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DIRECTOR'S REPORT
March 2008

    March 18, 2008 Bellingham Public Library
    Pamela Nyberg Kiesner, Director Bellingham, Washington



    Good things are happening!

    Bellingham Public Library is a partner in a city-sponsored project which was recently awarded $150,000 in grant funding from Preserve America. The project will focus on historic resources in three Bellingham neighborhoods; see the article in your packet for further details.

    Downloadable audio books are coming! Soon you’ll be able to download a book to your pc, and then to your MP3 Player so you can listen while you are jogging or driving or…this neat format is the result of a cost-sharing consortium developed between Bellingham Public Library, Whatcom County Library System, and several other regional libraries.

    Library staff has formed two great teams – one for the upcoming Whatcom Literacy Council’s Trivia Bee, and one for the 2008 Ski-to-Sea celebration.

    The Bee is on March 29th at Bellingham High School – if you attend, you can cheer for the “Dewey Decimators”! We had a “Bee off” to determine our top 3 trivia buffs on staff: Scott Blume, David Carter, and Jane Lowrey. This team is made possible because our Friends of the Library organization is funding the registration fee – we are grateful for their support!

    More to come about our S2S team…

    The Friends of the Library agreed to fund the start-up children’s picture book collection for the Barkley Branch. Thanks to their $7,500 gift we will have beautiful new books for the children who will eagerly use that facility. We’ll keep you posted on the opening date.

    Facilities update

    At your last Board meeting you had two questions for Rhoda Lawrence at BOLA Architects about the Fairhaven Branch project, and her response is included in your packet for review and discussion.

    You’ll also find an Addendum to the recent Thomas Hacker report. The Addendum includes the project cost escalations, the indirect cost worksheets, and one page that had a typo on it.

    Ravyn Whitewolf and I had a wrap-up phone call with our Hacker consultants, Kacey and Robin. Our contract with them concluded at the end of February.