Mcintosh Memorial Library awarded Wisconsin Library of the Year
Last Saturday, members of Viroqua, surrounding communities and communities beyond, gathered to celebrate the library receiving the “Wisconsin Library of the Year Award”. A crowd was treated to snacks, cake, and a short acknowledgment program hosted by the library’s Director Trina Erickson, Laci Sheldon-Youth Services Director, and Maggie Strittmater- Adult Programming and Outreach Assistant.
Started back in the 1800s, the Mcintosh Memorial library has gone through a myriad recent accomplishment that led to it receiving the 2022 Wisconsin Library Award from the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA).
After two attempts back in the 1800s to form a public library. The attempts were mostly due to people checking books out and never returning them. Everything changed when Andrew Carnegie, a philanthropist who funded libraries across the nation came to Viroqua and gave the city a check for $10,000. The city council accepted the money and also invested $750 for a library. In 1904, the library was constructed across from the Post Office, and stayed as it was until the early 1970’s. That’s when the Mcintosh family made a major gift in memory of a family member. The funds allowed the building to see significant remodeling to how it looks today.
The library continued to exist in the building until 2016. When there was no more room to grow, the building also needed to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). There was a woman named Karen Dahl who was instrumental in working with the Gundersen Lutheran Foundation in getting the land donated to build the new library located next to Western Technical College just a couple blocks from its original building. This February will mark the sixth anniversary of the library in its new building, and the library thrives with over 10,000 people holding active library cards.
Nominated and encouraged by our other librarian colleagues across the state to apply for the Wisconsin Library Association's Library of the Year Award, the library went through an application process. Included in that application were many of the community outreach programs the library has started. “One of them is our very dear and wonderful connection to the Consulado de Mexico in Milwaukee”, said Laci Sheldon Youth Services Director. She added, “That relationship formed when local Mexican folk artists champion Gabriela Marván hosted a beautiful art exhibit at Viva Gallery, which I attended. From there, I was able to meet Norma Sanchez, who is a consulate staff member. And then Gabriela came back to the library and said let's do a piñata workshop. This was during the times of COVID. So, we had a two-day Piñata making workshop online. Gabby is the founder of the Mexican Folk Art Collective. We did incredible zoom programming with the artist members of that collective for one full year. We became really closely united and the consulate’s office staff also attended those new programs. So that was a big part of the application that we sent in.” The relationship with the Mexican Folk Art Collective and the consulate office that grew into to De Los Muertos celebrations, that were hosted by Driftless Curiosity. Another portion of the application for Library of the Year included the library’s connection to the Viroqua Area School District that saw the library host an after-school program for an entire school year. Mondays through Fridays, 35 first through fourth graders came to the library to be involved. In addition, the library has a Boba Book Club, where middle schools come and enjoy the non-caffeinated tea drink. The program unites middle school students who will want to read the same book with adult volunteer readers of the community. They read the same book that the children are reading and then they discuss the book with the middle school students. Sheldon said, “This is a great way to introduce middle school students to the idea of what book clubs are, and it's been a really incredible program. We had 50 Middle School students signed up to do it in September, October and November, and we're carrying it forward still now throughout the whole school year. So that is really exciting.”
Another component of the library’s application was creating the Community Beyond Biases Library Resources Program. Running the past two years, Sheldon shared it is essentially where the library has acknowledged a heritage, a history, or an awareness of a cause on a monthly basis. “To acknowledge it, we write book lists for the theme of that month and wonderful volunteers come in to present. That program expanded to covering global diversity and all the cultures of the world. And it really was a very powerful and wonderful program to bring forward. A component of that is we also hosted two book giveaways for that program. It was in July and August of 2021. That was the Great Diverse book giveaway, and then also last December and January was the Great Peace book giveaway. For both book giveaways over 100 books were given out to the community for members to own and keep and then we came back together to discuss the books.” Sheldon said that program was awarded this past April by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
An additional component to the application was the library’s Growing Forward Together Garden. Located across the street from the library, and also know as the library garden, Sheldon said it's not a community garden per se, but it is an “equitable garden”. “The equity component comes in two parts where there are ADA raised beds set up and we grow the produce and the produce is donated to Parkview apartments to the senior dining center there.” Over the past few years, the garden has donated hundreds of pounds of fresh produce to their local neighbors. The after-school program students are involved in the garden and Sheldon said they understand that learning how to grow food is important not only for themselves in their own families, but for the community.
If all that did not make the Mcintosh Library stand out, the library has its own band. Yep, a band. Managed by Greg Layton, Mcintosh Library Director Trina Erickson said, “Greg and I started working together on bringing music to assisted living facilities and nursing homes right before COVID struck. And after COVID struck or the pandemic started, we decided to grow from Greg and myself to a full-fledged five-member band. It was grant funded from Arts Midwest and it kept us very active during the pandemic traveling to assisted living facilities and nursing homes providing so much comfort and joy through music to those residents that probably faced the most isolation during the pandemic.” Trina acknowledged the band has been so special, and something that's really helped the library do outreach in assisted living facilities and nursing homes when so many of the residents that live there couldn't have visitors, and to provide them with some respite through music. “Clapping and singing was just very touching for not only the library band and myself, but also the residents as well.”
Erickson said because of all these diverse programs, or programming that the library offers, she feels that really played a major role in the decision to award the Mcintosh Memorial Library with Wisconsin Library of the Year. “I think it's definitely a major factor of why we stand out, especially a small library doing such grandeur programming. It's not often seen because we have to have support from the community, otherwise we're not doing the program's if nobody's showing up. The community rallied around us and wanted more of this, and because of that, I think it's definitely part of the reason we've received Library of the Year.”
Erickson said “you have to dream big” when it comes to setting an example for other rural libraries. “You have to. When we built this library, we couldn't think about just that year we built it, but the future and the future growth. I hope this inspires other small communities to look big and really embrace a library as a true community center for all people.”
Erickson said she literally leaves her job every day saying, “I know I made a difference in my community”. Whether it's helping someone find a book, whether it's helping someone book their conference room to have a meeting, whether it's helping an individual make connection with somebody in the community, if they're looking for housing or looking for a job. That's the difference she feels she can make. “I feel so honored to have a job where I can walk away each day saying I know I made a difference, even if it's just one person. It's pretty special to be able to say that,” she said with a smile.
Playing a critical role in the development of the library since the new building was built is the City Council. Erickson stressed that the relationship between the library and the city council really strengthened during the construction process. “It was all about educating people on what a library is today. It wasn't talking about the carpet; it wasn't talking about the windows. It wasn't talking about the shape of the building. It was about what is relevant to a library today. It was so much great discussion with the City Council, where they really understood what a library is about. That relationship has just continued to strengthen as we've been awarded this huge award. We brought in grants, they see the usage numbers, they know it's real, that this is truly a very important resource to the community and we're just very fortunate we have a council that understands the role of the library and supports it.
Erickson pointed out how important it is to make sure people understand that the role of a library now is just different. “It still has the foundational pieces of books and coming in and checking out things, but also being a community center, offering all this outreach that we do with our 4-H club in our library, band, and etcetera. It was important for them to understand it so they could embrace the library going forward.”
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