By Pamela West-Finkle
First, welcome all of our new Andes residents and especially the new children attending Andes Central School! If you would like to get a Four County Library card, there are applications available on the porch.
Despite the pandemic, library traffic is beginning to get back to normal. Al-though we have been closed on Fridays and Saturdays, I hope to reopen those days in September. Appointments are still suggested, but over half of our visitors are walk-ins, and everyone is social distancing. If you plan to visit the library, please use the hand sanitizer, wear your mask the entire time you are in the library, and remember to put your returns in the outside return box before coming in as we have to quarantine them for 96 hours. Overdue books are fine-free at this time, so any late charges incurred will be removed.
First, I would like to thank our summer intern, Adam Lang, for providing 150 hours of free labor. Most of the children’s books are barcoded, and he helped to document and label the new Early Reader Kits available for families with children ages PreK to 3rd or 4th grade.
The kits are numbered from one to twenty-four, organized according to subject matter and reading level. For instance, some books are mixed with Monsters, Disney/Pixar, Animal Stories themes and some feature a group by one author, like Clifford, Curious George, Amelia Bedelia, Nate the Great, and more. If you are looking to supplement whatever educational model your children are participating in this Fall, these kits are an excellent way to encourage progressive reading development. Each kit has 7-18 books in it and you can check it out for three weeks before progressing onto gradually more challenging early reader kits. I can email you the master list if you would like to look at the kits available.
Speaking of school, I want the community to know that I want the library to be available to support our local students and parents in whatever capacity you need. I am a New York State certified 7-12 English/Language Arts/Writing teacher and a PreK to 12th grade music teacher, in addition to having been a Director of a Sylvan Learning Center in New Jersey and an SAT prep ELA tutor. I have been using Zoom to teach online since April and we have free WiFi, at the library and three public patron computers, with scanning and printing available. Please reach out to me at an.ill@4cls.org or 845-676-3333 if you need assistance with facilitating your child’s remote education.
Our story time has also been online since March and has recently begun to experience an increase in views. Traditionally, our in-person story time would attract fewer than ten children per month. Every Wednesday, I pick three meaningful, well-written, beautifully illustrated stories and upload them to our Facebook page. I try for 11 am, but the videos are large and the internet has not always been cooperative. When the online story time first started, we would get between 30 and 50 views. Last week’s story time garnered nearly 800 views—over 600 in the first 24 hours. Hopefully someday, after the pandemic dies down, I can begin in-person story times again, but I plan to continue offering the online programs for the safety and convenience of our families that tune in. If you have not already, please “Like” and follow the Andes Public Library Facebook page so that you can get our updates.
Please keep an eye out in your mailbox for our annual report to the community and donation appeal. Please consider supporting our library. We are a civic center, a hub for information, local history, and a technology resource. We offer the newest best sellers and movies, as well as technical support, tutoring, and community events. For the same cost as a couple of new books from Amazon, a Prime membership, or a trip or two to the movies, you could make a substantial difference to our library. We thank you in advance! Hope to see you soon!~
