Rawlins Library celebrates one more year of service

PIERRE — The Rawlins Municipal Library celebrated its 103rd birthday Monday with balloons, cake, popcorn and a little history lesson.

The celebration is one of the events the library holds each year to celebrate an important milestone and help area adults and children feel more welcome in a library environment, library director Beverly Lewis said.

The Monday birthday celebration had historical displays, detailing the evolution of the library from several local women’s request for funding from Andrew Carnegie in 1905, to its move to the current award-winning building in 1972. And while the library’s collection may have outgrown its current square footage, the staff continues to create new arrangements and educational programming for library users, Lewis said.

“The public library is the bastion of democracy,” Lewis said. “It enables everyone to get access to information and an informed citizen is who makes a democracy.”

Anyone has the right to use the library’s resources for free, Lewis explained. And providing library users with those resources is very important to the staff.

“We will go to the ends of the earth to make sure you get that information,” Lewis said.

The library offers books, audio books, videos, DVDs, music CDs, magazines, children’s theme backpacks and other articles for circulation. The library also offers internet via wireless and several computers. Approximately 400 people use those resources every day, according to Lewis. Many of them are school children and teens.

“You want to start kids on a reading path early,” Lewis explained. Educational programming and interesting activities such as the “win a book and a bunny” program helps make children more comfortable and interested in books. In the springtime program, children can read a book, tell a librarian about it and win a reading door hanger. The child can also enter to win a book and stuffed bunny. The library will be calling winners up until March 21.

The Rawlins Municipal Library is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays.

Those who want to check materials out of the library must have a library card.