Williston library helps families celebrate the new year

New Year's Eve is known to be a late-night affair, but in Williston, some families celebrated early.

The Williston Public Library held a Noon Year's Day party, where around 100 people colored, had snacks and even have a dance party.

"Sometimes when parents have their kids they can’t stay up late because either the parents are going out somewhere or the kids are too tired," said Morgan Keyser, children's librarian.

The Williston Public Library has been growing as fast as the city. There were 78,000 visitors in 2017, and more than 119,000 visitors in 2018. One reason is because of the growing number of programs the library offers to people of all ages, such as story-time and knitting. Many workers also come in to use the computers for job applications and other work-related tasks.

"The oilfields do help bring a lot of people, and since a lot of the families are now moving here with them, we have all those families that are starting to come to the library,. So that's a great thing," Keiser said.

The library is working on more programs for 2019, like a history room. The public will be able to learn about North Dakota's past while they dig through the collection of archives. They will even be able to learn about their family's history with free access to ancestry.com.