The following is by Sumner’s Mayor Dave Enslow:
On Monday night’s Council Meeting, we were pleased to meet Georgia Lomax, the new executive director of Pierce County Library System, and thank Neel Parikh for serving us so well for many years. Have you been to the Sumner branch of the Pierce County Library lately? A library is not just about books on shelves anymore.
According to the numbers, many of you have been there lately. During 2013, Sumner’s branch was visited nearly 141,000 times by over 12,800 cardholders. We checked out 375,773 items, and 6,432 of us attended 290 events. Through the summer reading program, our children read for 5,705 hours. I must confess that I love taking my grandkids to the reading hours. It’s one of the best ways for all ages to enjoy an afternoon together in Sumner.
Even if you’re one of those frequent visitors, there are still resources at the Library that would surprise you. Did you know that you can download 84 different magazines to read for free? You can check out passes to the Washington State History Museum, Museum of Glass and Tacoma Art Museum. You can get free training through the Microsoft IT Academy, and if you’re searching for a job, the library will help you with your resume and practice interviews with you. You can download music, movies, and books and get help figuring out how to use your tablet or e-reader.
With all these resources, it’s no wonder the Library won the National Medal for Museum and Library Service and was recognized by First Lady Michelle Obama as well as NPR’s StoryCorps, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and the Urban Libraries Council. I know many of you support all this work as the Friends of the Sumner Library raised nearly $5,000 last year to support events, supplies and keeping our own branch looking great. Thank you to Neel, Georgia, Pierce County Library and all of you for making this such a valuable resource for our community.
Explore the Library system even more.
Mayor Dave Enslow
P.S. Did I mention that Georgia Lomax is a Sumner resident? I think that must give us some sort of home field advantage for more great things to come from our library in the future!
