The Carlyle Public Library branch continues to make reading available and accessible to all members of the community, as it continues its popular book delivery service to residents of Carlyle's Golden Heritage Court and Moose Mountain Lodge.
“The program has been going on for quite a long time now,” says assistant librarian, Brenda Scheirer of Kenosee Lake. “It means a lot to our patrons who can't get out to the library, especially in winter.”
“We couldn't do it without our volunteers,” adds Scheirer. “Pam Foster did it for a long time-she deserves a lot of credit. Now we're fortunate to have Joanne Lahoda doing it, and if she's away, her sister, Nancy Matthewson, takes over for her. We're very thankful for our volunteers.”
Both Foster and Lahoda say that volunteering for the outreach program is rewarding for them.
“I did it for five years or so,” says Foster. “The thing I liked about it was visiting a lot of the ladies. There were certain people who still remember me when our church goes to sing at Christmastime, for example. They are so thankful and the whole experience was just awesome.”
Lahoda says she found out about the volunteer opportunity in The Observer. “I was reading the paper and I thought it would be a good chance to volunteer. I like to read and I appreciate people liking to read, especially in the wintertime.”
Scheirer says like any other reading population, the beneficiaries of this program are individuals with individual reading preferences.
“There are specific requests,” she says. “More of this author, more of this kind of book. I also like to include some books and magazines that they might like to try that are new or that they may not have heard of. Most of the people do like clean reads, and among the men, westerns are popular. And of course, we offer a lot of titles in large print.”
“I like referring people to new reads and old reads that are new to them,” adds Scheirer. “I enjoy speaking to people about the books they've read.”
“This service is invaluable. The winter weather combined with their mobility issues, can make it a very long winter for some of our patrons.”
Scheirer says the library offers an array of services that people may not be aware of. “In Saskatchewan, a library card is free, with the proper ID. We not only offer books, CDs, and DVDs, we'll order them in for patrons.”
“You can also return a borrowed item to any library branch in the province, which make them great for road trips. There's a man who comes in who is a truck driver and he borrows books on CD. Another patron who does this is a lady who drives to Alberta to see her daughter. She says it makes the drive seem so much shorter.”
“Because of the transient nature of so many of our lives and work, we have a lot of newcomers coming in to use the computer services we offer, including free wi-fi,” adds Scheirer.
The Carlyle library also has a Facebook page and a blog, recently launched by head librarian, Jonathan Nicoll.
Schierer says the library aims to serve all patrons, whatever their age.
“We also offer programs for children and we lend books to other groups, such as Cornerstone Youth, for the preschoolers. I'd like to see more requests for pre-teen and teen books by library users. We get some great titles in and we'd be happy to see more people from that age group using the library.”
Schierer says, “Our libraries are driven by the patrons in conjunction with the board and that's what makes it work. We get wonderful donations and support from our community and we'd be happy if people came in to see all that we have to offer.”
