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• · The new librarian in Clark, Samantha Hensley, is coming up with creative programming for youth, such as a sleepover at the library for stuffed animals (the kids went home for the night). A new mural for the children's area is also in the works.
• · Gackle's library is closed--but that's only because a new library is being built.
• · Faulkton's librarians just redecorated to incorporate a new comfortable reading area, and they have also upgraded their technology to, among other things, go to an automated card catalog system.
• Nationwide, the report from rural libraries is not so upbeat. In the face of a dire

financial situation, "library administrators and trustees are grappling with incredibly difficult decisions to reduce services, programs and staffing," according to a presentation given at the Association of Small and Rural Libraries conference in September. When budgets are tight, local government officials sometimes question the relevance of libraries in an increasingly digital world.
• One of those struggling community libraries is in Groton. "I feel that our library is holding its own right now, but we have also cut some services," said Anita Lowary,

Groton's city finance officer. "Each year it is a struggle to continue funding for this service. ... We were already advised by the state to consider reducing our status from library to reading room, but we want to continue to be a library."
• Finding funding is difficult in Groton now, but there and elsewhere in the

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