Library continues long-standing tradition
Published 8:51 am Thursday, June 22, 2017
By Baker Ellis
On Wednesday, June 21, the LaGrange Memorial Library hosted its weekly Storytelling Time for pre-school children from the community. Children gathered to hear stories about picnics and ants, to sing songs together and also to build crafts. The weekly event has been happening at the LaGrange Library for more than 40 years, and has become a staple of the services the library provides.
“We’ve been doing this for forever, always,” said Kathryn Adams, manager of the LaGrange Library. “It is really the most critical thing that we do is story time for our pre-schoolers,” Pat Gay (former youth services coordinator and public relations librarian) did this for 30 years. When I came I tried to add the circulation staff to participate and tell stories.”
The story tellers are almost always part-time employees with the library, and engage the children on a wide array of topics from week to week. On Wednesday, the readers were Delane Knight and Marilyn Davis, dressed in red and white smocks covered in ants, one of the subjects for this particular story time.
On a weekly basis, the library draws between 25-35 children for the story time sessions. While the library provides a number of valuable services for the community, Adams believes the story telling sessions for community youth is the most important aspect of the library’s mission.
“It is the most important,” Adams said. “These are our patrons for tomorrow, these are our readers of tomorrow. If we can establish a connection between enjoying books and being at the library, then we are going to have good students into the future.”
Storytelling Time is hosted at the LaGrange Memorial Library and the Hogansville Public Library each Wednesday at 10:30 am.
