Clare Murphy isn’t surprised to be serving as the new branch manager of the Bonney Lake library.
“I grew up in a family of seven kids and my mom used to bring us piles of books from the library,” she said. “I should’ve known then that I’d be a librarian.”
Murphy, who accepted the new position in mid-November, has worked in the Pierce County Library System since 1994, serving as reference librarian for both the South Hill and Parkland branches and adding content to its Web site. That experience has afforded her the ability to familiarize herself with the needs of Bonney Lake’s citizens.
“We want to find out who doesn’t use the library and why,” she said. “The challenge is to work with our community and find out what they want. We’ve started a massive long-range planning systemwide; we’re looking at the 2030 library.”
That may be 22 years in the future, but Murphy believes she and her fellow staff members are on the right track now by offering an extensive variety of resources some non-library users may not be aware exists. And they’re all available with the swipe of a library card.
“We’ve got five formats of books available,” she said. Those include titles recorded on talking compact discs, MP3 players, self-contained cassette Playaways – perfect while walking or working out, she said – audio books available on the Internet and even books online that can be downloaded to iPods; the latter is issued under copyright license protection and erases 21 days after downloading.
The library also features community events and works closely with the support given by the Friends of the Bonney Lake Library, a nonprofit group that sponsors special events, including “Puppets, Please” – an interactive marionette show that will take place at 1:15 p.m. Saturday.
Other resources include children’s story times, a large selection of movies and music and an online homework service that safely pairs students with professional tutors.
“The variety is phenomenal,” she said.
As Murphy gets to know Bonney Lake library’s patrons a little more with each visit into its branch, she taps into one more resource – a quote by S.R. Ranganathan, author of the “Five Laws of Library Science”: “Every book its reader. Every reader his book.
Reach Judy Halone at jhalone@courierherald.com or 360-802-8210.
