Our Busy, Bustling Library

by Beth Cronk

The library is back in full swing after the holidays. Story times, book clubs, and game nights have started up again. We have toddler story time on Wednesdays at 10:15 a.m., family story time on Thursdays at 7 p.m., and preschool story hour on Fridays at 10 a.m.

Book clubs
After-school book club for grades 3-5 meets at 3:15 on the second Thursday of each month. Middle school book club for grades 6-8 meets at 3:15 on the third Thursday of the month. Mystery book club for adults meets on the third Wednesday of the month at 7 pm. And Emmaus book club for seniors meets at 1 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month in the basement activity room at Emmaus Place.

Game night
Game night is every Monday night at 6:30. Next Monday, January 23rd, we’ll be having a role-playing game night. I’m expecting that it will be Dungeons & Dragons, since I know my family is bringing an old set in that night, but please bring along any role-playing games you’d be interested in playing. My fourteen-year-old son thinks D&D is fun, despite that fact that computer games can do the same kind of thing for you with graphics now. If you used to play back when it was big, or if you’ve ventured into the current sets that are still coming out, come join us. It’s not much time to allow for that kind of gaming, but we can at least find out if there’s any interest in setting up a Saturday event sometime.

The following Monday night, January 30th, we’ll have a Wii Sports night. I’ll move the Wii into the meeting room for the occasion. If you’ve wanted to try our Wii but didn’t want to do it out in the middle of the children’s department, come that evening to give bowling, baseball, or golf a try. Even my dad who never plays computer games has enjoyed Wii Sports.

Manga class
Another fun activity we have coming up is a manga drawing class for ages 13 and up. Manga is a distinctive Japanese comic style. Our class will meet on three Tuesdays: January 24 and 31 and February 7, from 3:30-4:30. Sign up with us soon, since space is limited. This arts opportunity is funded by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment.

Book sale
Our book sale takes place on the third Saturday of every month. Our next one is coming up this Saturday, January 21st . I’d like to thank the Litchfield Women’s Club for being so generous with their time by cashiering at every sale, and I’d like to thank all of you who donate books, videos, and audios for us to sell.

Ebooks
Our virtual library is really hopping since the holidays, too. Practically all of our ebooks are checked out currently because so many of you got ereaders and tablet computers for Christmas. You can always request an ebook to be put on the waiting list, and then you will get an email telling you when it’s available for you to download. We will be buying more ebooks in the coming year than we did this past year. Every day at least one person stops in the library for help getting started with their ereader, and we do our best to help. The difficulty is that there are so many different products on the market that we haven’t necessarily had personal experience using the one you have. Sometimes it takes a combination of our knowledge from the library side of things, customer support from your device maker (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.), and just some time that you spend playing around with it. Usually it gets much, much easier once you learn to use it in the first place.

We have just added a new section to our Overdrive website that you can find on the bottom left corner of the webpage. Older books that are out of copyright and in the public domain are available to download even without a library card, without any limit on the number of titles, and without any need to return them. These are books such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Anna Karenina. I found a whole bunch of Zane Grey books on there for a patron who wished we had more Western ebooks available.

Our library is a bustling place every day. Every now and then someone out in the world comments to me that the library must be such a relaxing place to work.  After I've managed to hold back a chuckle, I tell them that it's actually a really busy place to work.  If you haven’t been here in a while, come in and see what all the commotion is about!