State of the Library & State of the City
How are we doing? What’s going on? What’s new? What’s coming up?
That is what a “State of” address is all about. The Mayor is delivering his State of the City address this week at a public event (see below). As a city department, the Library is always included in that address but the mayor also has to give updates on other city departments, initiatives and events and that leaves just a small slice for library updates. Here are some of the library highlights that we want you to know about within the context of the big city picture:
- New Expanded Hours at the Hillyard, East Side and Indian Trail libraries started January 2.
- Learn4Life – very cool online learning tool for everyone
- Microsoft IT Academy – high-level online learning for job-readiness and expansion
- eBooks and more eBooks!
- Downloadable music offerings increase to almost 3 million tracks – you now can have 5 per week!
- Weekly building days at each branch
- Weekly storytimes at all branches, Play & Learn Storytimes now at three libraries
All this is on top of all the reading, research, video and music resources we already offer.
How do we fit into the city? Spokane Public Library is a general fund department of the City which means we get a slice of the city’s budget just like Police, Fire and Streets do. For the next four years we also get funding from the Library-specific levy that voters passed in February, 2013. While we are a city department, we are governed by a Library Board of Trustees which consists of five citizen volunteers that are appointed to our board by the mayor. The Board of Trustees meets monthly and their meetings are open to the public.
Please join the Mayor at his State of the City address on Thursday at North Central High School. You’ll get to hear about great things coming up for Spokane and learn how we all work together to make Spokane the City of Choice.
