Recently, the Cokato Public Library celebrated 80 years of providing community access to reading and educational materials. The Cokato Library is part of the Great River Regional Library, a family of 32 libraries in six counties of central Minnesota.

It shares 850,000 items, including books, both fiction and non-fiction; DVDs, music CDs, magazines and newspapers, audiobooks, computers and the Internet, programs for all ages, professional reference service, and electronic resources and databases searchable in libraries and through the Internet. The library now offers wireless Internet.

With the increase of online services, such as a catalog with several libraries to get books from, “the numbers are going up,” Librarian Mary Ackerman said.

There is a preschool story time the first and third Wednesdays of the month during the school year. Check the library for summer story time schedules.

Because the library has become so busy, Ackerman said, there is a second librarian on hand, Jana Knutson. Ackerman has also announced her retirement plans at the end of the 2008 summer.

A little help from good ‘friends’

Friends of the Cokato Area Library (FOCAL), was founded in 2004 to be advocates for the area library, and help build awareness for its expansion.

During the Cokato Corn Carnival each year, FOCAL hosts a book sale with the proceeds going toward programs for chidren and the library expansion efforts.

Anyone can be part of FOCAL and be as active as they would like, whether it’s donating time for promoting awareness of the expansion, or donating money to help the expansion efforts.

“It’s always nice to have new members with energy and new ideas,” Ackerman said.

The library needs room for more book shelves. There are books on top of book shelves and space for only two computers. “We got the city’s permission for a TV and VCR, but we don’t have a place to put it,” she said.

“We would like space for a teen social area, where they could play games,” Ackerman said, “Right now, we don’t have room.”

The Cokato library is located on Broadway Avenue and Fourth Street. Hours are: Monday 2 to 6 p.m., Tuesday 2 to 8 p.m., Wednesday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday 2 to 8 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to noon, 2 to 6 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. to noon. Visit its web site at www.griver.org or call (320) 286-5760.