A wonderful story.
Different members of my workplace team go out and do site visits at libraries. Here is my colleague's story from a site visit that took place yesterday.
A tiny library in the town of North Freedom has a mysterious admirer. Its annual budget is only around $40,000 for everything: personnel, materials, programming, and keeping the lights and the heat on. It shares a building with the community center.
For some years, they have maintained an Amazon Wishlist. (Check out your local library - they may have one too.) Within the last year, they started receiving items from their wishlist. Eventually, ALL of the items. Their director began dreaming big and added shelving units. Those arrived, too. And then she added three new, much-needed Dell computers (that fit our SCLS specs) to the list. Those. Came. Too. The total is over $48,000 in materials and supplies for the library - more than their annual budget.
In one of these boxes, the billing address was on the packing slip. With a little detective work, they discovered that their benefactor is a woman who works in technical services in a public library in California. The library staff asked around quietly, trying to see if anyone recognized the name. No one in town knows the family name, and the first name is unfamiliar.
The library staff asked patrons to write thank-you cards to their anonymous friend, and gathered an eight-inch stack over the course of a few weeks. They sent the cards along with a florist's balloon (the library director's mom is the town florist) in a box to her, with a letter from the staff promising to protect her privacy and thanking her for her extraordinary gift to this community.
On Tuesday, the library received two enormous boxes of new young adult materials, none of which were on the wishlist. The boxes are from this incredibly generous soul, making a little bright spot in a part of Wisconsin that has seen more than its fair share of heartbreak.
I am weepy just writing about it again. This, THIS is why I am a librarian, and why I work so hard to make things better for people, to give them access to information that is accurate and/or entertaining, but above all, that is helpful to living a full and satisfying life. I am proud to be a part of a community where things like this can happen.
Came
A tiny library in the town of North Freedom has a mysterious admirer. Its annual budget is only around $40,000 for everything: personnel, materials, programming, and keeping the lights and the heat on. It shares a building with the community center.
For some years, they have maintained an Amazon Wishlist. (Check out your local library - they may have one too.) Within the last year, they started receiving items from their wishlist. Eventually, ALL of the items. Their director began dreaming big and added shelving units. Those arrived, too. And then she added three new, much-needed Dell computers (that fit our SCLS specs) to the list. Those. Came. Too. The total is over $48,000 in materials and supplies for the library - more than their annual budget.
In one of these boxes, the billing address was on the packing slip. With a little detective work, they discovered that their benefactor is a woman who works in technical services in a public library in California. The library staff asked around quietly, trying to see if anyone recognized the name. No one in town knows the family name, and the first name is unfamiliar.
The library staff asked patrons to write thank-you cards to their anonymous friend, and gathered an eight-inch stack over the course of a few weeks. They sent the cards along with a florist's balloon (the library director's mom is the town florist) in a box to her, with a letter from the staff promising to protect her privacy and thanking her for her extraordinary gift to this community.
On Tuesday, the library received two enormous boxes of new young adult materials, none of which were on the wishlist. The boxes are from this incredibly generous soul, making a little bright spot in a part of Wisconsin that has seen more than its fair share of heartbreak.
I am weepy just writing about it again. This, THIS is why I am a librarian, and why I work so hard to make things better for people, to give them access to information that is accurate and/or entertaining, but above all, that is helpful to living a full and satisfying life. I am proud to be a part of a community where things like this can happen.
Came