Terrace librarian turning a page

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — “I sure feel good about the years I’ve had here,” says Mountlake Terrace Library Director Lesly Kaplan.

Kaplan is leaving the library she’s directed for seven years to head up the Edmonds Public Library, where she’ll assume her duties on Monday, Dec. 18.

She leaves a library that is as much a central fixture in the lives of Terrace residents as any place in town.

Looking back at her years in Mountlake Terrace, the Edmonds resident lists some of her proudest accomplishments: establishing the English as a Second Language (ESL) Talk Time sessions, which are held on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon; expanding the library’s collections, including its children’s section, and the addition of an area specifically for teens.

The ESL program, which brings people who speak different languages together for group discussions, “is a wonderful program and very well-received,” Kaplan says, noting the city’s increasing diversity. “Not all the Sno-Isle libraries have that many languages.”

She credits Friends of the Library, a grass-roots organization that raises money on behalf of the library, with facilitating many of the changes.

“This group in Mountlake Terrace is so generous,” Kaplan says.

The library’s partnered with the city and provides meeting space for city activities and on behalf of the Arts Commission’s Juried Art Fair.

Kaplan, a 1985 graduate of the University of Washington’s Master of Library Sciences program, arrived in the city in 1999, after working at Mill Creek’s library.

An accomplished harpist, Kaplan has also played wind instruments with early music ensembles.

Edmonds Library has more than twice the collection of Mountlake Terrace. Still, Kaplan says she’ll miss her staff and customers.

“The people here are very appreciative of their library,” she says.

Sno-Isle Libraries, which serve customers in Island and Snohomish Counties, is Kaplan’s home and she doesn’t see herself leaving.

“You go into any Sno-Isle library and the books look good,” she says. “The collection shines, it really does.”

The increasingly high-tech library system is moving forward. In coming months, the library will allow patrons to download music to their computers. It already offers audio books for Internet download.