State funding helps library expand collection

The Carson City Library will soon be offering more than 900 new books, videos and audio recordings, thanks to a $20,591 grant from the State Collection Development Project.

Credited with helping the library obtain the money are state representatives Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, and Assemblywoman Bonnie Parnell, D-Carson City.

"We are incredibly grateful for their help," said Sally Edwards, library director.

It is much-awaited good news, after the city's belt-tightening financially hindered all city services in 2003. Because of the cut, the library has been playing catch up with its collection.

Roughly 2,000 people use Carson City's each day it's open.

Amodei and Parnell made sure the library received the money during the last legislative session.

The new items should be available during the coming weeks, as librarians catalog and document each piece before placing it on the shelves.

Amodei and Parnell came to the library Wednesday to see the items purchased with the grant.

This wasn't a first-time or even rare appearance for either one of them. Library employees know both of these local politicians well.

"When somebody moves to a community, they gravitate to the library," Parnell said. "It's a community focal point, an important place for people to come."

Parnell has spent a lot of time at the library. During her years as an elementary and middle school teacher, she used the library to obtain additional materials for lesson planning. She would also come to pick up large-print books for her parents.

She also served as the state's literacy coordinator, which allowed her to visit almost every library in the state.

Amodei is no stranger to the facility, either. His big interest is in state history and comes to read the books in library's special collection, which are rare or valuable and cannot be taken home.

Ensuring that the library received this money "was an investment statewide, and in the literacy infrastructure."

He also disagrees with people who say libraries are antiquated because society is moving toward computers and away from books. Libraries are providing computer services and continuing to offer information to the public in a multitude of other ways.

Libraries "are everybody's database," Amodei said.

Many of the new items focus on health, but the materials acquired encompass a variety of topics.

-- Contact reporter Terri Harber at tharber @nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111, ext. 215.

If you go

WHAT: Carson City Library

WHERE: 900 N. Roop St.

WHEN: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

CALL: 887-2244