Projects
SCHOLARSHIP WINNER Diane Stanhope, chair of the Friends’ Scholarship Committee, announced at the June Luncheon this year's UW Information School scholarship winner was Krista Ohrtman. Mrs Ortman is 29 and has been managing the Colville Public Library, the largest of the libraries in Stevens County, for 3 years. She will finish her online UW Information School Masters Degree next Spring. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota with a B.A. in Social Studies. Married 8 years to a Lutheran Minister with whom she has two children, ages 5 and 3, she finds herself wearing many hats. Her area of special interest is rural public librarianship where libraries serve as a community meeting place, provide computer education and furnish job search assistance.
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In support of the Friends’ goal to support literacy, reading and the use of information resources, a $500 donation was made to the Riecken Foundation located in the country of Guatemala (www.riecken.org). The staff of the Foundation selected a “counter-part library” Ventanas Abietas al Futuro, in the town of Chiche’, which is in the department of El Quiche. The Foundation Director states that the library is smaller than others in the area, but the library team manages to carry out a strong program calendar of book clubs, story hours, youth debates and art projects. The library team are very focused on motivating life-long readers throught activities in early childhood development targeted at children ages 0-5. In addition, they have developed a set of unique activities with community members who have come to the library with their own ideas.
