The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - The new face behind the counter at the Weller Public Library is likely one you have seen before.

Rosie Warehime, the new library manager, has lived in Waitsburg for 44 years. Her husband Walt found his first teaching job in Waitsburg.

"We planned to stay 2 years and we never left," she said.

Warehime hadn't ever worked at a library before, but she had been employed at the Cenex station and at local grain growers, making her a recognizable face in the community and the perfect person to lead the library, said Jim Leid, the chairman of the library board.

"She knows the people in the community and she has relationships already built in," Leid said. "The feedback about her has all been positive."

Warehime has been at the helm for about six weeks. She replaced Su Alexander, who had been manager for about three years.

Warehime had retired and was having trouble keeping busy.

"I needed something to do," she said. "You can only clean house so many times a week."

When the position opened, Warehime applied because it "sounded like fun," and she never thought she would be hired, she said. Now, she's working hard and making some changes at the library.

First, she is going through the library's collection and getting rid of books no one has checked out in 20 years, she said. The shelves are a bit tight and she would love to purchase some new books.

The library funding is stable and through all of the support of the library board and the Friends of the Library, it is certainly getting by, she said.

The biggest project underway at the library is starting an electronic book catalog that will make checking books in and out more effi- cient. She said the new cata- log will require a barcode be placed on each book and then be entered into computer software.

Her library assistant, Ana Trejo, has been in charge of getting barcodes onto the books. However, this project won't be finished overnight. Warehime said only about one-sixth of the books in the collection already have barcodes, so it will be a while before the new catalog program is online.

Also, Warehime and Trejo are contemplating reorganizing some shelves and the desk in the front room so the flow is better. Their hope is for people to stop to look at all of the books in the library, not just those in the front.

Warehime's duties when the library is open on Mondays and Thursdays is to collect the mail and books from the City Hall drop box, check books in and out and run story time for children. She said story time is her favorite part. It's from 10:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. each Thursday and she reads to the children and visits with them.

"It's loads of fun," she said. "The children all have stories they like to share."

Warehime would like to expand the children's programming to possibly include activities and projects.

"They like to read, but they get antsy," she said.

Mostly, she wants to keep the library a safe place for kids to hang out, use the computer and read books.

"We're a small community and I want it to be a small community library," she said. "I want them to feel welcome."

The Weller Public Library is open on Monday from 3 to 6 p.m. and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.