Katy Branch Narrative, November 1999

KATY BRANCH NARRATIVE NOVEMBER 1999 Interesting things happened this month at the library. First and foremost, our Friends of the Library President, B. Whittenborn, wrote a grant to the Stirling-Turner Foundation requesting money for a library building fund. The foundation awarded them $10,000. Our Friends group was thrilled, of course. B. was especially thrilled as it was the first grant proposal she has ever written. She had experience writing business proposals, but not for money. She is, even now, hard at work writing another grant proposal to the Strake foundation. On the heels of this was the Katy City Council meeting held on Nov. 15. During this meeting they were to discuss an upcoming bond issue. Amazingly, they also discussed and voted on a proposal to include 2 million in funds for a brand new library building. This proposal, by one of the city councilmen, was accepted and approved. The site may possibly be on Franz road, or it may be on the property where the old V.F.W. Hall sits. The election is set for January of 2000. During the month of November I hosted a group of homeschoolers for a library instruction course. About 15 people showed up, which was a good number, considering sitting space is limited. I talked about the different resources available in our library and on the computer. I plan to try to continue this since there are many homeschoolers out there. I have also started teaching Internet basics on Wed. mornings to people who are just beginning. The class size is limited to four people and I have had some success with this new program. Myrtle also had a Children’s bookweek program. The theme was to “plant a seed” so Myrtle had a gardening expert come over and talk about the landscaping in front of the library which they do. At the end, the kids actually planted seeds. The rest of the month was, of course, taken up with weeding and selection Terri Dingley, Katy Branch Librarian