INDOOR EXERCISE:
Children at summer story time engage in a round of "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" with manager of Anderson Athletic Club, Seth Hinton (off right).

The Cottonwood Community Library building at 3427 Main St. will humbly celebrate its first anniversary August 4 with refreshments during the library hours, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. The low key celebration doesn’t indicate the success of the library, however, as patrons have shown their appreciation throughout the year with regular attendance.

“We’ve gone through moving pains, we’re now going through growing pains,” Harrington said.

The library now circulates 2,000 books per month to an average of 800 patrons per month, library director Gayle Harrington said.

Harrington was especially proud of the library’s consistent growth throughout the year, with about 50 library cards issued each month.

“That’s what I use to gauge success as a library,” she said. “This shows commitment. It’s not just people coming in and leaving.”

The biggest change between the old and new libraries is the intake of books. The new library not only houses twice the inventory at 21,000 books, the library can also process new books faster.

“We didn’t have the space or the volunteers to do this before,” Harrington said, referring to the extra computers and community members helping the library in their spare time.

Harrington credited the library’s seven-member book committee with for its work every Thursday, reviewing donated books and cross-checking the titles against the library collections.

Duplicates or books that don’t make it into the library get sold through a dealer or through the library’s quarterly book sales, where thousands of books are available. The next sale occurs August 2.

The library still maintains its story time program, run by Elaine Lowell, which has become more popular over the summer with older children, now out of school. After the story time hour ends, parents tend to stay and chat.

“It’s become a bit of a kaffee klatsch. . . without the coffee,” Harrington said. “But that’s a part of being here, providing what the community needs us to give them. It’s been wonderful how well we’ve been accepted into the community.”

The library also provides computers with Internet for patrons to use.

“Outlying areas don’t have DSL, so people come in and use it,” Harrington said.

The library has hosted a variety of other programs since its inception last year, including HICAP (Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program) and adult and family literacy.

Keeping the community library afloat

Another major aspect of the library’s growing pains is ongoing funding for the library, even though the library operates on a budget of about $1,500 to $2,000 per month, including the director’s salary.

“We’re very frugal here,” said Harrington, adding that she gets paid for 15 hours of work each week and volunteers the balance of her time there.

Without any paid staff, she relies heavily on the contributions of 12 volunteers at the library. They combine for about 63 hours of volunteered time each week.

To ensure the stability of the library for the future, Harrington has been working to begin an endowment fund. A stewardship program has been the first step, it encourages library supporters to donate a fixed, affordable monthly amount to the library. Currently, only six people have signed on as stewards.

“They need sustainability help,” said Tom Burnham, who earned the title of honorary mayor of Cottonwood when he raised $12,000 for the library with a dinner and raffle.

Burnham said he didn’t enjoy reading until he got a job as a millwright that required him to read well and often.

“Now I read every day,” Burnham said. “I want to promote that for everyone.”