Mary’s Corner
Hi! So glad you stopped by my Corner. My name is Mary Holler and it is my privilege to be the librarian at Protection Township Library. Since this is the first chapter of Mary’s Corner, I thought you might like to learn some statistics about your library.
Protection Township Library moved into the present location in 2004. The Library covers 1,462 sq ft; the Art Gallery encompases 672 sq ft; and the Community Room has 1,088 sq ft of floor space including the kitchen area.
We have approximately 6,600 books currently on the library shelves with more added regularly.
Since January:
756 Books have been checked out. (Avg 252/month)
(this includes the books requested from the Traveling Library)
530 of these books were from our library’s shelves. (Avg 177/month)
We have 5 computers set up on the internet for public use.
An average of 110 persons have been using the computers each month.
We receive a number of publications each month. A few titles are:
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Log Home Living
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Consumers Reports
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Kansas
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Horticulture
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Star
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AARP
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Grand (a magazine for Grandparents)
I plan to have the library automated before the end of the year. We have invested several dollars into getting this done already, and the older books have been culled from the shelves in preparation for automation. I will tell you more about that later as work progresses. I think you will enjoy and appreciate the convenience.
UP DATE: Automation called “VERSO” has started at the Protection Township Libary effected September 18, 2006 Signed Mary Holler
I’m glad you took time to visit my Corner. Every day something new arrives at our library: fiction, cooking, gardening, poetry, biographies, you name it - so come see what’s new at our library.
Local Librarian wins trip to Washington DC
Mary Holler your local Library Director attended a workshop in Dodge City September 22, 2006 on“Building a Sustainable Future”. This workshop was given by Cindi Hickey, (Continuing Education Librarian and WebJunction Coordinator State Library of Kansas) it was announced at this workshop if you attended the workshop follow up sessions, you would be eligible to win a trip to attend the ALA (American Library Association) in Washington DC, June 21 to June 25, 2007. Mary completed the rest of the classes by computer at her desk in the library November 8, December 6, 2006; January 10 and March 21, 2007. Her goals were to ‘weed the books in the library’ and to ’start automation’. The goal has been completed and automation is scheduled to start this fall. It was announced in late March that Mary; Kim Priest, director of Mary Cotton Library in Sabetha; and Sandy Wise, co-director at Clear Water Public library in Clearwater Kansas; were the winners of this trip. All three ladies have excepted this all expenses paid trip to Washington DC to attend the ALA conference. Quote from Mary: I attended the workshops, cause I love to learn, what a shocker I WON!!!
My trip to Washington DC to attend ALA
I left Protection at 4:30pm June 20th spending the night at my favorite “bed and breakfast” in Wichita with my sister-in-law Shirley Holler. Shirley took me to the airport Thursday morning and I checked in with no problems, met up with the group of ladies from SWKLS: Sara McFarland, Denise Smith and Joyce Armstrong, went through the airport security, and boarded my plane for Chicago at 10:40am where I meet Sandy and Sid Wise one of the winner for the trip from Clearwater Library. We landed in Chicago on time and boarded the next plane for Reagan Airport landing there at 4:34pm. Sandy, Sid and I caught a shuttle and headed for our hotel ‘Fairmount of Washington’. Checked into our rooms and met in the lobby at 7pm for supper out. Here I meet Kim Priest the other winner of the ALA trip from Sabetha. We were joined by Cindi Hickey Continuing Education Librarian and WebJunction Coordinator; and Brenda Hough Technology Consultant with Northeast Kansas Library System (NEKLS); and we walked to a neat Mexican restaurant for supper and to plan what our Friday would bring.
Friday morning I started my day at 6am, by the way that’s 5am Kansas time. We caught the shuttle to the Convention Center to attend “WebJunction Rural Library Sustainability Forum” Cindi had made the winners a turquoise T-shirt with a tornado and sunflower our logo with our saying ‘a force of nature’. We started off the morning with breakfast, then each table introduced our selves—one table came with a chicken that counted the minutes so lots of us got the chicken cluck if we had talked too long. There were over 150 attending this conference. WebJunction provided lunch for us then library director Jana Ponce from Parker, Arizona gave a talk about her library; how she had changed everything to bright colors and what drew people to use her library. That evening we attended a reception given by WebJunction—where we were served snack food and drinks. Once again we boarded the shuttle and headed back to our hotel.
Saturday I joined Sara McFarland for breakfast again, rising at 6am and we traveled back to the Convention Center to attend a workshop on ALA New Member Round Table Annual Orientation Session. We then went down to visit the venders in the basement of the Convention Center—there were well over 6000 so we picked and choose which we wanted to visit. We grabbed a quick bite to eat then went to hear “David Baldacci” talk, the author of The Camel Club; Total Control; The Christmas Train; Last Man Standing; Wish You Well; and Hour Game all on your local library shelves. Next we would attend “Picture Books for Older Readers” Sharon McQueen was a great speaker, reading several of the books to us; they were geared for our teens. We caught the shuttle back to our hotel where Denise Smith joined us at 8pm and we headed out on a tour of Washington DC. Our tour guide was Arthur L. Engram and he gave us a history lesson as we went. He would get off the tour bus several times with us and explain what each monument was about. We drove by Library of Congress, Water Gate Hotel; IRS Building; Post office; Supreme Court, House and Senate Office Buildings, Federal Triangle; Pennsylvania Avenue; Capitol Reflecting Pool; Kennedy Center; White House; Washington Capital Building; rode thought George Town; we then got to get off the tour bus and see the following: Lincoln Memorial; Arlington Cemetery; Korean Memorial; National World War II Memorial; Union Station; World War I Memorial; Vietnam ‘Women’s Memorial’s and ‘Patrol Coming In’ as well as the Vietman Wall; Washington monument; Jefferson Memorial; FDR Memorial; Iwo Jima Memorial, and many more monuments. We started our tour at 8pm and returned to our Hotel at midnight, and I saw lots that I did not list. Each of the monuments are all fenced now, each has 3 police cars with engine running none stop 24 hours a day. A helicopter would fly over many times that night checking on the status of things around DC. This has come about since 911 and is managed by Home Land Security.
Sunday morning I choose to sleep in as did many of the other ALA attendee’s. Sunday eve Kim Priest and I walked till we found a sandwich shop and enjoyed supper together. We saw several blocks of Washington DC by doing this—even seeing a fire station swing into action with a fire alarm going off—the big ladder truck and ambulance flew out of a building in front of us.
Washington was very clean; lots of flower beds, people were very friendly and helpful. The homeless both adult and children are in great number in DC and we saw lots sleeping on the sidewalks and in parks as we drove through DC each day, a sad sight to me and each of the monuments would have lots of people around them, some homeless some just out to enjoy the cool night.
Monday morning I checked out of the Fairmont and had my luggage put into storage and joined Sandy and Sid Wise on the shuttle to attend the final conference for WebJunction at the Convention Center, where we ate breakfast. We did get to visit the venders again finding several authors signing books. One happened to be a lady I’d flew in with from Chicago; she had the room next to me at the Fairmont. She signed her book for me ‘for my neighbor Mary’. We took the shuttle back to the Fairmont, claimed our luggage boarding a taxi for Regan Airport and started our trip home. By now I knew I could not carry my luggage very far, and I was scared to death we would have trouble getting out of WashingtonDC, two porters meet our taxi and started our process, getting tickets issued, luggage tagged and sent us on our way. We boarded our plane after lunch in the Reagan airport at 1:50 pm heading for St. Louis landing there at 2:55 and heading onto Wichita. I was met by my sister-in-law at 6pm claimed my luggage and we headed out for dinner at Ryan’s, then took a quick drive around Wichita, then on to her home. I started my final journey home to Protection Tuesday morning at 8am arriving here at 10:30am, glad to be home.
I had a great time, a trip of a life time, got to see the sights of Washington DC, meet lots of new friends and enjoyed my self. My trip was a win from WebJunction and this was also funded by Bill and Melinda Gates. The workshops were all very interesting, informative with lots of hand outs, all provided coffee, juice, with donuts and fruit. I had a private room at the Fairmont, food was not cheap. The shuttle buses were brought in from Florida with drivers who each had to learn the route to the convention center. Its great to be home and back to normal.
News Release!!!
From
Shannon Roy
State Library of Kansas
300 SW 10th St.
Mary Ehret Holler Earns Certification from the State Library of Kansas
Date
Topeka, Ks-State Librarian Christie P. Brandau announced today that Mary Holler of the Protection Township Library has attained the credential of Kansas Certified Public Library Administrator, Level III. This certification is awarded by the State Library of Kansas in Topeka through the “Reaching for Excellence” program. “Reaching for Excellence” recognizes the importance of well trained and highly skilled public library administrators and their importance to Kansas Library service” said Brandau. “I congratulate Mary Ehret Holler on taking the step to become a certified public library administrator.” Mary Ehret Holler has worked at the Protection Township Library for 6 years. Mary attended KPLACE and has earned over 200+ hours of continuing education.
In 2005, the State Library of Kansas, with the assistance of Kansas librarians and library trustees, initiated an effort to identify core competencies needed for public library management, and to create a certification program to recognize the achievement of those skills. The resulting program, Reaching for Excellence: Certification for Kansas Library Administrators, incorporates training requirements drawn from the core competencies for Kansas public library administrators. This voluntary program certifies a library administrator for three years and encourages recertification through training and continuing education.
032507 Mary Holler/Jan Maki pclibrary@ucom.net ©PTL