2. I spoke at a Senior Citizen gathering lately and discovered there were people in the community who would like to learn the basic workings of the computer. I am also in hopes to get a survey out to the whole community to see if there is any other interests that would get the adults into the Library.

We currantly have no adult services per se running right now.......in the past we've offered computer/internet classes and we plan
to offer them again this winter. We are also planning a book discussion group this winter.
We have a few community members who are home bound and/or sight impaired. For them we select and deliver LARGE PRINT or
audio books to them.
In the past we've delivered LARGE PRINT books to the nursing home here in Paullina...we also help the activity director at the home
to find info for programs she wants to have there.
We have our county's naturalist come and present programs from time to time - these are attended by adults and children both.

Currently we do not have any programs. But in the past we have had a basic computer class for adults and a digital photography class. I have lined up someone to teach another beginning computer class this Fall/Winter. And possibly a more advanced class for others who are ready to learn Power Point , Excel, and more of what the computer has to offer. ( I will be first in line for that class!) We don't have a need that I know of for special programming as of right now. Even though I did recieve a call from a deaf resident that had just moved to the area that wanted to know about our library and services.That may end up being a new area to look into. Also, the senior population would be an important group in the community to provide programming to.

Great idea to have the naturalist come in! Can I use that idea?

I like your idea of having a guest lecturer who teaches sign language, my grandaughter has a deaf student in her class and so she has had the opportunity to learn to sign. I think it is a great opportunity for anyone, you never know when you may run into a situation where a knowledge of basic sign language would be helpful to someone. I received a phone call from a deaf person last week doing a libray survey, a sign interpreter using a video screen asked the questions for her. I wish now I would have asked more questions. They did not ask for any confidential info, just size of community and if we provided services to any deaf members of the community, so I felt it was a legitmate call. Anyone receive this call?

Our library hasn't really provided services to adults in the past. I've been thining of inviting some of the ladies card club members to come in and try the Wii. I have college students that come in, and I would like to get the word out to them tht they're always able to come in and use our library to study, go online, whatever. I also have several ideas in my head as to classes that I'm definitely going to offer the adults, hopefully in the near future.

The crafting evenings you mentioned sound interesting. What kind of crafts I wonder would be best to do?I need to do a survey and find out what types of activities would be most popular.

Joy,
I would be very interested also!!! Would love to have a movie night for ALL in the park or something, kind of the "Wedding Planner" take. Would like to know where to rent equipment to put something up like that.

We do not have any programs going for the adults. In the past they started a book study group but did not go the next year. We do not have room for a very big group and only 2 computers, so that does not allow us to give computer class. They had a knitting class one winter with only 2 students. It seems everyone is doing something else and feel they are busy enough. Maybe in the future we can try some ideas, especially the identity theft. We do more with the children than adults

What current services and programs are you providing to the adults in your community? Are you providing any services and/or programs to any special populations of adults in your community? What special populations are in your community that you might consider providing services and/or programs for?

We are just getting started in this area. We have taken on the role of becoming the center for adult education with our local community college. I am coordinating this through the college. We hope to have two to four classes each semester for the community. We are using this as an outreach to get people into the library at various times and hopefully make a few dollars on rental! Some classes include art classes, basic writing, computer, digital camera, exercise. These classes will be for a few however, we are having "warm up" or "interest" classes for free this fall to build interest in the spring classes. They are being done for free.

I have also paired up with the teacher librarian at the school and we are going to be offering some classes for parents regarding the use of the Internet for research as well as other areas.

Currently, we are an official site for the SHIIP program (medicare program). We provide the space, computer usage, free copies and schedule to appointments for the counselor. This adds a lot of traffic towards the end and beginning of each year. We get people checking out items or just looking around while they are waiting.

For special populations, we have a nice sized large print collection for our patrons. We have partnered with the Large Print Library in Decorah to help subsidize our collection - since LP books ares so expensive!

We also started a book discussion group last fall, which has continued this year. The group is small - 6-8 people - but they are enjoying the time together with other readers. I hope to see this increase.

I would consider our commuters as a special population - I hope with the addition of downloadable audio books we will see an increase in our circulation in this area but more important meet their need for books.

I am hoping with the start of the adult education - both free and charge - we will be meeting more of the needs of our community. I believe an area we need to work more on is getting involved more with our local nursing home. I believe that is an untapped service area.