Check Out the Library Behind the Scenes

 We celebrated the new Bookmobiles at the Sno-Isle Library Service Center this weekend. Hooray! Libraries on Wheels provides mobile library service in remote and underserved areas, and also for those who have trouble getting to the library, such as our senior facilities and our Boys & Girls Clubs.

Honk! Honk! Stories and entertainment and knowledge are now even more mobile. This is one of the many vibrant library programs and services funded by the Sno-Isle Library Foundation.

You were expecting spacious stacks to peruse? You're in the wrong place for that. The Sno-Isle Service Center is the behind the scenes backbone of the library. During our tour of the Center we walked by these books that had just been catalogued for distribution. In the past 10 months 237,823 boxes of books have been delivered to the branch libraries. The dedicated staff have been implementing process improvements, and continue to do so in order to streamline processing and further speed up the time it takes to get books in eager readers' hands.

Another great service, here you see the Ready Readers Kits. The Ready Readers Program is a Sno-Isle Libraries initiative designed to help parents and caregivers enhance literacy and language development for young children from birth to five years of age.These thoroughly packed kits are available for check out and include books, puppets, teaching guide, and age appropriate media that encourage reading skills. Assistance is available for day care providers to discover effective ways to use the kits for fun and learning with their kids.

Sno-Isle also provides Book Discussion Kits for adult reading groups. 537 discussion kits were created this year.

It's been a long time since libraries were just for bound books. Here's carts of audio books and also CD's and DVD's that are cleaned (including repairing scratches), and re-distributed. As you can see, some of the puppets that wander into other programs' areas have a rest before getting back to Ready Reading. 



You're thinking the dewey decimal and card catalog are things of the past? Yes, but actually the coding system is very effective with computer and internet. That is the basis for the online searches that you do to find those books you want to read. On this chart you can see an example of what the different code lines tell about a specific book. Sno-Isle has seen 450 million views on their website this year - Link to Snohomish and Island County Libraries

Serving residents in Snohomish & Island counties with electronic databases, computers, free internet access, homework help, storytimes for children and over 1.4 million books, eBooks, DVDs, and CDs available from 21 library buildings, bookmobile, outreach, and childcare services.

Programs the Foundation Funds - Link to Sno-Isle Library Programs

What programs are at your library?  Visit online and in person, check it out, and it's wonderful to volunteer.
 

There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library,this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.

- Andrew Carnegie