Blogging Live from the MML (Millinocket Memorial Library)

 

I spent the morning today checking things off my "to do" list and getting ready for a 36 hr. trip to Millinocket and NEOC (New England Outdoor Center)!  

Coming to Millinocket is very fun, it is my original Katahdin Region home and it holds a special place in my heart.   

I am sitting at a table at the totally remodeled MML.  In early 2015 on a visit to Millinocket from Minnesota I went to the library, it was dark, it was kind of depressing and it was not very inviting.  I had to pay $25.00 for a non-resident card (didn't matter that I owned a home in town!) and they still used a card catalog and signing your name on a check out card at the back of a book.  By then end of 2016, the library had almost closed permanently only to be saved by a small and mighty group of community members, who volunteered, raised money and hired an amazing guy Matt Delaney to come and revive and re-imagine the library.....that happened....Matt has come and gone and

the library is a community hub, vital and outreaching and vibrant!   Diana Furukawa in now the library director, I met her when she came as an Island Institute Fellow and she continued to provide amazing services, programs, and visioning of Libraries as public space. 

 For me the library was one of my lifelines for my new life in Millinocket.  In 2017, I started volunteering 2 times a week, I checked books in and out for people,  I helped with computer searches,  I worked with Matt, the other volunteers and Island Institute fellows - implementing new systems, imagining a library that does so much more than be a place for books to be go in and out.  I met people, I smiled and greeted and had such pleasure in coming to the library, doing my job, and being a part of something very alive, changing and growing!

MML is a feel good story.   I don't volunteer there any more but I am still greeted warmly and it still feels like home when I walk through the door.

In Patten we experienced the library building being closed due to insurance and habitability issues.  The library was in one of oldest buildings in town, and had suffered through decades of little or no upkeep and maintenance.   We know have our Veteran's Memorial Library in the Lumberman's Museum, it is tiny little space and is offering so very much.  Julie, our library director did her Library of Science internship at MML, we volunteered together and for a year or so after I moved to Patten Julie and I drove to MML weekly to volunteer.  Another small but mighty group in Patten has formed a not for profit and they are working to fund raise and plan for a new library building in Patten.   Patten and Millinocket Libraries support each other, the directors have invited and have pulled together a regional library group, and they are meeting regularly visiting each other's libraries and how they can work and collaborate together throughout our region.  

Libraries were a very safe and special place for me as a kid.  Books opened up my life.  I still love books and I love libraries.  

Diana and I Friday Afternoon At the Library