Sesquicentennial Banner in Arrowhead Libraries

Thank you to Jim Weikum, Director of the Arrowhead Library System, for sending us the following update on the progress of the Sesquicentennial Banner on its voyage across Minnesota…

I thought that you might want to know that on Monday evening the Sesquicentennial banner I brought back here with me was unveiled (unfurled?) at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Arrowhead Library System. The first two people to sign the journal were Dr. Loriene Roy, the incoming President of the American Library Association (she is a Carlton, MN native, professor at the University of Texas in Austin, and a member of the White Earth band) and Suzanne Miller, State Librarian for Minnesota. Today the banner is on the ALS bookmobile visiting communities in Itasca County including Trout Lake, Deer River, Swan River, Pengilly, and Nashwauk. We’re putting together a schedule for the banner to visit all or most of our 29 member public library communities spread across the 17,000 square mile service area of ALS.

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Hello world!

Welcome to Jane Leonard’s Minnesota Sesquicentennial blog. (I’m not actually Jane.) We’ve set up the blog by popular demand. There are so many people who are interested to learn more about the Sesquicentennial and to hear Jane’s reflections on Minnesota’s past, present, and future.

I am going to supplement Jane’s posts with more informational (less reflective) posts on what’s happening with planning and events throughout the state.

Yesterday we celebrated the Sesquicentennial Kickoff at the Minnesota Rural Summit. For 10 years the Rural Summit has been an annual gathering place for community leaders in rural areas. The common thread has been to lift up rural Minnesota (and America) through collaboratively building the cornerstones of a strong community: health care, education and creative thinking, economic development, and design. This year we really focused on design. (I invite attendees to share their comments on the Summit and the Sesquicentennial here on the blog.)

This year was the final Summit but as one door closed – another opened with the kick off to the countdown of the Minnesota Sesquicentennial. One idea that emerged from the Summit – Minnesota libraries are going to host the official Sesquicentennial banner (show in the picture above) and an accompanying journal, where Minnesota citizens are invited to add their remarks. Once we have a schedule for the banner we will add it to the Sesquicentennial web site and track its movement in this blog.