Through shelves of stories and countless activities, Athens' seven public libraries provide areas for residents to connect and communicate.
Although most Ohio University and Hocking College students are not in Athens year-round, Athens County Public Libraries view them as valuable members of the area, striving to create engaging events.
“Our libraries are for everybody in the community,” Myca Roberts, the branch manager at the Plains Public Library, said. “(It) doesn't matter if you're here for life, if you're here for four years, or here for two. Anybody who is here in the area, we want you to come in and to bring your ideas and tell us ways that we can make your experience in this community better, or help you learn things to further your own education or your own goals.”
ACPL’s outreach services manager, Sean Kidd, works to build the community collection in Athens. The community collection allows locals and students to access library books without library cards. Current collections are at OhioHealth in Athens and Hocking and Athens and Perry Community Action in Glouster.
Another ACPL community collection was recently added to the fourth floor of Alden Library on Ohio University’s campus in collaboration with the OU Libraries, the Honors Tutorial College and the OHIO Honors Program.
Kidd started by connecting with OU’s HTC to help define what students might look for in a community collection.
“The target market was the HTC students because so much of their time is spent reading for academics,” Kidd said. “So this was the idea, that it offers an opportunity for them to engage in pleasure reading in a place that they already go because everybody's already in Alden.”
The Friends of the Athens County Libraries, a non-profit organization separate from the ACPL, collects books for the collections. From the materials it collects for book sales, it sometimes sets aside books for the shelves.
Once the books are on the shelves, people can pick one to take home and read. After the book is finished, locals can return the book to where it was found with no library card required.
Aside from providing reading materials and accessibility, Kidd said the Alden’s community collection is to help make college students aware of the resources available to them outside of the college itself.”
“I went to OU and I graduated from OU,” Kidd said. “It wasn't until after I graduated that I started looking around the county and seeing it's a big, wide world out here. There's a lot of different things going on, and it's a pretty interesting place. I think that this partnership is trying to touch on that and maybe get some college kids further engaged in the community.”
Amy Drayer, the branch manager at the Athens Public Library, also wants the college student age group to be aware of the programming at the ACPL branches and have the opportunities to get involved.
Some upcoming programming geared toward early adults at the Athens branch includes a series of LEGO building nights from April 13-16, where people can register to build the boutique hotel LEGO set in a collaborative space.
“We are sincerely hoping that we get some of our early adults to come in and do that,” Drayer said. “We think that would be a great project for just a night out, where you’re not sitting at home or studying.”
Additionally, the Plains Branch has a Dungeons & Dragons group, which meets Tuesdays from 4-6 p.m. Roberts said the Plains branch offers peer-led programming for those who have interests they want to see in programming and can help lead and organize an event using the library as a meeting space.
“We want to be a good community space that supports local arts, local talents, whether that's speakers or great minds in our community that we can have come in to pass along information that we think the community might be interested in,” Drayer said.
The Athens County library branches provide the standard services with books and movies available to check out, but there are other, less common resources.
“One of the best ways to support public libraries is to simply use them,” Becca Lachman, communications officer for ACPL, said in an email. “Get your library card, check out not only books, still the heart of libraries, but also tools and games and exercise equipment. Attend library events, get to know your local librarians.”
ACPL has online resources like Hoopla, Kanopy and Freading, which provide free access to movies, music, books and more. The library system also has a Library of Things and a Tool Library. With a library card, anything from a board game to a ghost hunting kit can be checked out from the Library of Things. In partnership with Rural Action and UpCycle Ohio’s Community Makerspace, saws, hammers, ladders and more can be checked out for up to two weeks using the Tool Library.
These programs and resources are not just for college students, though. The ACPL welcomes everyone.
“One goal of libraries is for anyone who comes through their doors (and let that sink in) to find the information they are looking for there, and to see their communities, interests, and themselves reflected in what's on the shelves, in what programming is offered at the library, etc.,” Lachman said in an email. “The next person who comes in may have drastically different views, voting records, and life experiences, but the information they are looking for should be in that library, too.”
