When Libraries Work Together, Something Magical Happens
- Dave Daniels
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
I have been inside a lot of gymnasiums.
After fifteen years of traveling around Wisconsin with fossils, whale bones, and eventually a 56-foot inflatable gray whale named Clara, I have developed a fairly good sense of what a crowd looks like. I know the difference between a polite audience and a genuinely excited one. I know what it sounds like when a second grader sees a Megalodon tooth for the first time. I know what it feels like when a room is alive.
On a Saturday in Burlington, Wisconsin, that room was very much alive.
Over 830 people showed up. The line to walk inside Clara stretched long enough that the wait exceeded an hour. The library had set up activity stations along the queue, and my friend Chris managed the fossil tables nearby, but honestly, people just seemed happy to be there. Two people complained about the wait. Two out of 830. I am choosing to call that a success.
What made Burlington possible was not just Clara, and it was not just me. It was the Prairie Lakes Library System.
The Power of Collaboration
Prairie Lakes is a regional library system serving communities across southern and eastern Wisconsin, including towns like Burlington, Edgerton, Elkhorn, Evansville, and Union Grove. Instead of each library independently booking a program, hosting a modest crowd, and absorbing the full cost alone, Prairie Lakes coordinated across multiple branches. They pooled resources, selected centrally located venues, and planned a series of six community events together.
The result is something no single branch library could have pulled off on its own.
In Edgerton, families came out in numbers that filled the space. In Elkhorn, kids who had never touched a real fossil held one in their hands for the first time. In Burlington, 830 people waited over an hour and mostly did not mind. Each community got a genuine, memorable experience. Each library got to be the hero.
That is what collaboration does. It turns something good into something great.
Why This Model Works
Library budgets are tight. Anyone who has spent time around libraries knows this. The idea of booking a large-scale traveling program can feel out of reach when you are working with limited resources and a small staff.
But when libraries work together, the math changes.
A shared investment across multiple branches makes programming financially accessible that would otherwise be prohibitive for any single location. A regional system can negotiate as a group, coordinate logistics more efficiently, and deliver experiences at a scale that genuinely moves a community. Parents drive further. Families plan around it. Local media takes notice.
There is also something quietly powerful about seeing your library show up big. Libraries are community anchors. They are where kids get their first library cards, where families gather on rainy afternoons, where curiosity is always welcome. When a library system pulls together to bring something extraordinary to its communities, it reminds people why libraries matter.
That is not a small thing.
What I Have Learned on the Road
I started this work fifteen years ago with a collection of fossils and a lot of enthusiasm. The enthusiasm is still there. So are the fossils. Clara came along later, and she changed everything about the scale of what is possible.
But the thing I keep coming back to, after all these years and all these gymnasiums, is that the best events are never really about the whale. They are about the community that shows up for it. They are about the grandmother who drives forty minutes because her grandkids have never seen anything like this. They are about the kindergartner who does not want to put down the whale tooth. They are about the library staff who spent weeks promoting the event and are now watching 800 people pour through the doors with enormous smiles on their faces.
Prairie Lakes made six of those moments happen this year. Two more are coming, in Evansville and Union Grove. I cannot wait.
A Note for Library Systems Across Wisconsin
If you are a library director or system coordinator reading this, I want you to know that this model is replicable. What Prairie Lakes built is not complicated. It requires some coordination, some shared commitment, and a willingness to think bigger than a single branch.
The communities you serve are ready for it. I have seen what happens when you give them something worth showing up for.
They show up.
Dave Daniels is the founder of Forest Whales, a traveling marine science and paleontology program based in Wausau, Wisconsin. Forest Whales serves schools, libraries, and community events across Wisconsin and the Midwest. Learn more at forestwhales.com.