Rural Oxford County libraries extend hours

Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Oxford County Library is extending hours at eight rural village branches following feedback from the community. The new extended hours offer more convenient access to collections and programming based on the needs of individual rural village branches.

New hours of operation take effect on Sept. 9 and the schedule extends hours of operation for Harrington, Innerkip and Otterville by four hours per week. Branches in Brownsville, Burgessville, Embro, Mount Elgin and Princeton will extend operating hours by one hour weekly.

“In our 2024 budget, we received funding to increase hours for the smallest of our branches or the village branches. Innerkip is moving from 12 to 16 hours per week. That is also to get up to guidelines released by one of the library organizations about how many hours a small one should have,” said Oxford County Library CEO Lisa Marie Williams.

The Rural Community Engagement Survey conducted in the spring, invited rural residents to provide feedback on hours of operation for local branches, as well as the physical set-up of library spaces, collections, technology offerings, programs and activities, and more. Williams said the survey did ask if people using medium-sized libraries like Tavistock if they wanted to see increased hours of service.

“Our Norwich branch ended up with a tiny adjustment, but people seem okay with the hours at the other medium branches. We also asked about programming, collections and technology so we will be diving into that information more to see what we need to bring to all our rural branches to make sure we are giving people what they want.”

Williams explained adults want more programming geared to their interests and staff will be working diligently to come up with more for the older population.

“We gave them some pots to give us ideas on, so technology, book clubs, cooking demonstrations, those kinds of things. We noticed crafting or maker-type requests were popular along with other adult learning opportunities. We will be looking through each branch and see what we want to try based on the survey results.”

Williams added many people are asking for 3-D printers to be available for public use, something they are looking into as the price of the machines has dropped over the years. There are several reasons why the demand for more adult programming is on the rise, including Baby Boomers growing up and looking for something to do with their time.

“That’s part of it. If you have an empty nest or older children, some people are looking to get out and do things. It’s an opportunity to get out into the community and meet other people which is helpful for those who have moved into a new community,” she explained.

The Tavistock Library has a new adult event scheduled for Sept. 19, a meal planning from 6 to 7 p.m. for a how-to seminar with a professional organizer, Hannah from Everyday Organized. To register go to https://engagedpatrons.org/EventsExtended.cfm?SiteID=2048&EventID=533645&PK=.

More than 600 of our rural library users shared their thoughts on how services could be changed or improved.

“This feedback is invaluable to understanding how we can support their needs for technology use, learning, creativity and more. The extended rural village hours are a first step but not the only improvements we’ll be making based on community input,” added Williams.

To view the full updated schedule of library hours, visit www.ocl.net.