Author E.B. White, famed for “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little,” once wrote that a library is “a place to go if you want to sit and think. It is a place where books live, and where you can get in touch with other people, and other thoughts, through books… A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there in a book, you may have your question answered.”
National Library Week — with the theme “There’s More to the Story” — concluded on April 29. But we continue to celebrate libraries in general and the North Valley Public Library (NVPL) in Stevensville, in particular. With a small but mighty staff and tight quarters, this gem is the heart of the community, where children, teens, and adults can find something that appeals to each of them. And, if you think the library is only about books, read on. There’s more to the story here.
Library Director Denise Ard shares that the NVPL currently helps patrons not only through checkout of books and movies, but also with printing and technology (the library has a bank of computers for use).
Now, the NVPL is slowly building a “Library of Things” available to check out and take home. These include board and card games, laptops, iPad’s—and even a telescope! Mobile hotspots, which were so valuable to many families during the pandemic, are still among the more popular items for use. The NVPL also has a Seed Library, and soon will have needle felting kits.
On the wish list are useful home, yard, garden, office, and craft items, film-to-digital converter, a pole digger, fence post remover, sawhorses, and more. “We would like to offer things the average homeowner or renter needs only occasionally and would prefer not to store or purchase so it is better to check it out.”
Ard noted the library’s current collection “is only a fraction of what we would like to offer. We would love to expand our Library of Things but we’re severely limited by the lack of space in the current building to offer all that we think would be useful to the community.”
The biggest item on the wish list is a new library building, which is in the very early planning stages. “There is much more to the story of the Library of Things,” she said, “and, as we work toward a new facility, more to the story of NVPL as well.”