February is National Library Lovers’ Month and Saturday, February 3rd is Take Your Child to the Library Day! Our St. Lawrence County Libraries are active, vibrant destinations for both children and adults.
Our county libraries have about 580,000 items cataloged for patron use. The vast majority of those items may be borrowed and utilized outside of the library by anyone with a North Country Library System (NCLS) library card. Another million items are available through interlibrary loan from NCLS libraries in Jefferson, Lewis, and Oswego Counties. On an annual basis, our county libraries host almost 500,000 visitors – people checking out books and movies, reading the newspaper, searching the internet, applying for a job, studying for a test, completing homework, taking a class, learning a new skill, listening to a story, meeting friends, using tech services, receiving information, or attending a community activity. Libraries in today’s world offer so much more than traditional printed materials!
We offer about 1,200 programs each year for children, and another 1,000 programs are targeted to adults with a grand total of 35,000 participants across all age groups. Our libraries host about 60,000 computer sessions each year, with another 118,000 connections to our Wi-Fi by visitors using laptops, tablets, or smartphones. Just about half of our county residents possess an active library card, although many people partake in library programs and services without needing a card, and many children make use of their parent or guardian’s library card until they are old enough to obtain their own.
Let’s beat those winter blues by visiting the library in February, finding a new book to read, a new movie to watch, or a new program to attend. Our libraries are all different and unique, and each one has its own personality. Some libraries are quiet, some are active, some have specialized collections (perhaps a great selection of science fiction books, or quilting books, or blu-ray movies), and some lend odd items like pressure canners and paper crafting tools. If you’re looking for something to do outdoors, the library in Cranberry Lake lends snowshoes. Perhaps you’d like to bake a cake for Valentine’s Day? The Ogdensburg Public Library has three different heart-shaped baking pans that may be borrowed from their Cake Pan Library.
Show your library how much you love them – stop and visit, borrow a book, donate a book for an upcoming book sale, sponsor a magazine, join the Friends Group, share a library-related post on Facebook, or make a monetary donation. Let us know how we can better meet your needs!
If you don’t have a library card, please sign up. Library cards are free and can be issued in less than five minutes as long as you have a photo ID. If you have children, grandchildren, or a younger sibling, bring them to the library and introduce them to our library staff. We always like to see new faces, and, if at all possible, we’re happy to give you a quick tour of our library buildings and show you what we have to offer. So, please, love your library, stop in, check us out!