About the Ester library

The John Trigg Ester Library is a home-grown community library that provides a welcoming and intellectually stimulating environment where community members can meet and share ideas and information. The library strives to instill a love of reading and learning, to showcase Ester-area history and culture, and to provide resources that will enrich the whole community. It is governed by a seven-member board elected at the general membership meeting held each fall.

The library has several committees to conduct its work. We are always looking for speakers for our lecture series, volunteers to help with the work of the library, serve on committees, or help out with events. There are many fun and interesting projects at the JTEL in which you can get involved. If you are interested in helping at the library, please see:

• Construction Committee: oversees the design, construction, and procurement process for the new building.
• Programs Committee: oversees the programs, workshops or other activities, and public presentations at the John Trigg Ester Library.
• Finance Committee: created to develop the financial procedures and GAAP for the JTEL, this group does the library's business management and planning.
• Fundraising Committee: originally focused solely on the library's capital campaign, this group has expanded its scope to include general fundraising and operations and program grant seeking as well as fundraising specific to the building project.
• Other committees include Volunteers & Membership, Marketing, and Collections.

The library conducts three community-building fundraisers each year (the Tape & Tarp Breakup Ball, a costume party celebration of spring and the many uses of duct tape and tarp; the LiBerry Music Festival, a music festival and pie contest; and Readers on the Run, a 5-k footrace/poetry contest/costume contest) and offers a lecture series featuring local speakers on a variety of topics. A new seed library program, Growing Ester's Biodiversity, was launched in 2012.

To reach the entire board, e-mail board @ esterlibrary.org.

Board members are: Deirdre Helfferich (president), James Rogan (vice president), Connie Huffman (treasurer), and Eric Zentner (secretary) as the executive committee; and Varpu Lotvonen, Hans Mölders, Phil Rulon as at-large members; and Jasmine Stokes as alternate. (We are seeking one additional board member.)

Biographies of board members past and present are available at the library website.

The library is located on the Ester village square, at 3618 Main Street, and across the street in the Clausen Cabin at 3629 Main Street. Our new building will be at 488 Village Road. We have a Facebook page and a website. Our catalog is on line at LibraryThing.com.

To contact us, you can e-mail info @ esterlibrary.org, call (907) 374-8080, come to our business office at the Clausen Cabin, or write to:

John Trigg Ester Library
PO Box 468
Ester, AK 99725