The Creston Public Library is more than just a place to find books according to Chief Librarian Saara Itkonen.
Itkonen is pleased that many of their meetups and activities, including the Locavore Book Club, is due to the library’s existing senior staff.
However, she says sky’s the limit when it come to working with other organizations in the Columbia Basin.
“Really, anything is possible when you’re collaborating with other community groups. So we have a lot of groups here in the Columbia Basin and what we can do together is sort of collaborate on new programs and support each other in the community.”
Although very new to Creston, Itkonen has already organized Family Story time which runs on Thursdays at 10:30 AM at the library.
She says its an opportunity for young children to learn and play with language.
In terms of growth Itkonen says she would like to see more programs and create more partnerships to offer even more services.
“The hopre is to be able to add more in the way of technology workshops for people learning how to use devices and use them better. I kind of think of it as open ended when I think of what the library can do with other people and groups.”
Itkonen iterates that she wants people to consider the public library as a free space and she aims to see more workshops in the future.