I'm Wizard Marks and I'm announcing my campaign for DFL endorsement for the Minneapolis Public Library Board of Trustees. As an advocate for Central Neighborhood I have worked for seven years to put the community back into Hosmer Community Library, the premier community library in the Minneapolis system. As a result of creating a coalition of five neighborhoods, Hosmer quadrupled its patronage, improved its collection ten-fold or more, and has made its circulation greater than it has been since 1968. This transformation into a library for the Twenty-first Century needs to be expanded to all community libraries in the city. I have worked in libraries: two years as a student staff person at Lovejoy Library in Illinois, as a puppeteer for St. Paul Public Library, and was the first librarian for Toys 'n Things toy lending library for home day care providers in St. Paul. In that position I created the first cataloging system for toys, using the development potential of each toy to cross reference it in the card catalogue. I have been an organizer/advocate since 1968 and a VISTA Volunteer in the America Reads Program at Hosmer Library. Libraries in general, and Minneapolis Public Library in particular, have not developed their potential for raising money to supplement their budgets so that they can enhance the materials and programming at the library. With the generosity of the tax payers last year in passing the bonding bill, specifying $30 million for the branches, and each branch preparing for updated facilities or remodels, we have a tremendous potential to improve our library system's collection and programming. This is something we have to do to stay current in a fast-paced world. Our library system is at the beginning of a renewal process and does not yet have all the tools to raise the money, to create other coalitions and partnerships, nor to effectively listen to the public when they say what they need their particular branch to have. The Board of Trustees has to take leadership for this to happen. I have proven, at Hosmer, that I know how to do this. I would please me to be able to serve my neighbors as a library Trustee while the community redevelops Minneapolis Public Library as the Library for the Twenty-first Century. Wizard Marks [EMAIL PROTECTED] 3001 Oakland Ave. So. Vi Haldeman, Treasurer _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
