This article, written by OFPL Director, Ryan Johnson, was featured in the September 1, 2021 O’Fallon Weekly.
A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of representing the library at City Fest. Teri and Julie, both from our Youth Services department, also gave their time to organize and execute our presence there. What a wonderful experience!
It was so nice to get out of the building and interface with folks who we may not otherwise get the chance to interface with. We spoke to so many families, some who are already avid library users, but others who are new to town, from the next town over, or who, for whatever reason, just don’t use the library.
We gave out candy and other fun prizes (including books) to the kids and generally just had a great time talking to people about the library.
The Friends of the Library also had a presence in the City Fest parade for the first time. In case you don’t know about the Friends they are like a booster club for the library. They help us raise money for special projects and help us promote the library throughout the community. They run our volunteer program, our book donation program, and manage our book sales. They are integral and vital to the work we do here. If not for them, our services would look a lot different.
I bring up the Friends group not only because they were in the parade, but because they have an Open House scheduled for Tuesday, September 14. The fun starts a 6 pm. All the event details on our website, but in general, this Open House will serve as a chance for current Friends members to socialize and for those curious about getting involved to learn more. Being a Friends member is a great way to give back to the library, help us advance our mission, meet like-minded people, and have a good time. You can find out more about the group at ofpl.info/friends. We really hope to see you there on the 14th.
I mentioned book sales earlier. Our first big book sale in well over a year is happening at the end of October. Save the dates now. We’ll open for business at 9 am on Thursday, October 28. The sale will run through Monday, November 1, during normal library hours. Shop from a wide collection of books, DVDs, CDs and so much more. We’ll have something for every age group, and nearly every subject imaginable.
Lastly, a new statewide mask mandate went into effect earlier this week, which obviously applies to the library. We know this is not happy news, but we appreciate your cooperation as we all try to get through this together. We feel very fortunate that we were able to reopen as early and as fully as we did way back in June 2020 (doesn’t that feel like so long ago?). We are hopeful that we’ll be able to navigate this current spike in cases with the same sort of success.
To do that though, we need your help. Stay Safe.
The O'Fallon Public Library News 