Editor:
Re: Members should demand more of library board (March 16 issue of the Grand Forks Gazette)
Mr. Ronaghan is right when he says that the membership of the library is apathetic.
I am new here and was astounded by the small group of 50 or so people that attended the library annual general meeting (AGM).
The whole town could have been there because there is lots of great news about the goings on at our library.
It had about a 30-per-cent increase in people through its door and a 50-per-cent increase in phone inquiries, plus many more services were offered to the Grand Forks community.
The management and staff deserve a huge ovation for a job well done in 2010.
But can they be expected to continue this growth and serve the Grand Forks community, with the facility and the tools that the library board has given them to work with?
I was in a library in Columbus, N.M. – a border town of 1,800 people.
Its library is modern, up-to-date, it has a meeting room with couches, chairs and tables, plus it has 32 computer stations!
I was so impressed that I found a director of that library and asked him how they created and maintained such a magnificent community space.
He said the board felt that the library was the heart of their community – it’s a meeting place and it also made a huge impression on the public who visit Columbus, as to the quality of life of the town.
The Grand Forks library is dated; it needs a face-lift, more space and it needs to be modernized.
Regrettably the Grand Forks library board did not pat itself on the back for the remarkable 30-per-cent and 50-per-cent increases in public usage, nor did it present a new vision for our library.
Unless this changes, our community resources may get used up on a fairground and chuckwagon racetrack that will be used one week of the year.
Ray Hunt,
Grand Forks