Philosophy of the Ester library The Ester library has been throughout its history a do-it-yourself membership library, whose members—generally from the Ester area—are those interested enough to join. Almost its entire collections have been donated by local residents, with some coming from the state library in Juneau and only a very few books purchased, with used book credit from Gulliver's Books. There is no staff at the library; library members are responsible for the library's upkeep, for checking out and returning books, and for maintaining its shelves. It truly is the patrons' library, and functions on an honor system. The JTEL is very much a community library, with items specific to Ester and Alaska history, and, because of the way the collections have developed, reflective of the reading interests of the Ester area. Local control of the library has always been important to the membership.So, too, is local investment in its construction and design. The following mission statement was approved at the 2009 membership meeting:
The library is working on its incorporation as a charitable nonprofit organization; regular meetings are held to discuss library business every 2nd Wednesday of the month. The first annual membership meeting was held October 25. More on the original incorporation discussion and full minutes for the January 23, 2009 meeting are available. For reference, below are some basic principles of library science:
The John Trigg Ester Librray is a member of the Alaska Library Association. The Ester library features many books that have been banned or have suffered attempts at banning in libraries and schools. Ideas are revolutionary things and upset the status quo, expand the minds of their thinkers, and generally cause a ruckus. The librarians feel that this is a good thing. | |||
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