Hello!
I forgot to mention that I would be visiting with family last week. My bad!
It’s very obvious now that I love the library as a 3rd space. It’s free, it’s run very well by a friendly staff, it’s a great place to share ideas with all walks in our community. Our library also provides many resources to support all stages of life.
Ami Jones has worked at Alamogordo Public Library for over 2 decades now. As the Youth Services librarian, she has helped set up programs meant to supplement learning from birth up to high school-age kids.
Especially for birth to toddler programs, Jones has noticed the library serving as an impactful center for community-building. “It’s really important (for parents and caregivers) to have that network of people that you can just sit and talk to, invite over for a birthday party, exchange advice (or) babysit.”
To this day, Jones still keeps in touch with families she first met when she brought her kids to youth services.
In this age-range, the services are equally helpful to the young ones.
Throughout the week, they offer several activities including those categorized as pre-science (like sorting different animals), pre-reading (such as story time), and pre-math (like visually seeing the difference between numbers while playing with building blocks).
The youth services library also provides learning kits, specialized supplies to help support Alamogordo’s large home-schooling population, card games, board games, crafts, and other stimulating activities to occupy kids while their parent is using adult services.
A library card gives adults access to a lending “Library of Things” featuring items from crochet kits all the way to pressure washers.
Every 1st Saturday of the month, the library hosts a “genre and/or author-based” book club that is very successful at promoting literary discussion about different writing styles, themes, etc.
Local authors (like the fantastic Tiffany Hunter) can host book talks to promote their work.
The last service that I want to mention to kind of tie up this whole topic for now is the puzzle groups. The reference librarian Cheryl-Burnett Gerber is currently working on setting up a puzzle tournament for their regulars.
Both Jones and Gerber mentioned seeing many of the same patrons visiting the library at similar times in the day because they enjoy each other’s company.
As with new parents and caregivers, navigating older adulthood is a huge life change. Even just as an adult, I’m sure we all know how difficult it can be to actually make friends. It’s extremely lonely until you find your people. Being in a low-expectations 3rd space where you can organically bond with your community over shared interests is vitally important for our mental and physical well-being.
Two things I am very happy to report: the staff isn’t worried about federal budget cuts to IMLS, as their funding mostly comes from elsewhere, and Alamogordo Public Library has started up a service for the unhoused or otherwise address-less to get access to a library card for all of their digital content: Libby, Freegal Music, Kanopy, Project Gutenberg, etc.
As of now, I guess all I can ask is that you take advantage of all the resources our library has to offer!
As you may have noticed, I am running out of steam for this schedule. 2 posts during the week is a bit difficult to keep up with, especially with such a short break in between. For the time being, I’m going to switch to 1 weekly post on Wednesdays, but they will be a bit longer, probably 400-600 words. I need us to focus, Alamo!
If I’m really feeling a topic, you may get surprise Sunday posts every now and then too.
Until next week,
Salud!
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