2023 Year in Review: Blaine Public Library

Thanks to the generosity of partners and supporters, the Blaine Public Library and the Whatcom County Library System (WCLS) were able to offer many new resources, services and experiences to our community. The year began with a generous donation from Joyce Vanderpol to the Blaine library, allowing us to add a new small meeting room space – perfect for tutoring, online meetings, classes or work. Additionally, the donation provided us with new art installation space in the children’s area, as well as an upcoming technological enhancement to our large meeting room.

Similarly, thanks to a stalwart tech volunteer, we offered weekly drop-in tech support to patrons throughout 2023. Countless people have been helped with a wide range of phone, PC and internet support issues.

Local artists continued to freely share their work with the public at the library, as we quarterly exhibited two new artists throughout the year. The library sees travelers and visitors stopping in daily and it’s wonderful to help raise awareness of our local arts community.

WCLS partnered with Whatcom Million Trees Project on Summer Reading, which, thanks to the participation of many Blaine library readers, will see 500 trees planted in our county. Additionally, this fall saw the launch of Open Book, a festival for readers. This new WCLS event truly was a book lover’s dream.

Due to the support of numerous volunteers, the Friends of the Blaine Library (FOBL) book sales were great successes this year. In August, FOBL facilitated a wonderful Whatcom Grooves jazz concert in Blaine. This winter, FOBL is partnering with Blaine CORE on a new library fundraising initiative. Recycling retired WCLS book bins, Blaine CORE is creating worm bins to sell in support of FOBL.

Finally, the Blaine library is excited for the partnership between the city of Blaine, Kulshan Community Land Trust and WCLS in developing a new home for the Blaine library. We appreciate the community’s support through this process.