To celebrate National Library Week, the Monroeville Public Library is hosting several activities April 4-9.
The week kicks off with a “Take and Make Puzzles” event on April 4 and ends on April 9 as the library presents “Coffee Discovery with the Friends of the Monroeville Public Library.” Each day will have a theme, including National Library Worker Day on April 5, Library Donation Day on April 6, Volunteer Day on April 7, and Library Card Signup Day on April 8. april.
Free raffles will be held throughout the week for adults, teens and children, and visitors can enjoy snacks.
“I think now more than ever people are looking for ways to reconnect with their community,” said Pam Bodziock, the library’s deputy director. “The theme for National Library Week this year is Connect with Your Library. So we’re really excited to give people new opportunities to come together, to reconnect with each other and with all that we have to offer.
National Library Week has been celebrated in Monroeville for the previous two years, amid the covid-19 pandemic, but no in-person events have taken place. Planning for this year’s activities began at least a few months ago, said public relations manager Alice Rathjen.
“We weren’t able to bring people in capacity and celebrate the days with us,” she said. “We are certainly very happy to be able, once again, to set aside certain days of the week to celebrate.”
Bodziock said library staff members were delighted to be able to return to some semblance of normalcy for the week.
“It was wonderful to be able to support people and continue to support people through all the shutdowns,” she said. “But there is something very special and unique about people being able to come together in person. It’s a whole new level of connection. We are really excited to be able to do it again this year.
The week provides the library with special programming for regular visitors, while attracting potential new patrons. The April 9 Library Discovery Day will focus on ways a library card could provide value beyond the ability to browse books, including streaming movies or viewing an online magazine.
“We still want to make sure we continue to support everyone who is here now, but we’re still trying to think of new ways to really spread the word about what we can do and all the different things we can offer,” Bodziock said. . “We’ve been thrilled that in the past we’ve seen new people come in and say, oh, I didn’t know you could stream stuff with your library card. I didn’t know you had “Take and Make” cooking programs.
The celebratory week comes several months after the completion in mid-December of renovations to the library’s main entrance. Approximately $300,000 was spent on exterior lighting upgrades, as well as the addition of reverse corner accessible parking and a drive-through drop box. A storm water problem, which had caused occasional flooding for at least 15 years, was also resolved.
“It’s so much more welcoming,” Bodziock said. “They did a beautiful and fantastic job on that main entrance. It’s modernized. It’s just made more inviting. I can’t think of a better symbol than having a months old main entrance, that we’re welcoming people back through the doors to programming and events, and opportunities for them, like we had before the closure.
For more information, visit www.monroevillelibrary.org.
Wes Crosby is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.
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