Live from WJ-IL, Episode 004, August 29, 2007
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Lisa Barnhart interviews Bev Obert, Rachel Miller and Louise Greene of the Rolling Prairie Library System at the 2007 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, IL. The Rolling Prairie Library System has been active for several years promoting libraries at the Farm Progress Show. This year they introduced a new theme, “Think Outside the Barn @ Your Library.” Bev, Rachel and Louise share success stories and the excitement of libraries from the Farm Progress Show.
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Live from WJ-IL
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Live from WJ-IL Transcript: Farm Progress Show
Lisa: Hi, I’m Lisa Barnhart and this is Live from WJ-IL. We’re here in Decatur at the Farm Progress Show, and I’m with some of the members of the Rolling Prairie Library System Staff. Their staff has been involved with the FPS for several years now, and this year they have a them at their booth of “Think Outside the Barn @ Your Library.”
I’m here with Bev Obert, the Director of the Rolling Prairie Library System, and I just wanted to ask her a couple of questions and then she’s going to introduce some of her staff members who are here.
Bev, what made you think to get involved with the Farm Progress Show?
Bev: In 1991, the first show we displayed at Dalton City, and we felt that it was important for the libraries to go out there and talk to the rural people and tell them about the importance of libraries and the importance of reading and what libraries can do for them out there in the rural community. So that’s what we did. Since then, this is our 4th show, we’ve had a theme of “This is Reading Country,” but this year our theme is “Think Outside the Barn@ Your Library, and it’s been great fun to have it.
Lisa: Wonderful, and this is Rachel?
Bev: Rachel Miller is our Youth Services Consultant here at Rolling Prairie Library System, and Louise Green who is our Public and Special Library Consultant here at Rolling Prairie, and they’ve both been very involved and have created this great event for us.
Lisa: Rachel, tell us what has been the response here at the show, and also in your member libraries?
Rachel: Well we have had so much fun with this, and our member libraries have just stepped up and done great things for us. We have wonderful volunteers who have worked on a committee to set this up, we have people from our member libraries who have come in to staff the booth, they’ve given us financial donations, they’ve given us book donations to give away at the booth. We have just really been so happy with all the participation we’ve had from our members.
And as far as here at the show, it has been so much fun to talk to everyone about their libraries. We’ve been asking people where they’re from, asking them about their public libraries, where they get their books, and have had great conversations about what goes on in local communities and finding out more and helping share that information with things they maybe didn’t know about their local libraries.
People have been surprised to see us somewhat, but others have just been happy to see us. So it’s been a lot of fun to give away the books and talk to people about their libraries.
Lisa: Louise, what’s been your favorite success story from here?
Louise: Well actually I have two Lisa. Yesterday, we had some people come to the booth at different times, a gentleman and a lady, and they had their reading lists with them. And one of them pulled his reading list out of his pocket and asked if we had a particular book in a series that he hadn’t read yet. And then the lady pulled out several reading lists actually all stapled together, and she was all ready to go in our booth. So, I think, the show goers have kind of come to expect our booth at the Farm Progress Show.
And then I think the second level of success is that we have made this outreach effort portable, we’ve got it branded now, with Think Outside the Barn @ Your Library, and we have other libraries across the state of Illinois very interested in taking this show on the road to other farm related days.
Lisa: That’s great. So we’ve been talking about renewable energy here on our segments at Live from WJ-IL, so Bev can you tell us how events like this bring renewed energy to the Illinois Library Community?
Bev: For us, just hearing us talk about it, meeting the people, it renews our energy and makes us want to go out and do more for the public and for our member libraries. The people spend money and support the public libraries every year, and at the library, they can harvest a lot of information, but they can also get a lot of renewable information, and information that will help them to renew themselves, and we renew ourselves. So, the library, definitely a renewable energy source for everybody.
Lisa: Well thanks to the Rolling Prairie Library System staff for taking on this project, and I’m Lisa Barnhart, this is Live from WJ-IL, remember you don’t have to live on a farm to “Think Outside the Barn @ Your Library.”
