Hi, friends!

Happy autumn! Here at the Downingtown Library, we’re re-grouping after a summer that’s been a hive of exciting activity- thank you to all who joined us for lots of fun and exploration this summer! We had a record number of preschoolers,          school-aged kids, teens, and adults join our Summer Reading Quest programs this summer- a whopping 890 total! In July alone, over 12,000 children’s books were checked out- an incredible 43% increase over last year- across the board, you, our wonderful patrons- are telling us that the Downingtown Library is the place to be, and we’re so glad to have you!
Speaking of those record numbers . . .  we want you to know that we hear your increasing requests for more services at the Downingtown Library- in particular- more children’s services and programs. I am so sorry to those of you who have reached out to me about your disappointment that your child was on waiting lists for exciting summer programs, or couldn’t find a summer reading book on the shelf due to a long waiting list. As many of you probably know, we are working hard to meet growing demand for Downingtown Library programs and items with a very limited budget, and even more limited staffing levels- for example, our entire Children’s Services Department is simply one part-time employee- our beloved Miss Jill! Please be assured that every staff member at Downingtown Library works incredibly hard to maintain the highest levels of service possible- I am amazed by the dedication and creativity of my wonderful co-workers, every day! We staff members, and our dedicated Board and Friends of the Library, are also constantly brainstorming ways to increase individual, business, and municipal/governmental contributions so we can increase the number of programs we can offer, and library services in general.
One such fundraising event is an ongoing partnership with Lione’s Pizza, our neighbors up the street at 102 Wallace Ave. They have agreed to donate 10% of your lunch or dinner bill to the 2020 Summer Reading Program, every single Monday, if you show our flyer (you can pick up a flyer at the Library, or show the Facebook post on your phone)! Please be sure to thank Lione’s for their incredible continued support, we are so grateful to them! Also, be sure to mark your calendars for 10/26/19 for another fun (and delicious!) event- the                                             2^nd Annual D-Town Brew-Down- a home-brewing competition that benefits the Library! Taste 60 hand-crafted beers, vote for your favorite, listen to great live music, get grub from food trucks, and have fun with your friends! Thank you so much to Minquas Fire Company for hosting this event again.
Finally, I’m thrilled to share some exciting updates with you! First, you may have noticed some changes to the building recently- we now have automatic front doors installed to increase access to the building- thank you to CCRES for a grant that helped pay for this improvement. Additionally, we’ve been able to re-open our men’s restroom thanks to the installation of new security cameras, which will hopefully deter the vandalism that required us to close this restroom to avoid continued plumbing bills. (If you weren’t aware of this situation at the Library, more information can be found here.)
Additionally, we’ve started several new promotions highlighting various areas of our collection. First, we now offer “2 for Tuesday,” which allows you to rent any 2 DVDs or audiobooks (or a mix!) for the price of 1 ($2), every Tuesday! We’ve also started a “Binge Shelf” of DVDs, which you’ll see at the end of our regular DVD shelves, marked with “B” stickers. You can pick any 4 of these films, and rent for the price of 1, all the time! Finally, we now have a “Lucky Day Collection” of very popular adult books. You’ll find these in the new book section- they are only a 7 day loan, and non-renewable. The idea of this little collection is to get books with very long waiting lists into the hands of our super-readers, (think Where the Crawdads Sing) who don’t mind a shorter loan period. It’s called “Lucky Day,” because these copies can’t be put on hold, so as soon as they’re returned- they go right back on the shelf, to make the next patron’s “lucky day!” We hope you enjoy these new promotions!
As always, thank you all so much for being patrons of Downingtown Library. I think I can speak for all of us here at the Library when I say we are so grateful to serve such a friendly, interesting, and supportive community!