You can help us determine
how to best serve public

One of the many reasons I love working in a public library is the impact we have on the community. Not just educational, but the social, economic and cultural impact as well. Our daily interaction with library members has always provided us with great anecdotal evidence of how we affect people's lives, especially the children. We love the stories we hear and the gratitude parents share with us when their child has learned a new skill, made a new friend or developed an interest in reading because of a program we offered or a relationship they developed with our staff.

We are fortunate to work with many caring and supportive teachers who visit our library for field trips and send us delightful letters from their students about their experience. All of these make us feel good, inspire us to keep creating more programs to respond to community needs, and help us to share the library experience with other organizations and businesses in town and especially with our legislative leaders.

But we expect more. We want to truly be able to determine the impact we have on Wallkill, not just the output, or numbers of people who attend our programs, but to truly be able to measure the outcome, or measurable impact, we are having on children and adults who attend our programs or use our collections and services.

Children's author Louis Sachar signs copies of his books during the ALA conference in June. 

Over the last few years, we have taken advantage of some unique marketing and community outreach opportunities, particularly through OCLC (Online Computer Learning Center). OCLC partners with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to provide access to funds and tools to inform the public about the importance and value of libraries in the digital age. The Wallkill Public Library was the first library in New York State to adopt the "Geek the Library" community outreach campaign. (You may remember our "Geek the Library" night at Dutchess Stadium and the "Geek" posters we created featuring library members). Last year, we receive the "Outside the Box" grant - a partnership between the Project for Public Spaces, RedBox and OCLC that enabled us to use $5000 worth of funds awarded to acquire outdoor materials such as an inflatable movie screen, gliders, tables, and chairs to use around town at events and locations to foster community and provide attractive gathering places for our struggling downtown.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to represent our library at the American Library Association's annual conference in San Francisco in order to participate, as one of 50 libraries nationwide, in another Gates-funded effort: a three-year study called Project Impact. We will be one of the test sites - representing the small, rural library - to utilize a measurement tool to gather data with the purpose of assessing outcomes for the programs, collections and services we provide. As library members, you may be asked to provide information after participating in programming that will be charted and tracked over the next three years. We would really appreciate your support to help us with this project by providing your feedback.

Not only will this become a valuable planning tool for all of us, who work here, but it will enable us to more keenly assess what our community, and collectively, the country, wants from its library and specifically how the community benefits, educationally, culturally, socially, and economically.

We look forward to providing you, our taxpaying supporters, with the concrete data to support our stories, claims, and numbers. It will be an interesting and engaging interactive process we will go through together. We look forward to working with you, to growing with you, and especially to continue to build and enhance our library for the generations to come. Thank you, as always, for your dedication and support.

                                                                     - Mary Lou Carolan

                                                 Director, Wallkill Public Library 

Library director invited to NYLA retreat
Wallkill Public Library director Mary Lou Carolan will be one of a select group of New York's library leaders to take part in the New York Library Association's Sustainability Initiative Retreat in September.
The retreat is part of an effort to shape strategies that will ensure that libraries remain vital to the communities they serve. Because libraries are increasingly faced with economic challenges and other obstacles, the NYLA Council's Resolution on the Importance of Sustainable Libraries was passed in 2014 as a way of recognizing the need to promote the important role libraries can and do play in larger community conversations about resiliency. September's retreat is a means of furthering that goal.
Good luck and congratulations to Mary Lou!
Coming up at the Wallkill Public Library
One of the library's Superheroes performs an extraordinary feat during Tuesday's Boot Camp.
Sunday: The Pine Bush Community Band will perform at 3 p.m. on the library lawn (or at Popp's Pavilion, if it rains).
Monday: Crafters can create a Papier Mache Bowl at 11 a.m. Behind the Scenes meets at 2:30 p.m. Minecraft Free Play is offered at 4 p.m.
Tuesday: Textile Tuesdays and the Quilters' Circle are  held between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the community room of Town Hall. Superhero Boot Camp meets at 11 a.m. Drawing & Techniques is offered at 2 p.m. Zines for Teens follows at 3:30 p.m. Minecraft Quest takes place at 5 p.m. The Adult Fiction Club meets to discuss Lisa Genova's Love Anthony at 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday: Family Story Time is offered at 10:30 a.m. Family Stories and MakeIt Space sessions begin at 3:30 p.m. Light Writing for Families also takes place at 3:30 p.m. The Chess and Game Club meets at 6 p.m. Light Writing for Teens takes place at 6:30 p.m. The Quilters' Circle meets at 6:30 p.m. in the community room of Town Hall.
Thursday: The 3DS StreetPass Club gets together at 11 a.m. The LEGO Digital Design Lab is held at 2 p.m. Reading, Writing, and 3D Printing is offered at 6 p.m. The Adult Knit and Crochet Club meets at 6:30 p.m. Local Author Marc Fried will hold a discussion in the community room of Town Hall at 7 p.m.
Friday: The 11 a.m. Grab & Go Demo will feature string art. Minecraft Challenge will be held at 3 p.m. The Vision of Wallkill community improvement group will present at movie at Garrison Park at 8:30 p.m.
Watch out for Watchman...coming Tuesday
The countdown begins....well, actually, some avid Harper Lee fans have been counting down to the release of the 89-year-old's second book, Go Set a Watchman, since February, when HarperCollins announced the book's upcoming release.
But July 14 - this coming Tuesday! - is when the book will be out, and the library's already ordered multiple copies in anticipation of the novel's huge demand, which has been likened to the height of the Harry Potter frenzy.
Though the book is a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, it was actually written before the famous Pulitzer Prize winner. But when Lee delivered the initial manuscript to her editor in the mid-1950s, he suggested she expand on the passages that delved into her main character Scout's childhood, and the result was To Kill a Mockingbird, which was published in 1960 and hasn't been out of print since. 
Go Set a Watchman takes place 20 years after the events that unfolded in To Kill a Mockingbird, and features an adult Scout as she comes home to visit her father.
For those who can't wait 'til Tuesday to sneak a peek at the eagerly awaited novel, you can read the first chapter here.
3D printing a taste of future programming
Summer readers are getting their tech on with the library's new 3D-printing program!
Reading, Writing, and 3D Printing is introducing families to the cutting edge technology that creates three-dimensional structures out of plastic, metal, nylon, and more than a hundred other different types of materials.
The library has partnered with the Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacturing Center at SUNY New Paltz to offer a basic  beginner class for kids and adults. New Paltz student and intern Caryn Byllot helps guide participants through the library's workshops and teach them about some of 3D printing's incredible uses, from the creation of prosthetic limbs to replacement parts for appliances to jewelry.
Stay tuned for more exciting programs featuring the 3D printer in the fall!
Local author holds discussion Thursday
Writer Marc Fried will be in the community room of Town Hall Thursday at 7 p.m. to discuss and sign copies of his new book, Notes from the Other Side.
The book is a compilation of the columns Fried writes for the Shawangunk Journal, which include anecdotes and musings about Wallkill and the surrounding area.
The book is now on sale at Inquiring Minds Bookstore in New Paltz.
Outdoor movie featured at Garrison Park
Ready to enjoy a family movie and some fresh air at the same time?
The community improvement group Vision of Wallkill will be presenting the film 101 Dalmations at 8:30 p.m. Friday at Garrison Park.
The movie is part of VOW's summer entertainment series, which also features concerts and performances as well as another family movie later in the season.
The inflatable movie screen was among $5,000 worth of reusable materials VOW won with the Outside the Box grant last year.
So grab some chairs or a blanket and something to nosh on, and enjoy the show!
Workshop offers strategies for families 
The Orange County Department of Mental Health will be offering a workshop in August for families who want to discover better ways to navigate child and adolescent service systems.
The Team Up for Your Child Road Map Workshop will take place from 6-9 p.m. Aug. 12 and 26. Families will learn how to communicate their needs and concerns to providers; get help deciphering unfamiliar jargon; track their child's progress on a daily basis; and build a support system to help them with their challenges. Participants will gain expertise in working with doctors, schools, insurers, and social agencies.
The free workshop is sponsored by VoicesUnited4Change. To register, contact Becky Johnson at bjohnson@orangecountygov.com, or at (845)360-6713.