One of my earliest memories is of the Oostburg Public Library. The children's program had worm races, and my little Dale Wormhardt Jr. night-crawled his way into the semi finals. I didn't win the Golden Worm, but I got a really neat Purple Worm that lived on my bed for most of my childhood.
Later in life, when I was 12 and bored out of my wits during summer break, I finally worked up the courage to learn how to ride a bike. This childhood rite of passage had been delayed indefinitely years before, when a nasty fall left me with bruised knees and a bruised ego to match. But I figured out that if I learned to ride a bike, I could pedal from my home just outside of Oostburg to the Oostburg Public Library. The desire to spend time browsing the stacks in the air conditioning without a time limit won over my fear of falling, and soon I was able to go and check out either the latest Charlie Bone book or whatever police procedural caught my eye (YA didn't exist yet, so I spent middle school shifting between Where the Red Fern Grows and The Da Vinci Code. Guess which one scarred me for life).
The Oostburg Public Library was always a safe place for me to learn, grow, and explore, and I was thrilled to be offered the opportunity to lead an institution that means so much to me. In my role as Director, my main priority is to keep the wonder and joy of the Oostburg Public Library alive and do anything I can to expand it. I'm incredibly lucky to have a staff and patrons who care so deeply about our library and do everything in their power to support this goal.
We've made great strides in making updates to better serve our patrons in the past few years, from painting and carpeting projects to the website that you're on right now. As we put in the work to modernize and advance our services, we work diligently to hold on to the small town charm and excellent standard of customer service that our patrons have come to expect. Here, our patrons are more than our first priority: they're our friends.
So, if you're new to the Oostburg community or just to the library community, I'd like to formally welcome you to the Oostburg Public Library. I hope that you'll find it as special as I do.
