Between the Stacks: 7/31/2024

The first full week in August (the 5th-9th), the staff is taking some well-deserved time off, so there will be no Kid's Quilting on Monday or Storytime on Friday. There will also be no Tuesday painting class during the month. Joan Dedeyker, our resident artist, plans to offer another class in January for those who want to join.

You may have noticed many new people helping out in the Library. With all of the programs going on and our circulation statistics going higher every year, our volunteers are critical to how much the staff can plan on providing. They assist us in running the summer reading and feeding program, processing new and donated books, sorting the book sale, preliminary checking for donations, checking books for wear, lack of circulation, missing series volumes, and more. Doing so many of our repetitive tasks frees the staff up to run and plan programs, assist patrons with technology needs, and reference questions. They also do the majority of cutting for our many craft programs during the year. Thank you all!

One of the many things Brandi and I catch up on during August is discovering and learning about new programs for all ages. There are many wonderful sites for librarians, including ideas, supply lists, costs, and time allocation. With the cost of everything going up, we are very careful to recycle many things we use in our craft programs. Some of you may have noticed the boxes of yarn and other craft supplies in the basement. These were all donated and will be put to good use in our winter projects. If you have craft supplies you no longer use and don't know what to do with them, we would love to put them to good use.

Speaking of donations, the basement was almost emptied with the book sale going on last weekend. Visitors to Frontier Days came by and bought books by the bag full. It was lovely to hear how much they liked the Library and enjoyed being in Whitehall. Many of them come to multiple events here in town and could not say enough nice things about the people who live here!

September calendars will be available the last week of August or maybe a little before.

There will be new and old programs starting after Labor Day. Because we are constantly adding new things right up until that last week, please don't ask for them in the middle of August. We want everyone's calendar to include all of the programs and events, so they don't miss out on anything!