Changing strategies to keep libraries relevant
Riley Nemoseck, left, and Gabby Dusi, both 9 and from Rostraver Township, build an arch bridge at their local library.
Rostraver Township Public Library director Naomi Cross demonstrates a Finch robot, which provides computer science learning for children as young as 5.
Santa Claus was visited by people who portrayed characters from the “Star Wars” movies during the December holiday party at Chartiers-Houston Community Library.
BELLE VERNON – Children are learning about science while building small, self-supporting wooden bridges using Leonardo da Vinci’s ideas at a public library in the Mon Valley on a weekday afternoon in mid-June.
Meanwhile, the librarian at Rostraver Township Public Library is demonstrating the use of a small robot in the “idea room” in an era when a paperless world and stagnant funding streams are causing small libraries to offer creative programs to stay relevant.
“We have to make ourselves welcoming and functional so they can get as much as possible for stopping here,” said Naomi Cross, director of the library at 700 Plaza Drive.
The robot she’s operating came to the library with other computers under a federal grant a consortium of Westmoreland County libraries received from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an agency that is under threat of disappearing in President Trump’s budget.
The service divides about $214 million a year among libraries and museums in states using a formula drawn from their populations.
It provides small libraries with tools and programing they otherwise couldn’t afford, Cross said.
The institute invests in rural and smaller communities by developing libraries as local community hubs for gaining access to the internet and helping many people gain job skills or employment, the agency states on its website.
If that money disappears, “we’ll all be in a state of hurt,” said Nicole Mitchell, acting director of the Flenniken Public Library in Carmichaels.
“We get by with the skin of our teeth,” added Kristin Frazier, director of Burgettstown Community Library at 2 Kerr St.
Among the clever programs at Frazier’s library is a doll dressmaking class in which kids select patterns to create outfits and accessories with duct tape. The library also offers a Build It program using $1,000 worth of Lego blocks that were purchased through a state grant.
“We wouldn’t be able to afford them,” Frazier said.
Monongahela Area Public Library has done some wild programing, including hosting a group of chickens last year to teach people how to raise and care for them in their backyards. The library also offered a course on cursive writing, fearing it would disappear now that public schools no longer teach it in their classrooms.
“Our summer programs are full,” said Michelle Hazen DeHosse, president of the library board in Monongahela.
“The programs, not only do they bring people into the library, but they also educate them,” DeHosse said.
“That’s much more powerful than anything on paper.”
The smaller libraries make due with annual budgets of about $100,000.
The state subsidies Monongahela receives are based on local matching money, with the library being penalized because Union Township and Finleyville do not make donations to support that library, DeHosse said.
The library had considered sharing a director with Donora Public Library, but that seems to be off of the table now, she said.
The manager of Chartiers-Houston Community Library wants to remind people that it is still open after there was a threat of closing it about three years ago when support was cut by the local school district.
“We’re still here, and we plan on being here for a long time,” said Laura Swanson, who runs the Chartiers-Houston library. “We were able to re-establish a relationship with the school district,” Swanson said, referring to Chartiers-Houston School District, which owns the library building and is now paying its utility bills.
It received building blocks in 2015 under a state grant to help young children develop spacial reasoning skills.
The library at 730 W. Grant St. in Houston also dazzled its patrons at the December holiday party by hosting people who dressed as characters from the “Star Wars” movies.
Flenniken decided to offer free art classes to children after Carmichaels School District eliminated the elementary school art program a few years ago.
Mitchell said the library attracts between 15 and 40 children to the classes, which are held between 3 and 5 p.m. every Tuesday, with the most popular craft being an assignment to make lamps from recycled detergent bottles.