Spend the summertime with the library system! The Ten Sleep library is open Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Saturday 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. The Worland library is open Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Tuesday & Thursday 8 a.m. - 9 pm and Saturday 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Endowment Changes

Thanks to the generosity of Washakie County residents, the library foundation has been able to raise over $40,000 which will be met 3:1 by state funds. Special thanks to the library foundation members who helped the Cinco de Mayo +3 event be a huge success.

Susan Mark in the State Library’s Library Development Office just completed the updates to the 2010 Wyoming Library Laws. You can find a PDF of the document here: http://will.state.wy.us/slpub/Liblaws2010.pdf. Paper copies of the Library Laws will be mailed to each library this week.

The biggest addition from prior Library Laws publications has been that of the Wyoming Library Endowment Challenge Program, 18-7-201 to 18-7-205. This program was initially established in the 2008 Budget Session with $9.1 million in state funds to match local endowment fund raising efforts at a 3:1, 2:1 or 1:1 ratio, depending on the county’s assessed valuation. In the 2010 Budget Session, an additional $3 million was appropriated for this fund.

Although the library system is able to collect more endowment money, our time limit to accept it has not been extended. Contact the library if you would like to make a tax-deductible donation.

Deciding on Databases

The state library databases at http://gowyld.net/dbases.cfm fit nicely with the summer reading theme of Make a Splash and with summer reading in general. Try Grzimek’s Animal Life, GreenFile, Gardening, Landscape and Horticulture Collection, for instance. Play with databases for kids and teens using examples such as: fishing, rain, biomes, experiments, water conservation, toxic waste. You can use Bookflix and Novelist to get them into books and to their next book, and at WYLDCat for books such as, Flush, Girl at Sea, Snorkeling and Diving, and Manfish: a story of Jacques Cousteau. Even though school is out plenty of interesting reading is available.