Keaton Donley and Shawn Graham maintained a steady banter after school Friday about the intricacies of saving Yoda or R2-D2 first before facing General Grievous.

"General Grievous is so hard. You have to use almost all your super powers to destroy him," said Donley, 8, a third-grader at General Beadle Elementary School.

Both boys were enjoying the same Star Wars game on separate computers at the Rapid City Public Library North at General Beadle Elementary, something they've done quite often since the new facility opened not quite a year ago.

"I'll tell ya one thing - it's awesome," 10-year-old spectacled fifth-grader Graham said about the new library. "I love to read. Basically, really scary books."

Donley said he doesn't enjoy reading all that much, but he likes using the computers and said the library is much better than the old school library.

"There were hardly any computers. Now I can actually come here when my mom goes to pick up kids," Donley said. "When my mom has to work until, like, six, I can come here and stay here until my mom gets to come and pick me up."

Opened as a joint venture between the school and city library in January 2008, the north library branch provides the same library services as the main library downtown, but scaled to the size of North Rapid's population.

RCPL North operates as a school library during school hours Monday through Friday between September and May, and as a public library after school, on weekends and in the summer.

Since opening, the facility has greatly surpassed expectations about first-year usage. The use of library materials at North has increased by 79 percent compared to usage of the school's previous library, and entry into the facility increased by more than 400 percent.

Robin Gillespie, principal at General Beadle, said the results have been excellent.

"Many of our children just go right to the library after school and stay until mom and dad are off work. They're loving it," Gillespie said. "We're just ecstatic about the program. It's been very well received and has grown in participation from month to month. It just gets bigger and bigger."

Greta Chapman, public library director, said if you compare the populations served, the North library has been as busy as the main library. She credits North Rapid's sense of community ownership in the library and the partnership with the school as key components of the new library's success.

"It's theirs … they own it. They see it as something that's going to succeed or fail based on how they use it, and I think that's why it gets the kind of traffic that it does," Chapman said. "There's a real neighborhood mindset there, and people know each other."

Gillespie said both students and teachers enjoy having access to more materials and resources, and family events have been well-attended. She said as more families use the library it promotes reading and puts more materials in the hands of children.

The idea was to create a community-based school, kind of a return to the old-fashioned concept of the school being the hub of the community, she said.

"We started with that concept of giving kids and parents a place to be, but then all these other benefits just came with it," Gillespie said. "More of our kids are taking books home and more kids are reading. Obviously, that's going to have an effect."

Dominique Brave, a soft-spoken fifth-grader, said the library was a good place to come to if you don't have anywhere else to go. She said she used to go to the downtown library but doesn't anymore because the North library is so close to her home.

Brave, 11, said she likes to read, and her favorite books right now are the "Twilight" series of books.

"I like scary and exciting books," she said.

Nancy Ward, special education teacher, was helping fifth-grader Elija Brown Wolf choose books. Brown Wolf, a voracious reader who probably would have taken the entire collection home with him if allowed to, picked out six books that he intended to read over the weekend.

"Elija really likes to read so we generally schedule the last 10 to 15 minutes of the day to come in and find new books for him," Ward said. "He likes the fact that the public library is here, and he can get in after class."

Brown Wolf said his favorites are "The Magic Treehouse" series and "Hank the Cow Dog" books.

Computers, books, magazines and DVDs are available for patron use at both libraries, and materials may be picked up or dropped off at either location.

RCPL also offers many of the same programs and events at the North library, particularly those that are youth-focused. RCPL North regularly offers a monthly evening story session for kids and families; "Discovery Days" when the library schedules a fun craft or activity on "no school" days during the school year; and periodic after-school computer gaming sessions. The summer reading program also proved to be very popular at the North library this year.

"We drew almost as many kids to summer reading at Beadle as we did downtown. We had about 300 and that's a huge number for a community that size," Chapman said.

Technology is another benefit of the partnership with the school. Chapman said the North library has a higher than average number of computers per population served than the main library due to the partnership with the school.

"We would not have nearly as much technology in a branch library if we weren't in partnership with the school," she said. "Like in any community, the school is a draw, and the school community center there is most definitely a draw. At nights and on the weekends, there are connections we make differently up there because of the events they hold."

Chapman credited the leadership of the library board and the Rapid City Council for supporting the idea and making it happen. She also credited library staff for embracing adjustments to schedules between the two facilities.

Because of the success of the General Beadle model, Chapman said one of the library's strategic goals is to see if the branch idea can be replicated in other neighborhoods.

"The thing about General Beadle is … to have something be as well-received and have the kind of success it's having, it gives a lot of opportunity for the future. People can see things that they may not have because of that success," she said.

Contact Scott Aust at 394-8415, or scott.aust@rapidcityjournal.com