5.7 LIBSR 04-25-2023LSC Report to the Elk River Library Board
Lori Lundstrom (in absentia)
April 25, 2023
Storytime: Beginning March 6, 2023, an outside storyteller was brought in to perform our Monday
storytimes. This is sponsored by programming funds from the city of Elk River. This frees up our staff to
be able to focus on their other responsibilities including their monthly programming.
Monthly programming: The Adult Book Club, Teen Book Club, Lego/STEM class, and “Schooled in Art”
are all conducted by staff. They are well-attended and remain popular despite several reschedules this
past winter due to inclement weather. The other monthly program is our Genealogy Workshop led by
volunteers. It is also very popular and will be switching back to Saturdays starting April 22.
Legacy programs [funded by the state of MN]: Several of these also had to be rescheduled due to
weather. Skateboard Art for teens was held on Saturday, February 4. Interest was so great that we had
a waiting list. Upon paying a call to the artist, Mark Rivard, we were able to open it up to everyone on
the list, and expanded the age group to nine and ten year olds and not just teens and tweens. There was
14 kids in attendance. Like all library programs, it was free including the skateboards that the kids took
home with them. Andrea Stern performed her Celtic harp music on February 27 to a full house.
Although it was advertised as all-ages, there were many seniors in attendance. They let us know how
much they enjoyed it by all the surveys we collected! We also had an alcohol paints event led by Deb
Edwards. Since it had to be rescheduled from Saturday April 1 to the Saturday before Easter, we were
fortunate in that 9 of the 10 spaces available filled up.
Upcoming programs in May: Former news anchor and sportscaster Tom Ryther will be doing
presentations on two back-to-back Saturdays. On May 6, he will be playing the role of historian with his
discussion of Jesse James, and on May 13 he will be discussing much of his life experience as a journalist
with a panel discussion including Jeff Longo the publisher of his book, “The Hummelsheim Kid.” We
expect these to be well-attended. They are sponsored by programming funds from the city of Elk River.
The Alzheimer’s Association is sponsoring a workshop called “Dementia Conversations.” Our featured
Legacy event will be the author Allen Eskins. Help us spread the word!
Programs in June: Since the first week of Summer Reading Program is always very busy, we decided to
have our first SRP performance the second week. They are the Dollipops on Wednesday, June 14, and
are brought to us courtesy of Legacy funding. After a successful return in 2022, the Master Gardeners of
Sherburne County are bringing back their Junior Master Gardener classes. There are eight classes all
together with the first three in June, the kick-off date being Thursday, June 15. We will also be bringing
back Deb Edwards for a beading class which is sponsored by the city of Elk River programming monies.
The Elk River Library has finally been able to start using more of its CIP funds. The first expenditure was
for office chairs last fall, and now we are getting our comfy chairs reupholstered. Three of the four by
the fireplace were taken first, and we are hoping by the time of this meeting that they will be back and
the other three will be getting done.
5.7