ALTON - Mary Cordes, executive director of the Hayner Public Library District, spoke about the many services, programs, and resources they provide - and plan to add in the future - for the Alton area community at the most recent North Alton-Godfrey Business Council meeting.
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“The Hayner Public Library District strives to be an asset to our community by providing informational, cultural, educational, and recreational resources for Alton, Godfrey, and Foster Township residents,” Cordes said.
“I appreciate you giving me the time today to talk with you about the services and programs offered by the library, in the hopes that you and your families will visit us and use your library to its fullest. Because it is your library.”
She noted that three North Alton Godfrey Business Council members also serve on the Hayner Library Board of Trustees: Kevin Botterbush (President), Ed Morrissey, and Kerry Miller.
The Hayner Public Library District first began as the Alton Library Association in 1852. The library has gone through several iterations over the years - including a city library, as well as different library associations - before becoming the Hayner Public Library District 51 years ago in 1972 after voters approved a referendum to establish an independent library district.
The library currently has three locations: the Downtown Library at 326 Belle St., the Genealogy & Local History Library at 401 State St., and the Hayner Library at the Alton Square Mall.
Cordes said they also offer a variety of services for adults, teens, and children, including the already popular Summer Reading Program.
“We just kicked-off our Summer Reading Program with the theme ‘Oceans of Possibilities,’” she said. “We have already registered 147 children and 24 teens for the program in just one week, and our daily programs of story times, craft times, weekly performers, and other activities are seeing a record number of participants.”
After the Summer Reading Program concludes, she said the library will offer other programming for children, including “family story times, preschool story times, Science with Sam, and Lego Club, as well as seasonal programming such as an outdoor movie at The Nature Institute, a Dungeons and Dragons Club, Star Wars Reads Day, and [the] Dial-a-Story Program (618-462-TALE).”
For teens, they offer the Teen Advisory Council, YA Wednesdays, Teen Movies at the NCG Cinema, gaming days, glow-in-the-dark bingo, crafting, and other activities. For adults, they offer many other programs and services, including but not limited to the following: Cordes added that they will soon be adding a Small Business Reference Center and Legal Information Reference Center in the near future. Those with a Hayner Library card can access e-books, e-audios, and stream movies and TV shows using the Cloud Library, OverDrive, Biblio+, and Tumblebooks apps. Library card holders also have access to a wide variety of databases available at haynerlibrary.org. Hayner Public Library also offers faxing, scanning, and scan-to-email for free, as well as voter registration and notary services. They also operate a brand new pop-up library at the Foster Township Museum on the second Wednesday of each month from 4 to 7 p.m. “We’d love to see all of you stop by or check us out online either on our website, www.haynerlibrary.org, or our Facebook page,” Cordes said. “We also offer the SHARE Mobile Library app, which allows you to order materials and renew your items directly from your phone or mobile device.” Cordes concluded with a “sneak peak” at the library’s newest offering, which they hope to have available in July or August: The Library of Things. “The Library of Things is a collection of unique, non-traditional library items available for checkout by Hayner Library cardholders,” she said. “The items in the Library of Things are items that patrons may want to use once or twice a year but don't want to purchase because they don't want to store them at home, or they want to try something before they buy it - or price may be a barrier, but the need to use something is still there.” These items include but are not limited to: To learn more about the Hayner Public Library District, visit their website or Facebook page.
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