[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 183 (Monday, December 8, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S10804]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                        TRIBUTE TO LAVENIA McCOY

 Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, when Lavenia McCoy arrived in 
Bayfield in 1939 as new teacher, she also went to the library to 
volunteer. She has served that library continuously: from the small 
space behind the post office, to the town hall on the east side of the 
post office, to the entire 1100-square-foot building at the corner of 
Mill and Pearl Streets, to the new 8200-square-foot library on the 
north side of town.
  Lavenia McCoy was the first person in Bayfield to catalog books by 
the Dewey Decimal System, a change for the alphabetical order by 
author's last name of the 500 or so books. She began serving on the 
Library Board in 1948, at the behest of Betty Stock, as secretary. 
About 35 years later, Lavenia McCoy became treasurer, including keeping 
the library's financial records; she did that until 2006. By then the 
budget had increased from pennies for overdue fees to several million 
dollars, the staff from all volunteer to six paid librarians, the 
circulation from a few shelves of books to 20,000 volumes, and the 
financial records from ledger to computer. Always she encouraged folks 
to use their library.
  Lavenia McCoy is a lifelong library user, and she is one who is 
willing to do the work in order to enjoy the privilege. In 2005, the 
Library Board named its new library ``Lavenia McCoy Public Library'' in 
recognition of her contribution. I wanted to take a moment to 
congratulate her and her service.

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