The Bella Vista Public Library Advisory Board re-elected current chairman Marianne Farner and vice chairman Richard Beck during its January meeting. The Advisory Board holds its election at the beginning of each year. Evie Adler, the only new member joining the board this year, was elected recording secretary.
After the election, Library Director Roxie Wright presented the Director's Report, which outlines new policies and recent changes. Bella Vista Public Library Foundation president Susan Santos then gave board members an update on the planned library expansion.
Perhaps the most notable of these changes is the creation of a new job that will help continue the library's ongoing push to attract younger readers and families.
"We have hired a Children and Youth Services Librarian," Wright said. "We do not have a start date for her yet."
Several of the other new policies are also part of this effort to reach more young people, including the decision to increase the amount of people who are eligible to obtain a library card.
"Free library cards are now offered to any resident of Benton County," Wright said. "The library will now be open until 8 p.m. four evenings a week, Monday through Thursday.... These new changes are mainly for the benefit of children and teens."
Previously, only Bella Vista residents were eligible for library cards. The library will continue to be closed on Sundays.
Though children are encouraged to get a library card of their own, Wright said that, starting this year, they must also be accompanied by a responsible adult who also has a library card.
The library has also begun sending out monthly newsletters by email to patrons, Wright said.
Santos noted in her expansion update that the Bella Vista library is changing with the times to keep up with libraries across the country. In a time where access to information has never been easier, Santos said that a library must be more than just a place of research.
"Even with the advent of Ebooks the use of libraries is growing, not shrinking," Santos said. "They are becoming community spaces, and Bella Vista deserves a great community space."
In order to be a more welcoming community space, Wright said the library has adopted small changes that will help make it the place to meet and lounge.
"We now have a coffee corner," she said. "Patrons are allowed to have coffee anywhere in the library except by the public computers."
General News on 02/10/2016