By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Libraries, the repositories of mighty ideas and knowledge, and the dedicated men and women who tend them were celebrated April 4 during an open house event at the Val Verde County Library.
About 70 elected leaders, top administrators, as well as library staff, volunteers, patrons and friends, gathered in the library’s conference room to celebrate National Library Week and Library Workers Day.
“I’d like to thank all of you for coming this morning to the Val Verde County Library open house. We are celebrating National Library Week and Library Workers Day,” County Librarian David Bond.
Bond thanked Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. and Val Verde County Commissioners Court members for supporting the library and issuing a National Library Week proclamation. Bond said he has received “support and encouragement” from each member of the court.
Bond also thanked the Friends of the Val Verde County Library, a group whose activities fund a number of events and programs at the library, including the library’s summer reading program.
Bond gave the group a brief biography, noting he has “backpacked in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji, written six collections of poetry and run five marathons, including Boston.” Bond has worked as a coal miner, bookstore clerk, journalist and 21 years in a university library.
Bond thanked and praised his staff at the library and introduced each by name, giving a short description of his or her duties at the facility.
Children’s Librarian Reba Benavides spoke about children’s activities – like Storytime and summer reading programs – available at the library and how children’s programs have grown and become a priority at the library over the years. She also thanked the Friends of the Val Verde County Library for helping make many of those programs possible.
San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Carlos Rios and Mexico Consul Paloma Villaseñor Vargas also spoke to attendees about the importance of libraries. The consul also presented the library with several boxes of textbooks used in schools in Mexico.
Villaseñor Vargas quoted author Issac Asimov: “It is not just a library. It is a spaceship that will take you to the farthest corners of the universe, a time machine that will take you to the far past and the far future, a teacher that knows more than any human being, a friend that will amuse you and comfort you, and most of all, a gateway to a better, happier and more valuable life.”
Texas Rep. District 74 Eddie Morales (D-Eagle Pass) presented Bond and the library staff with the Texas House Resolution honoring the Val Verde County Library, calling it “a dynamic cultural resource” with “a central role in the life of the community.”
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