聽 聽 聽The Carlyle Public Library branch continues to make reading available and accessible to all members of the community, as it continues its popular book delivery service to residents of Carlyle's Golden Heritage Court and Moose Mountain Lodge.
聽聽聽聽 鈥淭he program has been going on for quite a long time now,鈥� says assistant librarian, Brenda Scheirer of Kenosee Lake. 鈥淚t means a lot to our patrons who can't get out to the library, especially in winter.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淲e couldn't do it without our volunteers,鈥� adds Scheirer. 鈥淧am Foster did it for a long time-she deserves a lot of credit. Now we're fortunate to have Joanne Lahoda doing it, and if she's away, her sister, Nancy Matthewson, takes over for her. We're very thankful for our volunteers.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 Both Foster and Lahoda say that volunteering for the outreach program is rewarding for them.聽
聽聽聽聽 鈥淚 did it for five years or so,鈥� says Foster. 鈥淭he thing I liked about it was visiting a lot of the ladies. There were certain people who still remember me when our church goes to sing at Christmastime, for example. They are so thankful and the whole experience was just awesome.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 Lahoda says she found out about the volunteer opportunity in The Observer. 鈥淚 was reading the paper and I thought it would be a good chance to volunteer. I like to read and I appreciate people liking to read, especially in the wintertime.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 Scheirer says like any other reading population, the beneficiaries of this program are individuals with individual reading preferences.
聽聽聽聽 鈥淭here are specific requests,鈥� she says. 鈥淢ore of this author, more of this kind of book. I also like to include some books and magazines that they might like to try that are new or that they may not have heard of. Most of the people do like clean reads, and among the men, westerns are popular. And of course, we offer a lot of titles in large print.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淚 like referring people to new reads and old reads that are new to them,鈥� adds Scheirer. 鈥淚 enjoy speaking to people about the books they've read.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淭his service is invaluable. The winter weather combined with their mobility issues, can make it a very long winter for some of our patrons.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 Scheirer says the library offers an array of services that people may not be aware of. 鈥淚n Saskatchewan, a library card is free, with the proper ID. We not only offer books, CDs, and DVDs, we'll order them in for patrons.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淵ou can also return a borrowed item to any library branch in the province, which make them great for road trips. There's a man who comes in who is a truck driver and he borrows books on CD. Another patron who does this is a lady who drives to Alberta to see her daughter. She says it makes the drive seem so much shorter.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淏ecause of the transient nature of so many of our lives and work, we have a lot of newcomers coming in to use the computer services we offer, including free wi-fi,鈥� adds Scheirer.
聽聽聽聽 The Carlyle library also has a and a , recently launched by head librarian, Jonathan Nicoll.
聽聽聽聽 Schierer says the library aims to serve all patrons, whatever their age.
聽聽聽聽 鈥淲e also offer programs for children and we lend books to other groups, such as Cornerstone Youth, for the preschoolers. I'd like to see more requests for pre-teen and teen books by library users. We get some great titles in and we'd be happy to see more people from that age group using the library.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 Schierer says, 鈥淥ur libraries are driven by the patrons in conjunction with the board and that's what makes it work. We get wonderful donations and support from our community and we'd be happy if people came in to see all that we have to offer.鈥�
