First day in new home a big event at our library

Tuesday, April 9, was a historic day for the Pea Ridge Community Library — our first day in our new home. We were a little nervous: Would anyone show up? Would the new library meet their expectations? Would we be able to use the new check-out/checkin system? We had many visitors and their comments were all positive and ranged from: “It is beautiful” to “What a blessing for Pea Ridge to have this wonderful library.” Those comments were much appreciated!

There were some glitches in issuing new library cards and checking out books, but everyone was patient and understanding. Thanks to Kristi and Cinda for spending the biggest part of the day manning the desk while I showed off the library! Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, Kelsie helped with check-out and with the computer system. How fortunate I have been to have such a hardworking library board and volunteers. A special thanks to Ms. Billie Hickman and Gus Bradley for spending several hours wiping down all the children’s books. Diane Small and Dottie Adriano, thank you for shelving books. Elder and Sister Daniels and the two young Elders — thank you for shelving books, arrang- ing the non-fiction books by category and shelving and re-shelving. Volunteers, I can never adequately express how much the library appreciates all your assistance.

All the books are on the shelves — not necessarily in order — and the only books left to be scanned are the non-fiction. And wouldn’t you know, we have checked out more children and adult nonfiction books than usual! Just takes a little longer to check these out but I am so pleased that our readers are finding good non-fiction to peruse.

Now that we are somewhat settled, it is time to start ordering new books! I hope to be able to start that this week.

If you have not visited the new location, please stop in soon. And while you are there, give some thought to volunteering a few hours each week. With six public-use computers and a much larger library, I can use the help. The library hopes to be able to have a Story Hour at least once each week — perhaps on Wednesday mornings. If you are interested in reading and doing a simple craft with the little ones, stop by and talk with me.

We also plan to have the Summer Reading Program again this summer. This is still in the planning stage and we hope to have information on this program available shortly.

There are so many ideas for programs we hope to implement and we would love to hear what you would like to see in the library. Come in and talk with me or e-mail me at library@pearidgecommunitylibrary.org.

Opening week is now behind us and at the end of the day on Thursday, I could finally exhale! Thanks everyone for helping make our dream a reality! See you at the library!

••• Editor’s note: Peggy Maddox is the librarian of the Pea Ridge Community Library. She can be reached at the library at 451-8442 or by mail at P.O. Box 9, Pea Ridge, AR 72751. Library hours are 4-8 p.m. Tuesday, 10 a.m. to noon and 1-5 p.m. Wednesday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday. The library web site is www.pearigecommunitylibrary.org.