BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – The Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library has 18 full-time employees.
Together, those 18 employees have 278 combined years of experience working in a library. They hold 19 bachelor’s degrees, 16 master’s degrees and even a doctoral degree.
That’s good news for those who visit the library because those employees take their work very seriously.
In fact, their attention to detail recently spotted a big-time error that no other library had noticed.
Matthew Engel’s days are pretty routine. As a technical services assistant at the Bismarck Library, he spends most of his time cataloging books.
“I really enjoy my job of cataloging books and seeing all the new titles that come in from fiction to nonfiction,” he said.
As a former college geography professor and an avid traveler, a book caught his eye.
“I was paging through Puerto Rico, where I’ve visited,” Engel recalled.
That’s when Engel spotted a mistake.
“When I got to the last page of the book where they show you where Puerto Rico is, I realized that Puerto Rico was not on their map, that they had highlighted Jamaica instead,” he explained.
Engel reached out to the publisher, who immediately recalled the book from more than one hundred libraries around the country. They’re fixing the mistake and will replace the books as soon as possible.
“We were the first library in the country to spot the error and report it to the publisher,” said library director Christine Kujawa. “We have such a wonderful staff, and they’re not only educated and experienced, but their hearts are really in all of the work that they do.”
Engel said that work is worth it to make sure library patrons have access to the best, most accurate information possible.
The book with the error is part of a 50 States series of children’s books. Engel said he’s since combed through the rest of the series and hasn’t found any other mistakes.
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