RIVERSIDE LIBRARY: 40 YEARS OF INFORMATION

JACKSON -- Just as the quality of life improved in Southeast Missouri during the last 40 years, so did the quality of information available to library patrons.

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Riverside Regional Library held an open house Sunday afternoon at its central branch in Jackson.

The anniversary theme is "From Bookmobile to Information Superhighway" and visitors could see a bookmobile on loan from Ironton or connect to the Internet through the Show Me Net computer network.

"The idea is that we can access the information wherever it resides in the whole world," said Library Director Geoffrey Roth.

As technology has changed, so have library services across the nation. Instead of just housing books, newspapers and encyclopedias, libraries now have video programs, fax machines, CD-Roms and computers. But card holders still will find their favorite books on the shelves.

"Now they can find it easier, check it out quicker and renew it easier when they need to," said State Librarian Sara Parker, who attended the anniversary celebration.

Since the amount of information available is changing, people are used to having easier access to it, said Paula Gresham-Bequette, assistant director, adding that the library can provide that access through computers.

About 28,000 people in the three-county area have a library card with Riverside Regional Library, which is 51 percent of the population in Perry, Cape Girardeau and Scott counties.

And people continue to call the library for answers to bizarre questions, regardless of the high-speed travel along the Information Superhighway. Reference librarians have been asked questions like `Why do drains run in opposite directions in the Northern and Southern hemispheres?' and `Why do stopwatches count backward?'

"We do get a lot of reference questions," Gresham-Bequette said. Just recently, the local paper wanted to know why hornets nests are built close to the ground and how that was related to weather forecasts. The answer is that it will be a fairly hard winter, she said.

"We are still talking about it because we had to look so hard to find it," Gresham-Bequette said.

The Riverside Regional Library system began in 1955 as county-operated libraries. The three counties then merged into the regional system to better use tax revenues.

One of the first services was a bookmobile that traveled to schools and communities in the area. It ended in 1973.

As travel became easier with the highway, use of the book mobile service declined, Gresham-Bequette said. Permanent locations took the place of the book mobile service. The first location of the library was in the courthouse basement in Jackson. The last branch site, in Oran, was added in 1986. Other sites are located in Scott City, Benton, Altenburg and Perryville.

Despite being part of one system, each branch has some individuality. In Jackson, where the first permanent library was located, genealogical records repeatedly draw visitors to the library. The Scott County Historical Society often uses the genealogy records at the Benton branch.

But the most popular service the library offers is probably its story hours for children.

In the summer, the state library association sponsors a reading program for children. The Riverside Regional libraries often incorporate special guests into their story readings. This summer, AmeriCorps volunteers presented several of the programs.

And several activities were planned during the open house. Author Gaye Trimble spoke about her experiences as a riverboat cook. Her book, "Mighty Crooked Waters," is a compilation of recipes and stories from those days. Betty Dickerson, a local poet, also read some of her own poems and explained how she gathers ideas for her poetry.