For the past year I have been on the board of the Tracy Friends of the Library. For a long time I have been a regular contributor to the Friends of the Library through the many books that I have bought from their book sale.

Last year one of the librarians asked me to get more involved as I have always shown interest in the different library programs and have always shared interesting information about the books I read.

I have had many connections with libraries throughout the years. My first library memories are from the Pickwick Library in Ottumwa, Iowa. Unfortunately, the library branch no longer exists, and the building is now a dentist’s office.

However, my memories of the library live on. One memory that always comes to mind is attending a library program where they showed a film about Stone Soup.

I also have memories from the main Ottumwa library, especially checking out 35mm movies that we would watch with friends.

When I was in High School, as my Eagle Scout project, I helped move our town library to a new building that was built.

I then volunteered in the new library until I went off to college. While in college I worked for several months in the school library as part of a work study program.

Through the years I have had library cards in all the different places that I lived. In some places, like Kansas City, I had library cards in multiple library systems at the same time.

One of my contributions in the last year to the Friends of the Library has been the creation of a new web site. Our main Social Media platform and communication vehicle is Facebook, but we still needed to maintain a traditional website 🙂

You can visit our website at : Tracy Friends of the Library

I hope to add a section on the history of the Tracy library some time in the next quarter. There are a few interesting facts that I want to share.

I am thinking about all of this as tonight was our quarterly board meeting. We have a lot going on in our community in regards to the library system and it is a good feeling to be a part of it.

A strong library helps build a strong community and I am glad that I am helping with our library.

Steven