July 30, 2013

New librarian wants to hear from community

STAFF REPORTS

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CENTRE — The new head of the Cherokee County Public Library wants to make sure all readers—and non-readers—know they are welcome in her facility at any time.

“I'd like to make this a place where a lot of community events are going on,” said Elaine Henry, who has been on the job since March and is still getting acclimated to the architecturally stylish facility on Mary Street behind the old Centre Middle School.

As one of eight members of the Cheaha Regional Library System, Henry said her location in Centre ultimately has access to a larger number of books than the 26,000 or so that sit on the shelves.

“We have a book mobile through the regional system that serves all the libraries, and it is here once a month,” Henry said. “We have the schedule here at the library.”

Henry is a Detroit, Mich. native, with a library and education background. She and her husband moved to northeast Alabama in 1996. She has a son who lives in Texas; he has two children out West.

Last December, Henry completed her master's degree in library information studies at the University of Alabama and soon dove into her new job. So far, she has been impressed with the county's dedication to assuring the community has a viable public reading space.

“This library has a lot of assets, it has doubled in size since 2000,” she said.

Henry said one of her first actions after taking over was to conduct a survey of those who frequent the library.

“We're just beginning to analyze those results now,” she said. “We want to find out what kind of library the people want us to be.”

Henry said a brief analysis of some of the early surveys indicate patrons want to see new items such as DVD and music CD collections, and e-books.

“We are considering ways to add those items, and e-books will be available through our regional library sometime in the next six months,” she said. “We're also working on creating crocheting and knitting groups here, if we can find someone to lead them.”

Henry is proud of the library's series of summertime, kid-themed gatherings, including art classes by local artist Cloud Farrow on Thursday afternoons and the “Reptile Round-Up” featuring speakers from the Anniston Museum of Natural History. Adult-themed events on the schedule include a book club that meets every Tuesday and an African-American genealogy workshop that meets Monday afternoons.

In September the Brown Bag Lunch program for adults will re-launch, as will the Fall Storytime Program for young children, held every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Even though the survey results are still being analyzed, Henry said she already knows of a few ways the library can be an even more productive member of the community.

“We have an 18-station computer lab, and a few of them are down right now,” she said. “That's one thing we need to fix. We're working on doing that. We've got a beautiful conference room that could be used for more programs.”

Henry said anyone in the community is welcome to email the library with suggestions (cpi@tds.net) for programs they would like to see. They can also leave comments on the library's Facebook page.

“We want to attract as wide a segment of the population as we can,” Henry said. “I still sometimes hear people say they didn't know we had a library. That just makes me sad.”