By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Waialua Library staffers say community support has
made a difference. Here, some of those using the library
yesterday gather at a pole listing its awards.
‘America’s Best’
library in Waialua
Waialua library has been chosen
By Debra Barayuga
the nation's best small rural facility,
and its Friends group also
took similar honors
Star-BulletinIt's easy to miss the best lil' library in America. Motorists barely glance at the brick and stucco building in the shade of a huge ear pod tree at Kealohanui Street and Goodale Avenue in Waialua.
Lately, however, little Waialua Library, which celebrated its 70th anniversary this year, has been attracting attention after winning two national awards.
The library caught the eye of the Public Library Association. It voted Waialua Library the best small rural public library in the United States, and it recognized the Friends of Waialua Library as the best friends library group in the United States.
After being honored as the Hawaii State Public Library System's team of the year last month, the four-person library staff recently went on to win the first state team of the year award. The library was to be recognized at today's Board of Education meeting.
Members of the library staff -- the branch manager, two library assistants and a janitor -- are tickled about the attention showered on their small library but are quick to credit others for their success.
"The community has just been wonderful in supporting us, and it's to the community and Friends of the Waialua Library I have to give all the credit," said Al Wickens, library branch manager for nearly four years.
The recent publicity also caught the attention of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, which awarded the library a $10,000 grant to renovate the children's section and purchase more books.
By Dennis Oda, star-Bulletin
Student helper Leiko Nacario, left, library assistant Alicia Amper
and library assistant Charline Terukina work the counter at
Waialua Library on a busy day yesterday.
Waialua Library has the largest local friends group in the state with nearly 370 members. Their support has been crucial. In 1995, when small libraries faced possible closure because of budget cuts, Friends of Waialua Library increased its membership from 26 to 220 in a week, said library assistant Charline Terukina.The group made calls to the state librarian to protest the possible closure and generated overwhelming support for the library.
The library has been a life raft for the rural community, particularly after the closure of the Waialua Sugar Mill last October, said library assistant Alicia Amper. "Kids need something positive -- what else do they have around here?"
Waialua Friends -- for the second year -- has sponsored art shows to provide Waialua High School students and North Shore residents an opportunity to showcase and sell their work.
Through Friends, the library has book sales every month and children's story hours on Saturdays. The recent Plantation Festival celebrating the library's anniversary and the town's plantation heritage was a big success, she said.
The Friends group also organizes activities such as a recent moon walk at Waimea Falls to raise money for books, materials and equipment. A TV and two computers were purchased with money raised by the group.
The loss of a library technician who retired and the elimination of the position because of budget cuts left the library sorely understaffed and overworked.
Two paid student helpers have helped ease the workload by helping staff mend and clean books, return books to the shelves and assist patrons.
And from July 1996 to June this year, Terukina trained 17 adult and 12 student volunteers, some as young as 8 or 9 years old. Volunteers put in 60 to 100 hours a month, staffing the checkout counters while staff members take their lunch breaks or filling in when a staffer calls in sick or goes on vacation.
Waialua has one of the most successful volunteer programs of any library, Wickens said.
Alice Stanley, who began volunteering in January after her husband died, says the library is her second family. "I like the people here," she said.
"There's a warmth in here that's really nice."
After living in Honolulu for 30 years, Charley Mitchell moved to Waialua five years ago and often seeks sanctuary at the library. He calls the air-conditioned library "an oasis in Waialua."
