President Chris opened the meeting at Noon.
ATTENDANCE: 21 members attended virtually and 17 were present in-person. Our guests included our students of the month, Steve, and our speaker, Michelle Ortasic.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Greg Staub - there is an opening for Assistant Governor that covers our region. Let him know if you might be interested.
Ralph Jodice - Ralph heard a presentation by John Anthony and recommended that our members hear it as well. He said it was very good.
Chris Helt - Deb Stambaugh is looking for volunteers to help stuff packets for the Immunization Coalition. You should have received an email today allowing members to sign-up if interested. It involves receiving various materials next Tuesday, taking them home and packing them into 50 bags. Bring the completed bags back the following week.
- Christy Lucas was interviewed on tv at 8:50 am on "Fox and Friends" by Pete Hegseth about the Roots For Boots Program. She did an excellent interview.
PROGRAM: Michelle Ortasic, Guthrie Memorial Library
Michelle has been at the library for a couple years now. She outlined some of the services the library offers like:
General services beyond borrowing books and browsing their collection - WiFi hotspots, computers to use, access to a copier, 360 which allows you to borrow books to read on-line
Teen Library - fiction and non-fiction books, video games, 360 online access on line, research for school projects
Children's Library - fiction and non-fiction books, graphic novels, materials in English and Spanish, audio CD's and Video DVD's, story time
Membership in the library is free as are all their services. They are part of the larger York Co. Library System and share books and materials between locations.
Michelle explained how they were affected by covid 19 pandemic. They had to close the library to the public, and all in-person activities including fundraisers. They learned how to use existing social media methods- Facebook, instagram, Twitter and their website to connect to the community. Library staff also sent personal messages to many library users to keep in touch. hey worked in collaboration with other York Co libraries in providing digital story time, a virtual book club and yoga/meditation on-line.
When they were finally able to open to in-person activities, they began slowly and carefully by establishing cleaning protocols, lobby pick-up, and now limited browsing. They are currently operating at about 50% capacity. Pre-covid hours of operation were 54 hrs per week and they are open just 38 hrs/week now. Materials circulation pre-covid was about 18,000 and currently it is at 9600.
They are seeing circulation and usage steading rising and looking forward to the time when they can open full time again.
NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAM: Jill Kaylor, Bringing Care Home - What Is Homecare?