🥇 Library Champion Newsletter #66 | The 2-year anniversary since closing due to COVID-19 👀 (Plus: 📚 Book Sale Date!)
Library Champion,
👋 Welcome to our new subscribers! I am SO GLAD to have you aboard!
We are so excited to announce that we have new, more expanded hours:
Monday - 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Tuesday - 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday - 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday - 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Friday - 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday - 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Sunday - Closed
Online - 24/7/365 - visit our website.
The 2-year anniversary since closing due to COVID-19 👀
We just reached the 2-year anniversary of our library closing due to COVID-19. On Saturday, March 14th 2020 we closed at 1:00 PM. Following the guidelines of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, we remained closed from Monday, March 16 to Sunday, March 29. When we reached March 23rd, we followed the order of Governor Tom Wolf and remained closed until further notice. 2 months later, on June 1st, we began offering curbside service. It wasn’t for another 10 months, April 2021, that we began offering in-person browsing again. What a ride!
My social media pages show me “memories”, meaning things I shared on that day in the past. I looked at my memories from the first days of the pandemic and saw a world that feels like it was more than just 2-years ago. I relocated my desk to my basement and turned that desk into a standing desk to help my back pain. I began ordering groceries through the Instacart service and would wipe down with the few sanitizing wipes we had all of our groceries. I would also make weekly trips to the UPS warehouse nearby and pick up the packages that were meant to be delivered to the library. I still purchased books and our cataloger worked from home.
The pandemic offered me many challenges. I had to make decisions that seemed to be equally weighed between the interests of our patrons, our staff, and our board of trustees. At times those interests would conflict; one group would want us to open back up fully while the other didn’t yet feel comfortable being around large groups. I received a lot of help from our nearby library directors who I stayed in regular contact with.
The pandemic also brought me many great things. I had a major back issue in the beginning of the pandemic and with the military-like push from my wife I changed my diet, began walking twice a day, and ended up losing 60 pounds!
Overall, I remain eternally grateful to you, our library patrons, for your patience and understanding. The way you had to use the library changed drastically, and for over a year you couldn’t browse the shelves (which is the one thing I heard most often that people missed.) We never had any patrons freak out and yell at us or cause a scene. Our wonderful staff went with the flow and continued to offer the best service around. Our board of trustees, lead by the steady leadership of our then-president Ann Hart, offered guidance and vision for the long-term steps for the library.
You can read all about the ways the library has offered services during the pandemic by visiting https://www.juniatalibrary.org/using-library/covid-19 or go to Using the Library and COVID-19: What You Need to Know.
March 2022: T-shirt Sale!
Below: the available colors.
Below: the winning logo design by Julia Mummau that will be on the t-shirts
A book recommendation just for you!
Beacon of Light: An Amish Romance (Long Road Home series book #2) by Linda Byler (2021) (New adult fiction: Christian, Romance, Amish/Mennonite)
At the end of Banished, the first book in this series, Clinton has died and May is left to fend for herself in a city where she knows almost no one and has no way of earning a living. Not knowing where Oba had wound up and realizing she can't return to her uncle's home after all he'd put her through, she decides to journey to the Amish community where she spent her first years, before her parents' died. Perhaps the relatives who once turned her away had had a change of heart and would be willing to take her in or help her get settled on her own.
After being shuffled from home to home, May finds a welcoming friend in Clara. Clara is single, having long since sworn off romantic relationships. She doesn't trust men, and it doesn't take her long to realize May had her own painful past, though for some time she doesn't know the full extent of what May suffered. Clara helps May to reintegrate into the Amish community, but May sinks deeper and deeper into depression as she tries to keep her dark past concealed.
What will it take for May to finally face her past and begin to heal? Will she and her brother Oba ever see each other again? And could May ever open her heart to another man? In the midst of great darkness, May discovers a beacon of light.
This unique Amish romance tackles heavy issues of abuse, racism, and the damage done when a community puts reputation over faith, but ultimately there is also hope, love, and the unflinching faithfulness of a good God.
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The book sale is back!
The next book sale will be held at the end of April 2022!
Here is the schedule:
1) Tuesday 04/26: Friends member preview night from 4PM to 7PM. Anyone can become a member of the Friends at this time or beforehand.
2) Wednesday 04/27 through Saturday 04/30: during regular hours the rest of the week (Wednesday 9A-5P, Thursday 9A-7P, Friday 9A-5P, Saturday 9A-3P.)
For buying books: the price is $5 per bag and the bags are provided at the book sale.
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Thank you for being a library champion. You make a difference each day!
--Vince Giordano
Librarian and Director of the Juniata County Library.
P.S.- You don't need to make an account or jump through any hoops to donate to the library and become a library champion. I wouldn't say this if it wasn't true. You can make this happen in less than a minute. Just click here.