The sound of music to help library keep pages turning

Ken Johnston
Editor

This week is Ontario Library Week and the Rainy River Public Library is pulling out the stops to celebrate it!
Librarian Penny Shumaker is really excited about a special concert they are hosting this Wednesday. The Borderland Orchestra will be playing this Wednesday at the Rainy River Community Centre. The event will be held as a fund raiser for the library and the orchestra has donated its time completely free of charge.
There will be a charge of $8 for adults and $5 for students to attend with all the proceeds going to library projects. Shumaker thinks that most of the money will be used to buy more books and other resource materials.
This is the second time Borderland Orchestra has done this for the Library and last year they had about 100 people attend.
“We are setting up for 150 at the tea and hope they all stay for the wonderful music,” said Shumaker.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and there will be a penny table there as well.
On Thursday the public library is teaming up with Rainy River High School Drama Club to host “Much at the Library. “The public library will be closed to the public during the school’s lunch break at which time a free lunch for RRHS students will be held featuring drama students portraying Much Music stars. “We are hoping to create more awareness (in this demographic) about the library and its services,” said Shumaker.
RRHS Librarian Rebecca Tolen is also helping the public library celebrate by holding a poster contest this week.
Shumaker also invites people to come in and explore the library this week. She will have coffee and goodies available all week.
She had hoped to have the new children’s literacy centre ready for this week, but some of the shelving components are still on order. The public library received a Trillium Grant earlier this year to revamp its children’s library. “We are hoping to have it all ready to go the first week in November.”
In addition to this busy week, Shumaker pointed out that they are constantly offering more than just books and movies to sign out. Every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. they have a story hour.
They are also the Community Access Program site for public access to the internet.
A computer course for beginners will be taught the first four Thursdays in November and is completely full at this time.
There are also plans for another Chapters Book Fair in the works before Christmas.
Beginning this week the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries began accepting entries for a writing contest called “Telling our Stories” in which people are encouraged to write about how a library has impacted a person’s life. Over $5,000 in cash prizes will be awarded.

RR Public Library
Fast Facts

•There are 10,000 books there
•130 DVDs there
•500 VHS there
•13 magazine subscriptions
•220 talking books
•748 members from Rainy River, Dawson, Lake of the Woods and Morley
•Membership is free for residents from RR, Dawson, LoW, and Morley
•CAP site for internet
•Participates in Inter-library loans
•Hosts year round children’s programs
•Hosts computer training workshops
•Is open Mon. Noon-6 p.m., Tues-Fri. Noon-5 p.m. and Sat. 11 a.m.-2 p.m.