Election Day in Ely

Hello,

There were people parked in my favorite parking places at work. A number of cars were lining the street in front of the library as well. I go in the back door and people were standing at the front door. Usually I get myself set up and ready to roll before I open the door, but I unlocked it as it was adults and not a lot of kids who might need immediate attention. I later wished that I had not been so hasty to open the door as it was at least 15 minutes before I had time to hang up my jacket.

Voting takes place in the library meeting room. It has a separate entrance off the lobby. People have easy access to either place. I was so happy to see my co-worker come after an hour as I felt a bit over whelmed. Not only were a lot of people coming in many of them wanted to update their library cards and a couple were new patrons. All of that takes a bit more time to deal with. Before the day was over we signed up several more new patrons and updated many more cards. At least it was easier to get this done with two of us there. In the seven hours we were open we had 151 people come in the library. It was fun, exciting, and tiring. Having a well attended election certainly helped our statistics in the library. It is such great exposure for the library. It affirms our reason for being.

A normal fall weekday has been probably closer to 50 people using the library. Even on some of the busier summer days I do not think I had many more than 100. Many of the new people had not been in the library before and seemed quite impressed with it. I do think it is a good library for a small town. This is a growing town. More people voted than I could imagine.

Paula