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One of your reading assignments was the article "Gathering the Stories Behind our Statistics." Every library has many of these stories. Tell one of your library's stories.

Every year we have several visitors throughout the summer stop in looking for family history, but one group stands out as most memorable for me.

Our town had been the last stop before the overnight town on RAGBRAI. Needless to say the library was a constant hub of activity all day long. The next day the staff was still trying to clean up from the day before activites when a group of 3 ladies came. I remember thinking that maybe they were RAGBRAI stragglers, but they weren't. It was a Mom and her two grown daughters from the east coast. They were taking a vacation trip together across the country and visiting sites that they found on the internet that had something to do with the Whittemore name. When they got to our town they headed straight to the library to find out what they could about how our town was named. Since our town had celebrated it's centennial in the 70's, we had several copies of the Whittemore Centennial book at the library with a town history. It turned out that the man the town had been named for, Don Whittemore, was a distant relative. We took pictures of then standing in front of the library with Whittemore Public Library in the backround and they all left with their own copy of our town's centennial book (the city had been storing the extra copies in our basement for years). We sent the pictures to the local paper along with an article about the visit.

The thing that makes this memorable for me is that they knew that the library was where they need to go first for the information they were looking for ( and they actually knew how to pronouce Whittemore without being told how).

This summer we had a Fancy Nancy party. Each little girl that came was dressed to the hilt in fancy stuff! We made fancy ribbon wands, read a Fancy Nancy story and made extra fancy parfaits. Imagine nine little girls all dressed in glitter and ribbons, dancing around the room. They all got feather boas and beads to add to the fun!

We had RAGBRAI come through Westgate, believe it or not, when I had first moved to town and I wasn't working at the library at that time. That would have been a great opportunity to be open for the bike riders who may have needed our services and serve the community by helping with the "festivities". I feel that the library missed out on a great community service and a chance to build a relationship with the town by showing an interest in what they were doing.

I have a little boy come in for books regularly. When he found out his name came up on the computer while checking out his books, he has to come around the circ desk and see his name. One day he looks at me a says, "You smell like my grandma"! I hope that was a compliment, like maybe we use the same fabric softner.


Not only being the Library Director, I am the local historian so can help people coming in to find long lost relativies. The local archives are in the back of the library. One day a man from the east came in and said his great grandfather was a minister in Ellsworth long ago. He wondered if I had any information on him. I had information plus a picture. He had never seen a picture of the grandfather before. His reaction is something I will never forget. I felt the years of organizing that room was worth it just for him!

The one thing I would like to share as a library story is the interesting people that come in. For a couple of weeks a man was coming it to use the computer. He is a brother to someone from town. He graduated from Woden and lives and teaches in Norway. I always like to know how people end up where they do. He said he had taught around here for a while after college and then decided to see the world a bit. He met a gal from Norway and that is where he stayed. I did enjoy hearing about the teaching system over there. In the same week another couple came in to use the computers who were from here originally and visiting relatives. I didn't know where they were from so I asked and they said Panama or something like that. I had to ask how they ended up there. The man had retired and they sold everything and bought a house boat that they live and travel on. Another couple are about due to pull into town as they do yearly to visit his mother. They live in California and also have a house in Italy and Niagra Falls. They also come in to use the computer and usually buys a few of our weeded books. When she gets done with them she gives them to a prison. It is so facinating to talk to these people and I am so glad to have the library and the facilities here to offer them.

The "library story" I want to share occured just this morning.........Wed. Oct. 15th
A man and his wife came in - came up to the circ desk where I was working and said they were hired by a man in southern
Iowa to do research on a women named "Dora Dayder" (not real name). They were looking to find her obit on microfilm, etc.
I said, "really? she was my great aunt"...and so I preceded to help them find the obit......after that they had further questions
which I didn't know so I said "I'll call my mom" which I did and she was able to give them more info......then on the death
certificate there was a name listed and they wondered about that person when my co-worker over hearing us said " why that's
my cousin"!! What do you want to know?" These two people started chuckling and said " only in a small town would this
happen where a. everyones related to everyone and b. everyone is friendly and willing to help with information.

I just began working at the library last January, so don't have a lot of stories, but there are a couple that stand out. I had only been at the library about a month, when a patron came up to the circulation desk and set a can of green beans on the desk and asked me if I could open it for her. I was "slightly" surprised at that request, but recovered quickly and said sure, if I could find a can opener in the meeting room drawers. She said that's OK, I brought mine and took it out of her pocket. I opened the can and told her to be careful not to spill it on her way home. I never found out if she got home without spilling or not.
I got a call this summer from Chuck Offenberger who writes for the Des Moines Register and also a Farm Bureau magazine. He was doing an article on past school mascot names and wanted to know the background for the name Everly Cattlefeeders which was the name of the Everly School mascot up until 1990, when the school consolidated with the Clay Central School District. I found the information in the town history book that was written for the centennial back in 1984. He thanked me for the information, and when the article came out, he had put the library and my name in the article as his source. I'm sure that is the first and last time I will ever see my name in a magazine article.

Way to go Janet! I regret that we do not have much in our library for historical information. Di

I have had a young hispanic family move into our town. Only the girl speaks English. Her boyfriend speaks some but it is very broken. They came to the library and I have helped them get on the computers and showed them how to register for usage. They both have gotten library cards and I have helped them find high interest, low vocabulary books to read. I found some Spanish, English books and a Spanish/English dictionary that was in the weed pile and gave those books to them. They come in about everyday and talk with me and check things out. They love my DVD's and are always waiting for the new ones. I am working right now with an older lady that is willing to help read books for the girl so she can get her GED. I feel like I have given them a friend and hopefully will make a difference in their lives.