Summertime volunteers at the Kyle Public Library are (from left to right): Saleha Siddiqui, Phoebe Sosa, Neriah Sosa, Eutiquio Mondragon and Jacqueline Hermosillo. (Courtesy photo)
Check it out
by CONNIE BROOKS
Volunteers are at the heart of the Kyle Public Library. Without library patrons who donate their time, the library would have trouble functioning, especially in the busy summertime.
As schools empty out, public libraries fill up. The long summer days are packed full of programs to attract children and their families to the library. And the prizes offered in the Summer Reading Club are designed to entice children to keep up or improve their reading skills over the summer. It’s exciting to watch copies of “Judy Moody” and “Captain Underpants” fly off the shelves as young people discover the joys of leisure reading and to see children stagger out the library door weighed down by piles of books about their newest passions, whether those be dinosaurs or astronomy or magic tricks.
But as welcome as the extra influx of people is, it’s hard to accommodate without increasing staff levels. And that is why the Kyle Public Library staff members love summertime volunteers.
Over the summer, many young people help run the library and its programs. (This is in addition to the much-appreciated volunteers who help year-round at the library.) The volunteers help with programs in many capacities, such as assisting with crafts, serving refreshments and taking photos. Volunteers also help register children for the Summer Reading Club, explain how the club works, and redeem book logs for prize tickets. Volunteers who are more experienced help shelve collection items and check items in and out of the library.
There’s still a lot of summer left, so if you’d like to volunteer, please come by the Kyle Public Library at 409 W. Blanco St., call 512-268-7411 or email [email protected]. We definitely could use extra hands on Thursday, July 14 for the Summer Reading Club’s Wrap-Up Party.
