Dell Rapids Carnegie Public Library Archives - Big Sioux Media Sports Network

Library Continues Big Presence in Dell Rapids

August 20, 2021 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

Dell Rapids Carnegie Library Director Brittany Moeller provided the Dell Rapids City Council an update on the operations for 2021. The update was given on Monday, August 16th.

The Summer Reading Program recently ended, and 650 people took part in the program this year. Last year’s summer reading program had a total of 305 people, but there were many changes due to Covid restrictions last year.

“Everyone was really excited to be back and back in the library and have normal programs. That was really fun to see,” Moeller.

The library also held six programs throughout the week, with an occasional seventh program, throughout the summer. A total of 1,313 people attend those programs. As of August 5th, the library has issued 55 new library cards for a total of 141 people.

Moeller also shared one of the biggest successes from 2020. Despite not being open for in-person programming due to Covid, the library was still able to run a total of 1,149 programs reaching 5,129 people. Most of that was through all of their video and social media programming. Moeller mentioned they not only reached people locally, but also connected with people from across the country in states such at Texas, Kansas, Maine, and Minnesota.

Dell Rapids Chamber Gives Community Awards, Announces New President and Board Members

February 23, 2021 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

The Dell Rapids Chamber of Commerce had a busy night at their annual banquet on Sunday, February 21st at Papa’s in downtown Dell Rapids. The chamber announced their annual community awards as well as new board members and new president.

The chamber announced their annual award winners and the winner of the 2nd Annual “Battle of the Buns” contest.

Minnehaha Funeral Home and the staff at the Dell Rapids Carnegie Library were both awarded the “Community Spirit” Award. Minnehaha Funeral Home was recognized for their active support with chamber for all of the events in 2020. Ahlers stated that they have done so much to support the children’s events as well as “Christmas at the Dells”. The staff at the library was recognized for their hard work and continued service to the community during the Covid pandemic and the unique ways they continued to operate and provided programming throughout the year.

Linsey Duffy was given the “Volunteer of the Year” Award. Duffy has worked diligently over the years for the Sioux River Red Rock Trail, and she will now be helping with Dell Rapids Garden Club.

Pinz was named the “2020 Business of the Year”. It was mentioned that they have made many great investments in facility and equipment upgrades, have provided increased job opportunities for the youth of Dell Rapids, brought major tournaments to town, and increased student involvement in bowling.

Pinz was also announced as the winner of the 2nd Annual “Battle of the Buns” contest held through the month of January. Pinz had an 86% rating of “Loved It” for their “Cheez-fection” burger creation.

The chamber also affirmed two members to the Dell Rapids Chamber of Commerce board who have been working in that role for the past year and to also elect three new board members to fill open spots. Rebecca Fritz and Jeff Kistler were affirmed as board members. Leslie Duinkerken, Nathan O’Bryan, and Tammy McKillip were elected as new board members filling vacant spots. They will join Amber Larson and Mark DeGraw to fill the seven-seat Chamber Board of Directors. Dell Rapids Mayor Tom Earley will continue to serve as a liaison between the chamber and City of Dell Rapids council.

Dan Ahlers announced that he was stepping down as the chamber president during the meeting and introduced Amber Larson as the new president. Larson has been on the Chamber Board of Directors serving as treasurer for the last seven years.

Dell Rapids Library Receives New Item and Expands Hours

September 13, 2020 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

Picture from Dell Rapids Carnegie Public Library Facebook page, used with permission by Library Director Brittany Moeller

The Dell Rapids Carnegie Public Library recently made two announcements on their Facebook page.

The first announcement made was about a new book sanitizing machine. According to Facebook announcement, the library was able to purchase a Liva Book Sterilizer machine through a Covid grant the city received. This machine uses UV light to kill 99% of germs, bacteria, viruses, mold, and bed bugs. All library materials can be used in the machine. With the addition of this machine to the library, the quarantine time for returned library items will be shortened from seven days to one day.

The other announcement made by the library was new updated hours. Starting on Monday, September 14th, the library will be open on Mondays from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and then open 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Saturday hours will be coming soon. The extended hours add an extra 30 minutes of open time on Mondays and an hour and a half on the other days of the week.

Dell Rapids Library Ready for Phase 2 Opening

July 31, 2020 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

The Dell Rapids Carnegie Public Library will be opening its doors to the public on Monday, August 3rd. The opening begins Phase 2 of their plans to get back to normal operations.

“We get to open back up to the public on Monday, August 3rd. It’s going to be a little different,” said library directory Brittany Moeller.

One of the biggest changes with the Phase 2 opening is a change in hours. The library will be open Mondays from 9 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and then open from 9 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. The library will also be open from 9 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on the first Saturday of the month which will begin on September 5th.

Curbside service will continue with the Phase 2 opening. Face masks will be strongly encouraged, but not required. They will have masks available in the library. Computers will only be available for adults for non-recreational use only. The service for the books will be more of a grab and go service for now.

As the library staff gets ready for the opening on Monday, the summer reading program is coming to an end.

“It was a very interesting summer. We learned a lot of new skills. We learned how to use a GoPro, video editing, how to be comfortable in front of a camera or as comfortable as possible for us who are used to doing everything in front of an audience and having to pretend that they are there. I had a really good time though. I enjoyed being able to share my talents with the kids,” said Kinsey Griffin.

Moeller and Griffin indicated that the attendance for the summer programs, while all virtual, was still well attended and had people viewing their videos not only from Dell Rapids, but from many different locations. They said that numbers for the summer reading program were down this year, but better than expected with the situation. Moeller mentioned that when the finally tallies are complete for the reading logs, they anticipate to be close to about 400 participants.

The activities and crafts the library provided during the summer were also a success.

“We’ve gotten a lot of pictures and videos from parents of their kids. They’ve had a lot of fun with it, and it’s been fun for us to see those pictures because they are doing it, they are liking it, they’re having fun, so that’s been really fun just seeing them do the crafts or join us on our Zoom activities and getting to connect with them in that way,” said Moeller.

The library will be offering fall and winter programs starting in September, and those programs will have to be done virtually like the summer program was.

Follow the Dell Rapids Carnegie Public Library on Facebook and YouTube by clicking the links.

Dell Rapids Library to Have Summer Programs Online

May 29, 2020 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

Staff at the Dell Rapids Carnegie Library have been providing programs and services in an online format over the last couple of weeks. One of the most popular programs offered during that time has been the story times.

“They have been going really well. It’s been a lot of fun to share some stories with the kids. We’ve done story time for younger kids, and then we did a series of chapter books for older kids, and then we’ve been doing Harry Potter readings for anybody who wanted to listen. They’ve been pretty well attended,” said staff member Kinsey Griffin. Dell Rapids Library Director Brittany Moeller mentioned that they’ve had families watch the story time videos from all over the country.

The library staff will continue their flexibility and great ideas to bring content to the community during the summer for their 2020 Summer Reading Program.

“Normally we have all of our programming in the library building and we’ll see hundreds of kids a day, and this year we can’t do that. All of our programs will be online, so they will be on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. We have put together a whole calendar which has been on Facebook,” said Moeller. (Click here for library Facebook page) “We’ve got virtual theme camps and story times. We’ve got adult book clubs, crafts and games, creative writing classes, really something for everyone.” Moeller also mentioned that all the videos throughout the summer for the story times, crafts, games, and classes will remain online after they are done live. That way if anyone can’t join when the event is being held live, they can go back and watch the video and do those events whenever it’s convenient for them.

The Summer Reading Program will also be tracked online this year. Starting on Monday, June 1st, people will be able to register on “Read Squared.” The library will post a link to that website on their Facebook page. The Read Squared service also has a free app that compatible with any device.

“So you register online and track your reading online instead of the little paper sheets that we normally give out. That’s probably going to be the big change for all of us to get used to, is everything is online. It’s very easy to do though. It’s very user friendly, and it’s fun. There are little mini games in there. There’s book reviews in there,” Moeller mentioned.

Also starting on Monday, June 1st, the library will have curbside check-out available for the public. Folks can reserve items through the online catalog or call the library. Staff will put everything in a bag. Once someone gets to the library, just call, and a staff member will bring the bag outside. One thing about the delivery is that the staff cannot bring it directly to the car, but will have to leave the bag on the sidewalk or stairs to be retrieved. For instructions on how to browse the online catalog, click here for the video.

One more fun thing the library is doing is putting together “Swag bags”. The bags are for kids who would like to do the crafts and games put together by the library. The crafts and games will both be held on Wednesdays, with crafts in the morning and games in the afternoons.

“They’re going to have all that you will need for the month of June to make all of crafts that we’re going to make, and to play the games we’re going to play,” said Griffin.

More information on when the bags will be able to be picked up will be released by the library soon.

Full Interview with Brittney and Kinsey:

Dell Rapids Carnegie Public Library Earns Enhanced Accreditation

March 8, 2020 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

The Dell Rapids Carnegie Public Library has once again met benchmarks set forth by the South Dakota Public Library Standards for providing high quality library services to the community of Dell Rapids.

The library was among 13 other libraries that were awarded accreditation by the South Dakota State Library in front of lawmakers, library colleagues, and community members at the Capitol rotunda during the annual South Dakota Library Association Library Legislative Day. This year the library legislative day was held on February 13th.

The Dell Rapids library earned an “Enhanced” accreditation which means the library has an expansion of services beyond just the basics. The accreditation runs through the 2022 year.

Dell Rapids Library Releases Final Summer Numbers

August 12, 2018 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

Brittany Moeller, the Dell Rapids Carnegie Library Director, presented the Dell Rapids City Council with the final summer reading program numbers for 2018 during the council’s regular meeting on Monday, August 6th. The summer reading program officially ended the last week in July this year.

“The total sign up for babies through adults for the summer reading program was 654 people. That’s an increase of more than 220 people from last year, so that’s amazing! Our numbers just skyrocketed. We had double the amount of adults and teens sign up, and those are our two hardest groups to get signed up for the summer reading program. So to have those numbers double was pretty exciting to see,” said Moeller. In 2017 the library had a total of 426 people register for the program.

There were a total of six different programs for babies through adults. The library had just under 2,000 people attend just the program, which is nearly double from last year’s number. That number doesn’t include people who came into the library just to use the computer or check out books. There were a total of 934 participants that attended five different programs in 2017.

So far in 2018, the library has issued 71 new library cards for a total of 206 new people to the library. In 2017 the library issued 92 library cards for a total of 212 new people.

“We’ve had a record-breaking summer, and it’s been super exciting and a lot of fun,” Moeller added.

Moeller also said that they would like to keep this trend going, keep seeing people come into the library to participate in the programs, and do all the fun activities.

After the report of the new numbers, Dell Rapids Councilman Gary Haak asked Moeller what she would like to see in the future for the library in terms of programming and reaching out into the community.

“We would like to definitely expand the programs that we do. Libraries aren’t the same as they were 20 years ago. The library that my older siblings were used to where they came in and they checked out all these research books to write their papers and that kind of stuff, they still kind of do that, but a lot of that is online. So now the library’s role is changing. What we provide now is a place for community members to gather, to be together, to learn new things, to have new experiences whether it’s story time for their kids or offering photography classes or different ways we can involve community members. We would love to do more things like that, really expand not only the programming that we have at the library, but what else we can do outside of the library in the community, doing more with the schools, and partnering more with the daycares and centers like that. That’s kind of our main goal,” Moeller responded.

“When we look back at spending the money to add on to this, it shows that we did it right. Probably didn’t build it big enough now, I don’t know. If it’s growing like this, it’s good to see,” Haak commented.

Library Summer Reading Program Sees Big Growth

June 26, 2018 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

The Dell Rapids Carnegie Public Library has seen great growth in their summer reading program over the last couple of years as reported by Library Director Brittany Moeller. Moeller gave the report to the Dell Rapids City Council during their regular meeting on Monday, June 18th.

“Our summer reading is going fantastic so far. We’re only three weeks in, and I’m super excited because we have almost broken 600 people signed up from birth to adults. That’s amazing considering in 2015 we had just barely over 200, so that’s a huge growth,” Moeller said.

There is still time to register and participate in the summer reading program.

Moeller also mentioned that the library has added two programs for this summer for a total of six, which is an increase from four in 2016. A new adult program and another children’s program were added this year. In 2016 the library saw 820 people total participate in the summer programs. In just the first three weeks of 2018, 545 people have already participated in the programs. Those programs will conclude at the end of July.

During the update to the council, Moeller stated that she also recently graduated from the four-year program Library Institute put on by the South Dakota State Library.

Dell Rapids Library Use and Membership Continues to Climb

May 21, 2018 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

Brittany Moeller, the Library Director at the Dell Rapids Carnegie Public Library, recently gave a report to the Dell Rapids City Council that showed continued growth at the library.

Moeller reported that 21,580 people visited the library in 2017. She also noted that 55% of residents within the city limits of Dell Rapids, as well as the rural Dell Rapids residents, have a library card. The library also saw 2,333 children and teens attend library programs in 2017.

“We had a really awesome year in 2017. We’re hoping to continue that,” said Moeller.

Moeller also reported that since 2017 the library has added 500 new patrons and has seen an internal circulation of in-house items increase by 5,000 items as well.

Library staff is now preparing for the 2018 summer reading program. Registration for the program opened on May 14th. The reading portion as well as the programming and activities will start the first week of June and will run for eight weeks through July. There will be activities and programming for preschool aged all the way through teens and adults.

“We appreciate the work you do at the library and the rest of the staff. It pleases me to no end to see the use and increases, and particularly the children. I think that’s just fantastic. It’s a wonderful, great thing,” said Dell Rapids Mayor Tom Earley during Moeller’s report on Monday, May 7th.

Dell Rapids Library Sees Increase in Numbers During Summer Programs

August 10, 2017 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

Dell Rapids Carnegie Library Director Brittany Moeller gave an updated report from the summer programs to the Dell Rapids City Council during the council’s regular meeting on Monday, August 7th.

“We’ve had a really good year so far and an amazing summer,” Moeller said.

She reported that the library has seen a little over 430 people registered for the summer reading program which is up about 30 people from last year. Moeller says they have seen an average increase of about 20 people per year over the last three years.

A new addition to the library this summer was the addition of summer programs for adults. An average of 10 to 15 people attended the program per week. The library also saw an average of 15 to 20 teens per week for their programs.

Computer classes for seniors were also held for the first time by the library. Moeller said that between 5 to 10 people came every week to learn everything the basics of turning on a computer to learning Facebook. There are plans on doing more classes for seniors sometime during the fall.

Dell Rapids City Council member James Borchert said, “I just want to say in the last few years if you look at where the library has been and where it’s gone with the increase in programming for adults and now seniors and children, it’s just been the gem of this community. A lot of towns this size don’t have a library, and they certainly don’t have a library like this.”