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Iditarod Librarian: "Strangers are coming in!"

by Thelma Jesselman | March 8, 2007 at 04:25 pm

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McGRATH, ALASKA - The famous Iditarod Race has begun but the focus of attention has shifted somewhat to the Iditarod Librarian who blogs in this remote area of south central Alaska.

Although "strangers are coming in" to the town for the dog mushing race, the blogger, a librarian / media specialist for the school district is warning of a financial shortfall in the production of a local telephone book, which she sells to raise money for the library.

With all the troubles in the world, this has got to be one of the more appealing.

The library was the busiest today that it has been since I came here. We have distributed posters all over town telling of the location of the library. The museum has an Iditarod exhibit including former mushers of McGrath , for example the third place trophy won by my landlords brother , Ernie, in 1982. McGrath doesn't have any active mushers anymore. Tomorrow morning, personnel of 4 television stations are arriving and will be staying in the school. Tomorrow evening or night they expect the leading mushers to arrive. If I have transportation, I will work in the kitchen and dining room at the city building, which is the checkpoint in McGrath. I'm told that at this point the racers generally follow the river, which is hard to believe after seeing the serpentine river from the air.

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Alaska Librarian (not verified)

at 09:53 on April 20th, 2009

You might notice that this article was written two years ago.

Also that I was not selling the phone books, except as they were being sold in the McGrath Library. They were produced and sold by the President of the Library Board.