As the months pass by, all of our collective writing addressing our anxiety and tribulations around the fires, smoke, election, etc., seems increasingly necessary. Even since I penned last month’s column, we have had another major wildfire and the collective anxiety around the election has become yet more intense.
Although I will first make a point of noting the importance of civic engagement and voting — elections have consequences and your vote is your voice — my call to curl up and read a good book also still stands.
Luckily, there is time for both. One needs to take time for self care in order to be ready for yet another evacuation or profound political discussion. This month, I’d like to fill you in on a few new initiatives that the Sonoma County Library is offering that might provide a distraction, a sense of purpose or just calm the mind.
Like every other month lately, October will differ from the “usual,” given the vigilance that we must continue to observe around health safety precautions. Some of our community’s most beloved activities will be curtailed, at least in part. We figure that families will be looking for some amusement around that, so the library has been pondering what we could offer.
Late this October, we are working with some partners to create a downtown-area scavenger hunt. We know that our families always enjoy the scavenger hunts in our Children’s Area and this should be fun as well. The hunt will take place between Oct. 29 and Nov. 2 and unexpected seasonal items will be found peeking out of places around town. We’ll offer a few hints of what to look for — keep an eye out on our social media and we will have a few printed pages with the hints. Anyone who completes the scavenger hunt can stop by during the first week of November for a free book at your reading level.
For adults, the library is also offering a new Sonoma Scares series. If you are looking for something spooky, this series will feature eight different librarians, including our own director, Ann Hammond, reading classic tales of horror by Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Angel Vigil, Bram Stoker and Emily Dickinson. The performances are recorded and shared via the library’s YouTube channel. More information may be found on our website at sonomalibrary.org/sonoma-scares.
In addition to focusing on the present, we are excited to announce a new opportunity to share and preserve our collective memories of living through these remarkable times. Responding to what is clearly a defining moment in our history, Sonoma County Library presents Sonoma Responds: A Community Memory Archive. This project is for anyone who lives in, works in, and/or enjoys Sonoma County. We invite you to document and share your experiences this year and help create an amazing resource that will endure for future generations. For more information, or to share your own story, please visit sonomalibrary.org/sonoma-responds-community-archive. Given the historical tendency for some voices to be marginalized or ignored, we are making a particular effort to amplify and document the experiences of Black, Indigenous, folks of color, LGBTQ+ and disabled individuals and communities in this project, and invite you to share your stories in your preferred language.
Finally, I wanted to let you know about a new change to the borrowing limits on electronic resources such as eBooks and eAudiobooks. As you may know, these limits are in place in order to avoid the library spending more than is allowable with our means. With the Measure Y funds in place, we have definitely been able to provide a richer experience with downloadable materials, even during the pandemic. That said, we have needed to raise or lower our limits to meet financial obligations and in order to respond to the volatile nature of our community’s tax base this year. We are excited to announce relatively higher limits on borrowing for the near future, detailed in our online knowledge base at ask.sonomalibrary.org/faq/327669. The limits feature increased checkouts on our popular hoopla, OverDrive, and Kanopy services. We are so happy to see that these services have extremely high usage numbers and we encourage you to take advantage of them. All of our services and collections are for everyone in our community.
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Jon Haupt is the branch manager of the Healdsburg Regional Library.
