Bringing books to the people

One of the goals of the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library's outreach services department is getting books into the hands of readers, and staff members have been busy bringing that idea to life. Since last May, library employees have established mini collections of books at several agencies around town including Family Resource Center, City Mission, NAMI of Hancock County and Steady Path Stabilization Center. "When I first took the part-time position, it was one of the things that I wanted to do was to get books to the kids that were just in different areas of town or kids that didn't have someone to bring them in to the library," said outreach services coordinator Lisa Dryden. Dryden decided to try to accomplish her goal by creating outreach collections. She contacted a friend who works at Family Resource Center and together, they established a mini collection in the waiting area of the youth services building. The unit was initially stocked with a generous donation of children's books from the family of Elizabeth "Libby" Hendricks. Hendricks, who had been a teacher for 37½ years at Carey Elementary School, died in 2018. The books had been part of her personal collection. Dryden said the volumes are free to anyone and do not need to be returned. "The kids love those. The receptionist there says that they're like, 'Can we take these home?' And they're really excited when they can," she said. Dryden restocks the shelves there every three weeks or so which, depending on the size of the book, takes 25 to 40 volumes to fill. She noted that picture books and early childhood books are the first to go. City Mission was next on Dryden's list. A mini collection of books was established at the homeless shelter in October. She visits the mission about once a month to switch out titles. "We put some children's books in there, some in their children's (play) room. And then some of those are more adult nonfiction, career-building, that sort of thing. But then just some fun books, too," she said. Dryden uses books that have been withdrawn from the library's collection and those that have been donated by the public. "The library collection gets first dibs (on the donated books), then I get dibs," said Dryden, adding that the rest go to the Book Cellar that is operated by the Friends of the Library. "Some of them are lesser-known books, but a lot of them are popular things like 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' and 'Dog Man' and that sort of thing. And picture books," she said. NAMI of Hancock County also agreed to put a collection of books in its lobby. "It has all ages and it's mostly general fiction," Dryden said. However, sometimes the agency does request a specific topic or theme. A mini library at Steady Path Stabilization Center was added in March. Dryden noted the shelving unit there and at NAMI were both built by the library's facilities manager, Larry Hammond. Dryden has heard that the the books are being used — and appreciated — at all of the agencies. "Family Resource Center is just the one that has made me so happy because it empties out so quickly," she said. "We've even got a few books that people have left there for us to add to our collection." She hopes to expand the idea even further to more places in Findlay and out in the county. It's all about getting the books out to the public, added Kayleen Veit, extension and outreach services/circulation manager. "Sometimes Lisa likes to take a crate of free books out on bookmobile stops because if a child comes on and says my parent's not with me or whatever, they can't get a library card. But this is at least saying, 'Here's a free book for you.' At least it's getting books into kids' hands."