GREENSTONE — A diverse lending library strategy is addressing specific needs across the Greenstone community, thanks to the efforts of local librarians.
The Elsie Dugard Centennial Public Library in Geraldton began their lending library last year - offering radon detectors, provincial park passes, and an engraving tool.
Eco-Superior provided one of the radon detectors while Maria Smith, head librarian at the Geraldton library, purchased the other.
Smith spoke to Dougall Media about some of the work she’s been doing to broaden the options for residents of Greenstone.
Her own approach is locally-oriented in a way that serves members of the community. It’s all about “opening your mind to the need,” she said.
“In the middle of last year, I purchased two pedometers and a couple of canes. This year, I added two blood pressure monitors, two sets of snowshoe poles because we’ve got a lot of avid seniors that are snow-shoers, two sets of urban poles, a laser level, a tripod, and a multimedia projector,” Smith said.
She’s also been keeping an eye out for Cubii exercise bikes, shoulder pulleys, and other items that could benefit those who are recovering from knee or hip surgeries.
Smith said that lending libraries are only growing in use and popularity.
“It’s a win-win situation for us too because it’s bringing people into the library that may not ordinarily come in for any other reason,” Smith said.
Some of the other items that you might find at libraries across the region include “cake pans [and cooking ware], hot air popcorn makers, toys, power tools, gardening supplies, fishing rods, snow shoes,” she said.
One concern, as Smith noted, is storage space.
She said that even though the library has expanded since it was first built, they still have to consider what kinds of items there are room for.
“We don’t have the storage room capability to start housing lots of shovels and power tools and cake pans and other collections of sorts.”
With libraries situated in each of the four wards - Longlac, Nakina, Beardmore, and Geraldton - across the municipality of Greenstone, each one is uniquely suited to fit the needs of the ward that it serves in terms of what kinds of items are available to lend out.
“The sky is the limit - the list goes on, it’s endless. Libraries are becoming much more beyond what books have to offer,” Smith said.
While Smith has had a focus on the senior population in Geraldton, the Beardmore lending library is dedicated to toys for children, as a different example.
“They have a small community, so if families can’t purchase all the toys that they want then it kind of makes it easy for families that way,” she said.
Looking to the future of what the Geraldton library could offer, Smith already has some good ideas.
“I think in the springtime I might go the gardening route, maybe to lend shovels and lawn-edgers and things that maybe people can’t afford. And, it’s not specifically seniors, it could be single, young moms that are wanting to start a garden and they can’t afford to buy a lot of the tools. Maybe seed-spreaders and fertilizer-spreaders, that sort of thing is kind of the idea.”
