( boyertown community library’s director spills a page about this treasure of a resource )

( boyertown community library’s director spills 

a page about this treasure of a resource )

by jennifer hetrick

    

the year 1989 marked something integral in boyertown—it is when a community library brushed into the zip code.

     

two years ago, mark sullivan took over as the boyertown community library’s director after earning his master’s degree in library science in 2004 and working for several years in lehigh county’s library system.

     

a reflection of the community is what sullivan considers the library in how its staff tries to shape it in the community, including of course an angle of usefulness as its main element.

“each of the berks county libraries is independent, but we work together,” sullivan explained.

     

“anyone outside of the county has to become a member of their home library first,” sullivan said, “and then, they are allowed to become a member of ours.”

     

“we try to reflect the needs of the community, which is one of the reasons we became a passport processing facility,” sullivan said about one of the library’s unique attributes when so few places today offer passport services.

     

free use of computers is another well-utilized characteristic of the library with its computer room in the middle of the building, even in 2011, of all years.

     

"i think it’d probably be surprising to many people—how many others out there don’t have ready access to the internet," sullivan said. "in a time when most job applications have to be done online, the library offering computer usage is becoming more and more valuable."

     

the library has more than 70,000 visits per year, with that number certainly including repeat patrons. its system boasts of around 9,100 active members, meaning those who have used their library cards within the past three years.

     

berks county also offers a loan system where users at any library can request books from others, and they are shipped to a patron’s home library within just days, at no charge.

        

it costs the library about $250,000 each year to pay for staff, new materials, and general operating expenses. with budget cuts from the state recently taking a toll on local libraries, sullivan hosted a first major fundraiser in 2010 with the goal of gathering $10,000 to put toward the budget.

     

in the end, $14,000 had been raised, and sullivan said he couldn't believe at first that the number was definitely accurate.

     

"the people who use the library the most have opened up their wallets," sullivan said, noting that patrons who regularly use the library are incredibly dedicated to supporting it. "there really were not that many large donations— most were $25 or $50 each."

     

besides offering reading time to pre-schoolers and school-aged children, along with parenting classes and much more, the boyertown community library has one of the most successful summer reading programs in the county.

     

sullivan collects donated prizes from businesses along the main street in town to use as giveaways for those participating in the summer reading program. this summer’s theme for readers is one world, many stories for a multicultural delve into appreciating the lives, experiences, and perspectives of those perched across the globe.

     

a unique new asset at the library is a guys read club, which is for boys between the ages of five and nine, and dads are welcome to join.

     

“it is part of our mission to encourage children to read and make them lifelong readers and learners,” sullivan said about kids and the importance of honing a reverence for books early in life, adding that the reading programs are always full. “the way you do that is to make the library an inviting place that they’ll continue to come back to, taking on a life of its own.”

     

search for the library on facebook and twitter. 

also visit them online at www.berks.lib.pa.us/boyertowncl.