Our library is often mistakenly called the “Lindsborg City Library” or “Lindsborg Public Library.” There is nothing inherently wrong with those names – many libraries chose “city” or “public” as their identifier. We are a city library in the sense that the largest funding source for our yearly budget comes from city property tax distribution, our Library Board is composed of members appointed by the mayor who must reside within city limits, and our building is owned by the City of Lindsborg. We are a public library in the sense that all members of the public – residents of Lindsborg, local residents outside city limits, and visitors – are welcomed at the Library. This is not a private collection – our collections and spaces are open to everyone.

Still, there is something special about being a “community” library. Recent events at the Library have reminded us of that how that implied togetherness, shared ownership of belonging and helping each other is something to celebrate.

This week, we continued making progress on our Library Building Project with changes that can be made before construction. Kathy and Suzanna weeded the young adult collection: materials no longer circulating here have been removed for the book store and book sale so they can move on to someone who will enjoy them again; titles that have been “loved to death” are pulled to be replaced by copies in better condition. Seth moved the collection into the green room, the former story time room that becomes a teen space as part of the remodel. The former young adult shelves now highlight our growing collection of games and puzzles.

A few weeks ago, a patron requested a chair with arms to be placed in the new story time / play room to help with feeding babies. Taking stock of our current furniture, we had moved our purple chair back as the best option we had available. With the teen space coming together with the young adult collection moving, there wasn’t a good option to take away from our other library spaces.

However, we are part of a larger community. Suzanna went to our local TACOL Thift Store to see if there was anything that could fill in the gap for the short term. What she found was two matching chairs, still in excellent condition, in the existing color scheme of the story time / play room, with arms and support even better than the existing chair that had been moved there. The price for both was drastically less than the price of one new chair in a similar style.

Since this community supports TACOL with quality donations, the Library benefited with extremely budget friendly additions to our furnishings. The new-to-us chairs will work even better for our young families in the story time / play room. The purple chair with its lounging back fits the corner in the teen space for reading or staying close to the available outlet while on a laptop.

A similar community effort is happening with our building project fundraising. Over 110 individuals, families, organizations, and foundations have contributed with gifts ranging in size from spare change all the way up to our anonymous donor who gave $100,000. As of April 6, 2024 the Library has secured $241,229 towards the remodel and Suzanna has applied for an additional $243,720 in pending grant applications. If the Library receives all the pending grant applications in full, $313,369 remains to fund construction for the entire project.

That is a large number – and yet we can certainly achieve it together as a community. With many of the currently pending grant applications being announced on or before April 30, the confirmed amount of funding that the Library has by that date will have great weight in the decisions the Library Board makes regarding how much of a remodeling project we can undertake this fall.

If you have intended to give toward the building project, but haven’t done so yet, now is an excellent time. Any donations received now through August will be able to go towards our 2024 construction project; the closer to April 30 that we receive donations or notifications of pledges, the better informed the Library Board will be when they make their decision on construction for 2024: whether it be a partial project, a phased project, or the entire project.

Over the next 4-8 weeks, we anticipate many more details coming. Donations of many sizes will continue coming in from our community members, Suzanna will continue applying for additional grants, pending grants will send notifications on whether or not the Library is awarded, we will have another fundraising Super Sale on April 27 as part of Lindsborg in Bloom. On or before the May 28 Library Board meeting, decisions will be made about the size of construction project to begin in August or September.

It is an exciting time – and an excellent time to celebrate being part of this community we serve!