Join Laura, the library’s Public Services Manager, and Stephanie, our Public Services Lead, as they explore a few local libraries at this year’s Library Crawl!
Three years ago the Bethalto Public Library had the fantastic idea to start a Library Crawl within the Illinois Heartland System. The mission of the Library Crawl is to get patrons out of their home library to experience what other libraries have to offer. Fortunately, having a card at one library in the heartland system gives you access to items at all libraries in that system. To participate in the Library Crawl visit your home library and get a passport. The passport lists all participating libraries. When you visit a participating library you can have your passport stamped and you often leave with small gift! This is the first year the O’Fallon Public Library is participating in the Library Crawl. To start out with a bang we decided to spend a day visiting libraries in our area.
We decided to start our day in Bethalto since this library is where the crawl originated. We were happy to meet with Mary Brewster, Bethalto Director, she was delightful and told us all about how the idea for the crawl was born. As an avid knitter she has participated in knitting crawls and thought it would work well with libraries. She took that idea and put it into action and voila here we are!
Our ultimate goal was to get to 12 libraries in one day. We knew that might be difficult so our secondary goal was 10. We soon realized that all the libraries we visited were staffed by such awesome people and offered so much quality information it was hard to just stop, say hi, get our stamp and leave. We were met with such warmth and kindness and felt so welcome everywhere we stopped. Here are some photos of awesome staff that we were grateful to meet on our journey.
Wood River 
Spinning for a prize in Hartford! 
Mascoutah 
Glen Carbon 
Caseyville 
Making a call in Edwardsville! 
Maryville 
Snapes in Edwardsville! 
Collinsville 
Fairview Heights
We were not surprised to see all the wonderful displays and great programs at each library we visited. We know that librarians are the most creative, thoughtful, and fun people! We learned so much at all of our stops. We can’t mention them all but we were impressed by Roxana’s “Snack Attack”, where Roxana staff stand on the sidewalk giving snacks to students as they walk by after school. Glen Carbon shared information regarding their 3D printer and a great display featuring children working on their 1,000 books before Kindergarten program. Caseyville had a beautiful fall hidden object display. I have always appreciated the fact that libraries are open to sharing ideas. Here are some fun things we came across on our trip!
Welcome sign in Bethalto 
Apollo II display in Fairview Heights 
Games Anyone? Bethalto 
Colored with Kindness in
Fairview Heights
Whomping Willow in Wood River 
Awesome Library Crawl Map in Roxana 
Free Pantry in Fairview Heights 
Children’s Display in Bethalto 
Children’s Area in Roxana 
1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Display in Glen Carbon 
Harry Potter Party in Wood River 
Find the Hidden Objects in Caseyville 
Harry Potter Character’s Suggest Books in Glen Carbon
In the end we visited 11 out of the 12 library’s on our list. The last one we selected closed a bit too early for us to make it. Whether you can spend a day to visit 11 libraries or you have a moment to stop by 1 we promise you will not be disappointed with what you find.
Here is the final list of the libraries we visited
Hartford Public Library District
Glen Carbon Centennial Library
Collinsville Memorial Public Library
Caseyville Public Library District
The O'Fallon Public Library News 