West Bend Community Memorial Library

The West Bend Community Memorial Library will help to provide library and information services to meet the personal, educational and professional needs of the public.  The library will extend services to all residents of Washington County, in cooperation with governmental units.

Emphasis is placed on providing current, high interest materials in a variety of formats, and timely, accurate and useful information.  The library’s primary purposes are to provide popular materials; to serve as a preschool door to learning; and to support the educational needs of K-12 students.  A secondary goal is to provide adults with resource material for their educational pursuits.
Adopted by the WBCML Board in April,1997.

Click here to view the library's board members

Click here to read the library's Five year Plan

Beginning with 730 books in a small room over the old horse stable of the City fire station in 1899,  the West Bend Library is now located in the City cultural district adjoining the historical and art museums.  A major expansion to more than 60,000 square feet on two floors, was completed in 99-2000, offering greatly enhanced:

Services, Resources and Programs

Services

• Reference service.  Available to all patrons in person, by telephone and online.
• Interlibrary Loan Service.  The West Bend Library does not own all available materials.   But we may be able to borrow items from another library in the state or beyond.
• Two photocopiers for public use are available, one on each floor.
• Internet training in small group classes is available.  Classes are offered throughout the year, you need only register in advance.
• A public bulletin board is located near the lobby for notice of non-profit community activities.
• Quiet study rooms are available during all open hours on the second floor.  Reservations are not necessary.
• Clubs or groups of 8 to 40 may reserve public meeting rooms.  A deposit is required and groups are limited to four meetings a calendar year, to assure greater availability to all community organizations.

• Books and Magazines.  The West Bend Library owns over 150,000 books and subscribes to more than 300 periodicals. We purchase multiple copies of the newest fiction and non-fiction best sellers and keep current with recommended and award-winning children’s materials.  We serve as a resource for students of all ages, supplementing curriculum materials.  Our books come in many formats, including hardcover, paperback and large print.
• Audio Visual.  The West Bend Library houses a large fiction and non-fiction books on cassette collection, both abridged and unabridged.  This is a growing collection that is in high demand by a variety of patrons, including commuters with automobile tape players, as well as the visually impaired. There is a growing  collection of unabridged books on compact disc.  Music compact discs may be checked out from a collection including classical, rock, popular, jazz, new age and country.  A juvenile compact disc collection is also available.  CD-ROMS for home or office computer use may also be checked out.  The library owns more than 5,000 videos in collections for adult and for juvenile audiences.
• Technology.  The library offers multiple computers for public internet access via a high-speed connection.  Patrons need only to sign and comply with the internet use policy of the library board.  Patrons may also use word processing computers and a range of full text magazine, newspaper and online database computers.  All of the computers have access to printers ( a minimal printing fee may be charged) and diskettes may be purchased to save data for use outside the library building.
• Staff.  The West Bend Library has a staff of more than 35 people, headed by a Director and Assistant Director.  They, along with several others, have masters degrees in library science with experience in other public, school and academic libraries. Our paraprofessional personnel, who have been employed at the library for up  to thirty years, bring to their work a wide variety of  education and experience.  The adult and student pages are responsible for retrieving and reshelving materials.  All of these service-oriented people are skilled in connecting patrons with resources, information,  library services and programs.

• The Outreach and Homebound Program is funded in cooperation with the Washington County Library Services Board and with Hartford Public Library.  The Outreach Librarian, with a library aide,  visits assisted living and care centers, as well as individual residences.  Those people who are unable to visit the library because of physical limitations or special needs, and who live in West Bend, Hartford or rural Washington County, qualify for the program.
• The Outreach Librarian assists in the selection of materials including books, large print materials, magazines, and books on cassette or CD, music on cassettes or CDs. Both entertainment and instructional or informational videos are available to outreach patrons.  The library also owns described videos for the visually impaired.
• The Youth Services’s Department offers Story Time programs for preschool children on a year round basis.  There is often a take home activity or craft related to the theme of the books or season.  There is an evening  Family Story Time for kids of all ages to attend with their parent or guardian.  Several times during the year guest presenters join us for Family Story Time, including puppeteers, magicians, and story singers.
• Summer Reading Programs for preschoolers, and school-aged children are planned and provided in conjunction with a statewide program and theme.  Weekly activities are offered to encourage participation and completion of The Read –To-Me program and individual reading program.  Achievement certificates are awarded at a final party.
• In addition to children's programs, the West Bend Library offers programs and book clubs for our Young Adult patrons. 

West Bend Library is the SYSTEM RESOURCE LIBRARY for the 27 public library members of the Mid-Wisconsin Federated Library System.  As resource library we provide materials, information and interlibrary loan services to Washington, Dodge, and Jefferson county residents.

West Bend Library is also the RESOURCE  LIBRARY for WASHINGTON COUNTY, coordinating the services offered by the five public libraries in the county, serving more than 115,000 residents throughout the county.

The catalog is now Share! We grew from the Wave, Launch, Bridges, and Waccool consortia to our current size: 53 public libraries, school libraries, and public library systems. We cover Dodge, Jefferson, Racine, Walworth, and Washington counties in southeastern Wisconsin.
Our combined collection is now over 2.5 million items. We invite you to visit a Share library and experience the consortium yourself.
 

Updated April 09, 2007