Megan Navarro
WIMBERLEY — Beyond the books that fill the shelves, the Wimberley Village Library offers a variety of programs fit for the entire family to enjoy.
It has been a pillar in the town since its establishment in 1976, when community members started to get the idea of wanting a library. They pulled all of their resources and started a collection at a local church, Chapel in the Hills, which is directly behind the original building. It was from then on that Wimberley’s well-known Johnson family donated the land and the original library structure was able to be built, explained director Carolyn Manning.
“Most recently, a couple of years ago, we had that expansion and we doubled our footprint. So, we have basically two libraries that are connected,” Manning said. “We are not part of the city or the county. We are what’s considered a district library and so, we receive sales tax revenue as our main source of funding.”
What was once a 1,500 square-foot library has turned into a building that doubled or tripled its footprint, offering a large space for youth, craft lab, meeting room and small study rooms. The library had also quickly run out of parking spaces due to its popularity, but was able to raise enough money to add 30 more.
That popularity stems from not only the books, but also the programs that are available for ages zero to 99 years old, with the majority being for the youth. Though it is located in Wimberley, the library welcomes individuals from all over Texas and has seen patrons from Dripping Springs, San Marcos, Kyle and Canyon Lake who come in to participate.
The youth programs, which are for early readers ages zero through four and middle grade ages five through 12, include three story times a week — toddler time, regular and bilingual — two creative movement and imaginative dance classes and a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) class.
“The wonderful thing about our programming is that we use our funds to bring in outstanding educators, too,” said Beth Jordan, youth services librarian. “[We] will do our story times and arrange a program, but we are able to bring in very knowledgeable people, like for the dance class for our STEM class, we have a wonderful educator.”
Jordan continued to state that their flagship, called Page Turners, has grown to have 40 students in the first through third grade who meet up once a week with an adult mentor to instill a love of reading. Page Turners is currently at capacity, but the librarian explained that they encourage another program for the kids who don’t have a spot.
“We have over 40 community volunteers, [from] retired teachers [to] grandparents. They come to our library and they read with the child one-on-one. It is grown. We can't take anymore because we're at capacity. It's not that we're a tutoring service, but it has been focusing on us sharing our love of reading,” Jordan explained. “We have a huge waiting list for this program, so, what we do on Wednesdays, we have what's called Link-Up [where] we have a story time and then, we also have a fun educational activity to do for the overflow on that. I would say that's what I am so proud of.”
She added that through the Page Turners program, they have been able to partner reading specialists with kids who have autism or learning disabilities.
“We have been able to help parents that have come to us with children with special needs. It's just unbelievable how everything has fallen into place and networked with [being] able to hook them up with a retired special education specialist to work with,” Jordan said. “We've had children with learning disabilities, too. I had some training with dyslexia, but we have a lot of volunteer teachers that have been able to help.”
Additionally, every first and third Friday of the month, the library offers Family Fun Fridays and that can be anywhere from bingo to board games and even a paleontologist to talk about the dinosaurs of Texas, which is on the schedule for 4 p.m. Jan. 16, according to Tiffany Sowersby, youth services librarian.
For the older kids — teens and tweens — the following programs are available:
Minecraft for teens and tweens (ages 10 and up) at 3:30-5:30 p.m. on Mondays
Teen cooking club at 4-5:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month for ages 13-18 only
Teen art club at 4-5:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month for ages 10-16
Teen trivia night at 6-8 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month for ages 13-18 only
Chess club at 4-5:30 p.m. on Fridays for all ages
Teen drama club at 3-6 p.m. on Thursdays for ages 13 and up
Book vs Movie Club at 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30 for ages 13 and up
Looking to the future, Manning shared that they have already achieved her goal of expanding the footprint of the library, but she is wanting to continue to do the high-level programming and services, while also listening to how they can further support their community.
“We have a wonderful reputation here in town with the community, just the families that come here, the homeschool groups, the organizations that we have here, like the Master Naturalists, Civic Club, the Lions Club [and] we have a Friends of the Library. We all work together and collaborate on various programs,” Manning said. “We're very proud of our library and when we receive compliments about, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn't think that a library your size would have everything that you offer,’ I'm just proud of that. I'm proud of my staff.”
“People will say we are the heart of the community … but it truly has become a community, almost like a center to this idea of a phenomenal library,” Jordan added.
The Wimberley Village Library is located at 400 FM 2325 and is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, as well at 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
To learn more about what the library has to offer, visit www.wimberleylibrary.org.
