After a brief period of closing, to regroup with two-thirds less staff (and more volunteers), the Ocean Shores Library is back in business, welcome news to book-starved locals:

We had a “soft” opening this week of the OS Library and now it’s time to let all our patrons know we are now open on a limited schedule. We will be asking your readers in the next few weeks what new books, DVD’s and CD’s they would like us to purchase. We still only have funding from the City  for the 1st quarter of 2010…but we hope to announce a new source of funding in the near future.

OCEAN SHORES LIBRARY HOURS-2010

Sunday and Monday-Closed
Tuesday        2pm to 6pm
Wednesday    1pm to 5pm
Thursday       1pm to 5pm
Friday           10am to 2pm
Saturday       12pm to 4pm

Jim Mitchell
OS Library Board of Trustees

Library patrons are asking. The lit cat is still booking it, over at Tony Byers‘ place.

tony cat waldo books web

With the Library’s future uncertain, Tony adopted Waldo and Olivia. Looks like they’re doing just fine, at their new home . . .

tony cats olivia waldo web

“I get a great big lump in my throat thinking about the day when my little girl looks up at me with her big blue eyes and her curly pig tails and asks me why we can’t go to the library anymore.”

A retired Alaska librarian hears of our plight, and reaches out to our mayor (she emailed a copy to me):

Dear  Mayor Bunkers,
I was saddened and dismayed to hear that the 2010 budget for the City of Ocean Shores covers only basic utilities for the library.

After more than 30 years of working in libraries, nearly 20 of them in a public library deluged with tourists in the summer, I can tell you that the public library is a favorite for travelers of all ages wanting to catch up with email and to upload photos of their trips from their digital cameras.  Judging from conversations with my colleagues across the country in similar situations, this demand from visitors on the local public library is universal and a selling point for tourism bureaus.

Any community hoping to sell itself as “tourist friendly” must make its public library available for internet access.

In these times of economic stress, every branch of city government is trying to pinch pennies with its budget.  Surely, however, closing the library is a false economy. 

heading, on Page 90: “OPERATIONS TEMPORARYLY (sic) SUSPENDED DUE TO DIMINISHING REVENUES”

Recommended 2010 budget

From Andy Gruse:

This the note on  the agenda bill for Monday’s budget hearing, 9-23-09 6pm at the convention center.
“A revised 2010 Preliminary Budget is expected to be distributed on November 19 as staff continues to process input from City Council, the public, and employees to balance the 2010 Preliminary Budget especially the 633,309 deficit in the General Fund 001 and the 686,616 deficit in the EMS Fund 104.
Copies of the revise 2010 Preliminary Budget will be posted on the City’s website and paper copies will be available at the Ocean Shores City Hall and the Ocean Shores Library.”
Citizens are looking to see if the amount budgeted for the Library and Interpretive Center will be zero.

The Friends of the Library will be selling “I Survived the Roundabout” t-shirts (officially endorsed by the Friends of the Roundabout).
Tots $6; Kids & Youth $8; Adult $10; Plus sizes $12.

They will be introduced “at our Giant Half-Yearly Sale at our storage, on Saturday, 14 Nov. from 9 am to 3 pm at 764 Sea Horse Ave NE (N of Alec’s Restaurant).” Click below to see one of the designs:

i survived roundabout

Another well-written review from the folks at the Friends of the Library.

“Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell (New book available at Ocean Shores Library).

By Andy Gruse

Outliers in statistics are so far out of the norm they are usually thrown away as data point mistakes. Outliers in this book are great successes or great failures. There are reasons and situations that enable people and events to be so phenomenally successful or unsuccessful compared to other outcomes.

An outlier is outside of normal experience. Pick a quality like being very, very rich or being very, very skillful. How did the Beatles become so proficient that they became one of the greatest rock bands?

(wish I had Friends like these:)

Spencer Christian. “Spencer Christian’s Weather Book.” Prentice Hall, New York, 1993. (Available through inter-library loan from our Library.)  Website: http://www.osgov.com/library.html

By John R. Clark

For anyone curious about weather happenings, Spencer Christian’s compact text is top of the line. It is as relevant today as when it was written sixteen years ago. In 216 pages the author covers major factors including air, water, clouds, thunder, tornadoes and hurricanes, and then explains how weather is recorded and predicted. He does this in a style that is friendly but not at all condescending, explaining that he is “…trying to put a human face on weather.”