WCLS recently honored long-time Blaine resident and library advocate Joyce Vanderpol, whose generous gift funded a meeting pod and other improvements at the Blaine Library.
Vanderpol asked library staff what immediate changes could enhance the library experience in Blaine. “Joyce shared our vision for what a small meeting room space could mean for our patrons and chose to invest in that vision by providing funding for our small meeting pod, as well as funds for additional art hanging rail and forthcoming technological upgrades to our large meeting room space,” says Blaine Library Manager Jonathan Jakobitz.
The meeting pod is a free-standing, glassed-in private space within the library. The 7-foot-tall, 5 1/2-foot-deep and 8-foot-wide space includes bench seating for four people and a table. The pod opened to the public April 6, 2023. Over the past year it has been reserved over 390 times (averaging 1.3 reservations per day) and been in use for over 900 hours (the equivalent of 37.5 days of continuous use).
Community members reserve the pod as a quiet space to study, work remotely, hold meetings, offer tutoring or counseling, conduct research, attend classes and keep telehealth appointments, to name but a few uses. The Blaine meeting pod and other library meeting spaces can be reserved at wcls.org/reserve-meeting-space.
A plaque has been placed on the meeting pod to permanently acknowledge Vanderpol’s generosity.