Providing for the community

National Library Week is celebrated the last week of April every year. The American Library Association has shared the 2023 theme is “There’s More to the Story.” Their goal is to emphasis that libraries offer more than books.

Osceola Public Library’s children’s librarian Krista Woodward reiterated this sentiment.

“[Libraries] have changed and adapted,” Woodward said. “It’s not like it’s just where you can come and quietly study or read a book or whatever. We have a lot of activities and a lot of play things. … It’s a different environment. It gives people a place to come where it’s not just reading, it’s more than that. I think that’s what continues to draw them.”

Woodward explained some of the other items that bring people in.

“We definitely offer a gathering place for the community,” Woodward said. “We have changed our area up a little bit over the last couple of years so we have a lot of play things, like a train table and a Lego table that we’ve had for a while. We have little tubs of magnet tiles and all the fun things for kids to play with. We get a lot of parents that will come in and just sit on the couch and let their kids play, so it gives them a good place to get out and away as well. Plus we offer printing. People frequently need to print documents off but don’t have printers at home, so that’s a service that’s pretty valuable to our patrons. We even have a puzzle table upstairs where some adults will come and sit and just put a few pieces in the puzzle so it’s kind of a community project.”

Greenfield Public Library’s youth services librarian Danica Clayton emphasized the 21st century did not leave libraries behind.

“For many years, the library just provided books and that’s great and amazing but as we’re entering kind of a digital age, I wish that the perspectives would change,” Clayton said. “We’re not just books anymore, we’re a lot of things. Honestly, for any person there’s probably something here for you or a librarian can point you in the right direction. I think that’s kind of the one thing I want people to know, that we’re transitioning into the 21st century too. We’re going to make the jump and we’re going to find different ways and important ways to keep serving you. That’s what we’re here to do.”

Clayton also said the library provides a nice respite from life.

“A lot of people get stuck between work and home,” Clayton said. “it’s a great place that you can be and you don’t have to pay to be here and you’ve got all these resources. It’s a place to have community, too.”

Creston’s Gibson Memorial Library’s director Gabriel Chrisman agreed an important aspect of libraries is the lack of cost.

“There’s fewer and fewer places in a community where people can go and spend time where it is free, where they’re not expected to buy something or do anything in particular, but where they can just be,” Chrisman said. “The library is that in a very valuable way, but it’s also a place that offers entertainment, information, knowledge, access, help with things. It’s part of a tradition that I think is really important to preserve, to provide that access that is really needed in the community and not charge. I think that it’s pretty unique in that way. In America, most of the places you go are going to charge you for whatever you’re doing, and libraries are something that sort of stands apart.”

Chrisman also shared the importance of community at libraries.

“I think that it’s increasingly important to have a place where anybody in the community is welcome to do whatever they need to do,” Chrisman said. “Hopefully the library can use that particular role to bring people in the community together and be a place where people can talk and meet and come to different events and all just share in the resources as a community. I think that makes libraries very special.”

Despite all the changes and modernity that have come to libraries, they still provide books. Melissa Kirkland, who goes to Orient Public Library, shared how important this is.

“I’m reading ‘The Echo of Old Books’ by Barbara Davis, with this quote, ‘We read not to escape life but to learn how to live it more deeply and richly, to experience the world through the eyes of the other,’” Kirkland said. “I know this is why I read, and it wouldn’t be possible without libraries and the people there. Plus, libraries form a community of people of all ages who love books. I love our little library.”

To keep libraries both free and modern, a lot of work has to be put in. For Gibson Memorial Library, one aspect of that is Friends of the Library, a volunteer organization that works to support and raise money for the library.

“Friends of the Library has been in existence for 23 years,” Friends President Julie Schieffer said. “Through the years, they’ve had fundraisers and have given money to the library. We do it for books and programming. We’ve bought recently the security cameras outside the library, carpeting, we worked on the stairs.”

Some of the fundraisers include their annual book sale in September and Valentine’s cookies in February.

Friends of the Library sometimes works with the Library Legacy Committee (previously known as the Library Capital Campaign) on fundraising for the Creston library. One such example is tonight, with the Stepping into Spring Style Show.

For this event, area boutiques have teamed up to walk a fashion show. Along with the show, there will be baskets to bid on and food served. Tickets can be purchased at the Gibson Memorial Library for $30. The fundraiser will be from 7 to 9 p.m. at The Pantry Event Center, located at 417 Wyoming Ave.