by Zach Miller
Quick Summary
Staff at the Waseca Public Library use local and statewide resources to provide outstanding service to their patrons. A single LSTA grant distributed in 2015 has led to seven years (and counting) of excellence in early literacy programming.
The Waseca Public Library sits adjacent to Trowbridge Park in a lush green expanse just steps from the city of Waseca's charming downtown. Behind the library building, a music garden, completed in 2019, serves as a bridge between a playground in the park's center and the library's joyful staff, collections, and programs.
Afton Finley, the Waseca Public Library Librarian, and Stacy Lienemann, Waseca-Le Sueur Regional Library System director (and a member of Minitex's Policy Advisory Council), are justifiably proud of their library's achievements. In 2015, the library was awarded an LSTA grant of $20,000 that led to a particular point of pride: early literacy programming they call Romp & Rhyme. The fact that Romp & Rhyme is still going strong seven years later is a testament to the remarkable ability of library staff (not just in Waseca) to extract every last bit of benefit from the at-times scarce resources they are allotted. "When we get an investment, we really try to make it last," said Lienemann.
The library's basement bears witness to this assertion. Today, the collection of rarely circulating materials housed in the basement is rapidly ceding ground to an expanding multitude of transparent plastic tubs, each containing a one-of-a-kind "Romp & Rhyme" story time kit designed and assembled by library staff. Examples include "Hop, Little Bunnies," "The Letter R," "Roar, Dinosaur," and many, many, many more. (Near the kits large boxes of Nerf guns - there must be over 50 - donated by an appreciative local family also vie for space.)
The library also offers families a Romp & Rhyme key-ring festooned with 50 constructive ideas for family fun (rhyming games, art projects, cooking, etc.) and a list of the 100 Best Books for Early Literacy.
As a Minnesota library, Waseca offers Minitex services to its patrons as well. Recently, Finley said, a local grandmother came to the library with her grandson, in search of information about tiger sharks for the research project he was doing. A library staff member knew just where to look: eLibrary Minnesota. Days later, the staff member saw the child's project at the county fair, where it had won a prize. On another occasion, a gentleman came to the library in search of a rare book. With the help of library staff, he found it on MNLINK, held at a library in Kentucky. Even though it was held out of state, and one of just 13 copies in the world, he soon had the book in his hands.
