Um, hi? Is anyone there? (cracks knuckles, blows dust off keyboard). I know it has been a while – quite a few months, actually, and for no reason except writer’s block and personal issues and just so much heaviness in the world that it seemed almost impossible (for me, at least) to try to write a library-related blog. (oh, and also the tragic demise of my old laptop…that even though I backed up frequently, not frequently ENOUGH and I lost some half-written blog posts. At least I still have my favorite biscuit recipe…)
But we are back! And hopefully there will be some people who see this and take the time to read it because THERE IS SO MUCH GOOD STUFF GOING ON AT THE LIBRARY! There’s so much good stuff, in fact, that I don’t even know where to start.
The library is open our normal hours! We did reduce our evening hours on Mondays and Wednesdays because we had very few (if any) patrons visit during that last hour, but other than that – we’re back to “normal”, while also following the state’s guidelines for dealing with the not-quite-but-so-close post-pandemic state we have. All the services that we’ve always offered are still available, and we’re slowly starting to add back in programming. (I just decided that our programming will be my next blog post, because there are so many fun things coming up!)
First, I’m going to share that the library received a grant from the American Library Association’s Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries. We are so excited to be able to share everything we will learn and gain with our community. The funding enables small rural libraries like Fort Hunter to lead community engagement on a variety of topics.
With our grant, we’re hoping to lead conversations with the community to find out what the community wants and needs, and how we as the library can help facilitate those ideas. You’ll be seeing a lot more about this endeavor in the next few months.
One of the first things we did was create a very short survey for our patrons and community to help us understand what your needs are, where the gaps are, and what’s lacking. Now that we have the results, we’re sorting through all the information and planning for the future. More on our planning sessions soon!
Since this is the first blog post I’ve written in months, I think I’m going to keep this one short and end here. Thank you all for reading, and for being wonderful patrons and friends of our library!