Roodhouse Library welcomes new director
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Tracy Wells sits behind some of the pumpkins she created out of old books that were going to be thrown away. Wells is the new director of the Roodhouse Public Library, which had a booth at Greene County Days to let people know what all they offer and also to raise funds to be able to offer more programs. (Carmen Ensinger/Greene Prairie Press)
By Carmen Ensinger
The Roodhouse Public Library has a new face at the helm. Five weeks ago, Tracy Wells became Director of the Library, taking over the position from Becky Clemons.
For Wells, it was truly a “match made in heaven.”
“There are so many things about this job that I love,” she said. “I love to read, I love people and the jobs I have had, and do still have, prepared me for this job. Plus, I live right across the square so I can walk to work.”
Wells has been a substitute teacher and acted as a paraprofessional in the school district and is a hairdresser.
“In both of those industries, I deal with people which is something I love,” she said. “As a paraprofessional, I work with kids and do some teaching, which is also something I love and I also have the opportunity to do that here at the library.”
Wells said there are quite a few students who come into the library after they get out of school during the week.
“We have kids that come in after school and do their homework just because they need some place to go and do their homework before they go home,” Wells said. “Or, mom and dad are at work so they will come in here and do their homework and stuff. We also usually have some snacks in here for them if they are hungry. I just feel like it provides a safe place for young people to go.”
Wells said, however, she is finding out that many kids don’t know much about the public library or even what they have to offer. Or, for that matter, even the adults.
“Some of the teachers at the high school brought a few of the kids over because they don’t really have much of a library at the high school anymore,” Wells said. “Some of the kids actually thought it cost money to check out a book at the public library. They don’t realize that it is all free, or that we had computers here for them to use.”
And it is the same way with the adults.
“There are so many things that we offer free with the only requirement being owning a library card,” Wells said. “If we don’t have something here in the library, as part of a larger library system, we can probably get it for you in a day or two.”
If one is not into actually reading a book, there are hundreds of audio books to choose from or books can be rented digitally where they can be read on either a phone, tablet or computer anywhere. Want to see a movie? There are also hundreds of DVD’s to choose from that can also be rented.
“There are just so many things that your local library has to offer that many people do not even know about,” Wells said. “That is one thing we are trying to get out to the community – just what all we do have to offer. We are trying to get more people to come into the library to see for themselves just what we do have to offer.”
Wells had a booth for the library during Greene County Days selling cotton candy and a variety of homemade items, including pumpkins made out of the pages of hardback books that would have otherwise been thrown away.
The reason for the booth was two-fold – to let people know about the library and to help raise funds for the library.
“As a public library, our funding is very limited,” Wells said. “Our money comes from either the taxpayers or any grants we might receive and those funds are very limited. So, my goal is to try to come up with some different fundraisers to make some additional money for the library.”
So, as more and more people become aware of the library and start utilizing its services and, hopefully, more money starts coming in, in the future perhaps they can expand the hours they are open.
“Because we are a small community and we don’t have the funds to have someone here all the time, our hours are very limited,” Wells said. “Our ultimate goal is to have people coming into the library enough that we will have to expand our hours to accommodate them and get more people to donate towards the library. Right now I’m looking into some grant funding to help us out.”
The current operating hours of the library are: Mondays and Tuesdays from 1 to 7 p.m.; Wednesdays and Thursdays from noon to 5 p.m. and Fridays from 9 a.m. till noon. They are closed on Saturdays and Sundays.
