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
Wizardmarksforlibrary@hotmail.com