Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Litchfield Library Foundation bookmark contest! Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Litchfield Library Foundation bookmark contest! Asher’s design will be featured on this year’s library bookmark, which will be handed out at the Watercade parade in July and then made available at the library for the coming year. All three winners will get a cash prize from the foundation. A display featuring the winners and finalists will be set up in the display case next to the copier room in the library through Watercade weekend.

In an effort to make registration for the very popular Adult Arts & Crafts classes more fair and less confusing, there will be a couple of new rules beginning June 1:

You may call or stop in to sign up yourself and up to one other person. If you are not registering for the class yourself, you cannot register other people. No bulk sign-ups: just yourself and, if you wish, one guest who will attend with you.

No sign-ups via social media (Messenger) or email. This has been rare, and we have directed people to call instead, but this is now official. It’s too difficult for library staff to watch that and get people in at the right time.

As always, registration opens on the 1st of the month, and we cannot take requests before that to put you on the list. If the library is closed on the 1st, registration will open on the first day the library is open after that.

These rules apply to only the Adult Arts & Crafts program that happens once a month, because of the level of demand. These rules are similar to those other local libraries have for high-demand programs.

We appreciate your understanding as we strive to make the class first come-first served, with equitable access to the program.

A sampling of April’s Adult Arts & Crafts results:

Photos of the March Adult Arts & Crafts completed projects:

Ways the Friends of the Litchfield Library helped the Litchfield Library in 2025:

• 3 local business gift certificates for winners of the Winter Reads drawing (people who read 6 books and turned in their reading log by the end) – impossible without Friends support!
• Significant supplemental financial support for children’s programs. 304 children and 46 teens participated in the summer reading program. 1,310 people participated in storytimes. 644 children got take-home craft kits. 75 people participated in children’s craft programs.
  
• Supplemental financial support for teen programs. 234 teens participated in 27 programs.
  
• Supplemental financial support for adult craft programs. 22 offered in 2025.
  
• Funded the Science Heroes program. Attendance 48.
  
• Funded new toys and a replacement children’s shopping cart
   

• Funded a new pre-lighted Christmas tree for the newspaper reading area and updated décor for the library.
  
• Funded parade books with the Litchfield Library Foundation. 1500 books given to children at the Watercade parade, with additional $581 of funding from the Litchfield Library Foundation.
  
• Funded the start of a new program: Seed Library. Used by 85 people in May, June, and August. Purchased a binder, envelopes, labels, a funnel, starter sets of seeds, and paid for shipping for free seeds from Seed Savers Exchange.
  
• Ongoing funding of the Book Page book review magazine subscription
• 3 book sales! Books to free cart in the entry, Little Free Libraries around Litchfield, and books to the jail.
     

Thank you to the Friends of the Litchfield Library! What would we do without you?!

Litchfield Library’s seed library is available for early indoor plantings! The seed library is now in a long yellow container at the front desk, holding seeds that need to be started indoors early in the spring in order to be grown in Minnesota’s short growing season. More seeds will be added over time.

You may take 4 packets per week. No library card needed. No age limit.

Have some seeds you want to donate? We’ll take them!

Take a look at the projects made at February’s Adult Arts & Crafts program!

Litchfield Public Library has received a special gift!  We’re one of about 1,280 Carnegie Libraries across the United States that has received a $10,000 gift from Carnegie Corporation of New York in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.

Carnegie Libraries hold a special place in American history and in the hearts of generations of Americans. More than a century after philanthropist Andrew Carnegie helped fund the construction of 1,681 libraries nationwide – including the original Litchfield Public Library – we are still serving our community.

Learn more about this initiative and find our library on the Carnegie Libraries Across America map.

Examples of the projects completed by the participants in January’s Adult Arts & Crafts class: