90 years: Orrville library has changed, but is still a community hub
By Tami Lange Mosser
April 5, 2015
488
There was a time when searches at the Orrville Public Library were done using a card catalog, when cards in handy pockets reminded the patron when the book was due.
Those things have changed. The librarys place in the Orrville community has not.
Always a hub of activity, the library is marking 90 years of service and planning for the future. The official celebration will come on Wednesday, April 15 at noon, when Mayor Dave Handwerk will present a proclamation and cake and ice cream will be served. The festivities and treats will continue throughout the day.
It all started in 1925 with one librarian and 600 books, first in a closet and later in a room at Orrville High School. Since then, the library has grown, both at its current location on Main Street and in the types of services it offers. Current library director Daphne Silchuk-Ashcraft noted that in 2014, the library circulated more than 500,000 books and materials and answered at least 118,000 reference questions.
In the days prior to the April 15 event, Silchuk-Ashcraft and her staff are culling through articles and photos that tell the librarys history: a 1938 newspaper clipping that noted a library levy would cost the average family the same amount theyd pay for eight gallons of gas, a photo of a 1963 summer reading club, and a note about the donation of a record album by the Orr Theater. Many of those bits of memorabilia will be on display in the librarys gallery throughout the 90th anniversary celebration.
Silchuk-Ashcraft has been library director for a year and a half and is the 11th person to head the staff. A 25-year Orrville resident and the daughter of a librarian, she came to the Orrville library after several years in the Medina library system.
The Orrville library is a good, small community library that is so well supported by the community, she said. And it has adapted with the times. We used to have way more nonfiction than fiction, Silchuk-Ashcraft said. Nonfiction still makes up the majority of the librarys collection, but not as much. Nonfiction books now are more prone to become outdated and dont circulate as much as they once did.
In many cases, those books end up in the book sales like the one the Orrville Public Library Friends will have April 10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and April 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Its a shopping bazaar for book lovers, Silchuk-Ashcraft said, and it helps create space for new materials. Were to the point, she said, where every book in means a book out and sometimes two books out.
Theres been some adjusting over the past few months, as an upper-level space that once held books has been cleared in order to create more study and quiet space, which always seems to be in short supply. Libraries are all about changing their space now, Silchuk-Ashcraft said, adding that the enclosures for that now-vacant area most likely will not be completed until the library gets through spring, as well as through the summer reading program.
In addition to being a clearinghouse for materials, the library also has become more and more a place for events, particularly for children. But on April 18, Silchuk-Ashcraft said, the whole family can come enjoy the librarys How-To Festival, which will be conducted from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to see how to do everything from how to create a hairstyle to how to do a craft. Its just a good way to get people in, she said, and maybe while theyre here, theyll look at our books.
While people come in to use the librarys computers or check out a DVD on occasion, Silchuk-Ashcraft said there are always the regulars, who have made the library a routine stop to check out books or to sit down and read the newspaper. And, she said, the library also is a hang-out for the teen population, who study either alone or with friends or just find a comfortable chair and a book. Whenever I see teens in here, she said, I know its a good, safe place for them to be.
Because the library was organized as a public school library, the Orrville facility supports all the activities of the Orrville City Schools. But it doesnt stop there, Silchuk-Ashcraft said, as books are taken to nursing homes and to the homebound who cannot make the trip themselves.
Even the people who dont come to the library love the library and say good things about us, Silchuk-Ashcraft said.
With a staff of 34 full- and part-time employees and at least 100 volunteers, the Orrville Public Library plans on being there for the community for a long time. I hope we still continue to be a center of the community and support whatever the community needs at the time, Silchuk-Ashcraft said. And no matter how much libraries may change, she said, I think well still have books. I know well still have books.
