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Library patrons in some of the more remote areas of the county are again able to enjoy the benefits of the LINK Libraries serving their communities as the "mini branches" reopened recently through an expanded partnership between the James V. Brown Library and the townships where they are located.
Barbara S. McGary, executive director of the library, reported to the board of trustees at their meeting that the satellite locations at Barbours and Pine Creek are now open. The Barbours site is in Plunketts Creek Township and the Pine Creek facility is located in McHenry Township in Cammal.
She explained that the library has been working with LINK Libraries to up the computers and the collections at the sites. The townships have agree to absorb the cost of staffing the locations.
"With this new partnerships the townships have a little bit more say and control over what kind of collections are out there to be used to meet the needs of the public," she said.
"That's a wonderful partnership with those townships that we wanted to keep going as much as possible, really used by their resident to be really a walking library mini branch," she added.
She noted that the staff from the Barbours link will travel to Williamsport to pick up holds and the staff from Pine Creek is going to work with Jersey Shore because that is the closest county library.
The Cogan House LINK Library will remain closed, McGary said because the township felt it was not cost effective to reopen.
In her report, McGary announced that two new personnel have been hired as part of revising the organizational structure at the library. Sam Keller will serve as development assistant, beginning April 19 and Alexis Mayo will be the public service assistant, starting May 10.
McGary also told the board that the Office of Commonwealth Libraries is reviewing new research regarding quarantining materials which are returned to the library and will be coming out with new guidelines. Starting May 1, the local library will be quarantining materials for 24 hours.
"We're getting the staff ready for that process change," she said.
"We are looking at the most current research that the virus doe not stay on physical items for an extended period of time but we want to make sure that have the time to adequately communicate with our community what we're doing…to ensure that we're keeping everyone safe," she added.
McGary announced that the Friends of the Library has donated $9,200 to the library. The funds will be used for: the Summer Learning program, $5,000; programming kits, $3,000; and the annual maintenance fee for the library's events calendar, $1,200.
In reviewing the impact the library has on the community, McGary noted that a little over 5,000 people visited the library in March which was up about 1,400 over the previous month.
"We are seeing more people walk through our doors as they get more comfortable and as they get vaccinated," she said.