July’s been a busy month at Gay Kimball Library! From diving into summer reading challenges to finding ways to beat the heat of the dog days of summer, we’ve had a blast with our community through a number of events.

Thanks to our CLiF grant, we were able to purchase two book wagons and head out to the Historical Society’s Community Fair this month. There, we offered the town a glimpse at GKL history through storyboards. It was exciting to talk with patrons new and old about how the town’s library first began in the late 1800s as a room in our town hall. Our original circulation was just under 1,000 titles, and we started with one part-time librarian. It wasn’t until 1945 that the library moved out of the town hall into the brick portion of our building today. To learn more about our history, take a walk near the picnic table on the side of the library and read all about Gay Kimball’s history and the generous legacy of both the Gay and Kimball families!

In July, we also held an obstacle course event in conjunction with the rec department’s Community Day. Kids leveled up their agility by balancing balls, hoops, and noodles while following directions. We also created a new graphic novel section in our children’s room, leveled up our Lego building skills, hosted rec department camp visits, and saw a record number of children come out for story time – as many as 22 kids and 9 adults.

We also welcomed Rylan Christen to our volunteer team. He’s been a great asset in helping us with a variety of tasks, including setting up our shark scavenger hunt, collecting rocks for Storytime kids, helping patrons with computers, and troubleshooting building maintenance concerns. If you see Rylan around, please thank him for his service to the town.

We improved library safety this month by installing security cameras both in and out of the building. In addition to the town cameras for YouTube streaming of government meetings in our conference room, we are now able to ensure patron safety in all areas of the library and are thankful to all who helped make this happen!

With door counts rising and people meeting their summer reading goals, we are looking forward to meeting our own goals for August. This will include the addition of several new audiobook titles for adults, an extensive and diverse addition of adult titles, the announcement of new adult programming, the introduction of a Teddy Bear Tea program, a regular Story Walk for all ages, and an author visit. We will also be reaching out to local educators and speakers for a variety of adult presentations and programming opportunities.

We are super excited to have received word that our CLiF grant will cover tile replacement for our event space before summer’s end! This will come just in time for our author signing events and make for a brighter space for all!