Wisconsin Library Stories

Construction of the long-planned new library in the village will start March 15, according to the Friends of the Butler Library, which has been raising funds to avoid using tax dollars.

The group has finally amassed enough money for the building project to get under way, Marilyn Schultz, the group's secretary, said Monday. The Friends, which launched the fund-raising campaign in 1999, has $480,000 in cash and in-kind donations, including materials and labor. About $650,000 is needed.

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I was wearing my favorite T-shirt, the one that said "U*N*A*B*A*S*H*E*D LIBRARIAN" on it, when I had the hang gliding accident that smashed my wrist. (Now THERE'S an opening sentence you wouldn't expect to see in a column written by a slightly-over-middle-aged librarian.)

Read the full article by Carol Petrowski, a La Crosse County Library System staff member at the Onalaska Public Library.

On August 28, Muskego Public Library will launch "We, the People." Muskego librarian Jane Genzel said it's aimed at encouraging democracy by improving civil discourse about government, public policy and elections. The program's core piece comes from a Wisconsin Humanities Council book discussion program built around ideals in the U.S. Constitution's preamble - "a more perfect union," "the common defense," "to establish justice," "domestic tranquility." Read the full article here.

Nancy Elsmo remembers Kevin Henkes the child: She was working with children's books at the Racine Public Library and he would come in with his family, including his parents and four siblings. She led the brother who liked sports to baseball books and so on. Kevin went for the illustrated children's books.

Elsmo says she worked at the library 30 years until retiring and saw many children who were wonderful readers. But she never saw anyone like Henkes. He wanted to know everything about the books.

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