Once upon a time, libraries were cavernous, quiet, you get shushed for breathing too loud places. And that’s not the case anymore,” Brunswick County Library Director Patricia Dew said. “We hopefully have something for everyone, whether that’s coming to a story time, attending a cooking program, joining a book club, using our public computers, or the printer, and photocopier.”
Brunswick County has five branch libraries, spread throughout to reach all areas. The recent addition of a bookmobile also gives the ability to reach populations which might not be able to make it out to one of the branches. With five permanent locations, the library staff works to tailor programs to different populations. The Ruark branch in Shallotte has more families coming to the library for children’s programs than the branch in Carolina Shores, which serves a larger population of seniors, for example. “Our dementia support programs down there (Carolina Shores) have done amazing, because there’s a need and a want for that for the memory care and dementia support,” Dew said.
“We are trying to have a consistency of services across the county, or as much as possible, while at the same time, leaning into what the needs of each branch and its clientele are,” she said. Planning for summer children’s programs has already begun, and information will be available on the library calendar at www.brunswickcountync.gov/Library.
The calendar is extensive, but can be sorted by type of program such as book club or story time, branch location, or even a targeted age group.
“Every location has those story times when not only do we read a book, but we go through motor development skills, listening skills, movements, things that enhance the learning activities. They’ll play a game based on colors or, you know, everybody raise your right hand, now everybody, raise your left hand or whatever the silly little song is,” Dew said.
The Leland branch recently started a Classic Film Comedies session on Fridays at 3:30 pm.
“It’s for sort of niche movies that, whether it’s film noir or, you know, classics that you can’t always just find on Netflix. It’s a chance for, you know, a group to come together, watch the movie, have a discussion, and appreciate films and cinema that aren’t just the latest blockbusters,” Dew said.
The library system also supports a variety of book clubs. Library staff can help a club borrow 20 copies of a book, using connections with libraries across the state, and book clubs can also use meeting rooms. Libraries also offer book club in a bag, which includes 10 copies of a book and study guides, which can all be checked out as a unit. A new online book club, called Overbooked, is also just starting up this month. The debut Zoom meeting is scheduled for April 7 at 7 pm, discussing Fannie Flagg’s book “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.”
“That’s now started because there are people who, you know, they’re at day jobs and can’t always get to a library branch for a 4 pm or a 10 am book club, so this is a way of making it. You don’t have to drive, you can log on from home, but we’re all there to talk about it, and you can get that book club in,” Dew said.
There are also some statewide book clubs, and even a national one for America 250 that the Southwest branch is hosting.
“We’re supporting dozens of others because there are so many groups in the county that have their own own book clubs and reading groups and we just there to provide some books.
Whether that’s the physical copies, the book club in a bag, we have audio versions, and e-book versions.
“We literally FedEx books across the state,” Dew explained. “So if Brunswick County doesn’t have a copy of a book, but maybe Ash County does, and vice versa, we will just send that across the state. We usually tell people it takes a week, sometimes it’s faster, sometimes not. But we’re able to get that for people. It’s a great way that we can use taxpayer dollars wisely and efficiently, because there’s no cost to the patron for that. They would reserve the book or request the book the same as if they wanted a book that was at our Southwest branch, but they live in Leland. We have a van that drives around the county for that, so we would just pick it up at Southwest, bring it up to Leland, and they would check it out. Usually that’s next day, sometimes two days. But if nobody in the county has it, we can reach out to our colleagues across the state and go, hey, Robeson County or Burke County, or whomever, can you send us that book and they will. It’s a great resource. It means that we don’t have to own everything because somebody will own it, most likely. Unless it is the most obscure rare book in the world, in which case you’re gonna need to visit the Library of Congress.”
Digital resources work a bit differently, with Brunswick County having access to only a certain number of a particular title at a time for more recent releases.
“Brunswick County has its own collection of e-books,” Dew said. “We are doing our best to build that collection and make it as vibrant as we can. We, of course, have budget limitations, and the publishers put restrictions on the items too. So the bestsellers, you’re still going to have a wait list for those. If you buy three copies, three people can have it checked out at a time.” The libraries use the Libby App, which is free with a patron’s library card. Besides offering a limited number of recent titles, the app also allows limitless access to classics and titles which are no longer under copyright, such as books by Mark Twain.
National Library Week is April 19-25 this year, and locally, it’s an opportunity to renew your library card or apply for one, to get out to one of the local branches and see what the library has to offer, to visit with the bookmobile out and about in the county, and to show appreciation for library staff.
“There’s just so many things that we offer, both at the library and that you can get from home with your library cards. I invite people to check it out and see what’s there. They can access Consumer Reports in the New York Times with their library card for free from home. They can download e-books and e-audiobooks from wherever they are as long as they have a wifi connection, download that and have access to that resource free with their library card. We have genealogy resources available online, we offer classes in technology to help those people who are not quite so good with the computers or the social media or the phone or whatever. We have staff who lead book clubs, who lead story times, who lead children’s yoga, who do craft programs for adults and children and teens. We have a teen comic book club that is we’ll be starting up this summer,” Dew said.
“So there’s just lots of options for everybody, for all ages, and we are so much more than just books,” she added. “Though, of course, we have books.”
