The winter issue of the Wyoming Library Roundup. the official publication of the Wyoming State Library, the Wyoming Library Association, and the Wyoming Center for the Book, are being mailed out. Read about:
---Emily Parker, who spent her high school years in Laramie and now works for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle. Now that most libraries have been set up with computers, upgraded and replaced equipment and provided technology training to staff, the focus has turned to growing libraries as community technology hubs. The Gates foundation wants to help libraries flourish in that role.
---Carol McMurry, who, in 2000, established the Carol McMurry Library Endowment with a $2.5 million gift to the Wyoming Community Foundation. Carol's interest in libraries comes from her grandmother, who took her to the Carnegie Library in Casper every Saturday. As a college student, Carol began shelving books at UW's Coe Library. Carol recognizes the importance of younger people being trained as librarians, because, contrary to opinion that libraries won't survive, Carol believes that libraries are part of the cultural community. "It's something that makes us civilized and places where people come together."
---Sales at your local library and the dedication and hard work by the many volunteers who make for a successful sale.
---The project of Wyoming's Carnegie Libraries, begun in 1886 by Andrew Carnegie, who spent $56 million and built 1,681 public libraries in the United States. Between 1899 and 1917, sixteen Wyoming towns received grants totaling $245,000. Per capita, Wyoming received more money than any other state.
---Mabel Wilkinson:Horseback Librarian, who delivered books as Park County librarian in 1919 under the seeming motto, 'no fence, thunderstorm, angry bull or rattler will keep me away from my mission.' For a copy of Mabel Wilkinson's story, "Experiences of a Library Field Worker," contact tlacke@state.wy.us or call (307) 777-6338.
---Dr. William T. Close, who went on a mission to Africa in 1960 for six weeks and ended up staying sixteen years, becoming physician to some of the most powerless and destitute in the Belgian Congo, as well as to the most powerful man in the country, President Mobutu Sese Seko.
For more information about this publication contact the Wyoming state Library Publications and Marketing Office, 516 S. Greeley Hwy., Cheyenne, WY 82002; phone (307) 777-6338; website: http://will.state.wy.us/roundup
