Library Service Hosts Children Members to X-Mas Party
The era of digital and technological advancement has made life much easier than back in the day when missing a call would mean not being able to reach the person for several hours until they reached another point where there was a telephone. So now that there are countless brands and models of cell phones, tablets, and laptops, it is no surprise then that reading has not only maintained its popularity but has also gained new ground. Today, News Five’s Marion Ali visited the Leo Bradley Library where a Christmas party was in full swing for some of the youngest members of the library service. Here’s that report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
For the roughly one hundred children who attended today’s National Library Service’s Christmas party, there was little reading and lots of entertainment.
Sarah Castillo
Sarah Castillo, Acting Assistant Librarian
“We have invited all the children who have been with us throughout the years during our different programs, from the Lake-I Library, the Port Library, the Thurton Library, and of course here from the Leo Bradley Library.”
Marion Ali
“So they’re being entertained?”
Sarah Castillo
“Yes, they’re being entertained. We have our Santa, we have our gifts, we have our food, and of course we have different activities that will happen inside of the library.”
Sarah Castillo is the Acting Assistant Librarian at the Leo Bradley Library. She says that while technology has gotten famous in this era, it has been what has kept reading popular among the children.
Sarah Castillo
“The membership, we have over – I don’t want to give you a wrong number.”
Marion Ali
“A ballpark figure?”
Sarah Castillo
“Because we have over 48 or 49 library points. We have a library community, yes. We have a community library in each district, and we have a branch library in each district. Some districts have two. So our membership base is – I don’t want to estimate or figure, but it’s over – I can’t say.”
Marion Ali
“It’s more now than it was 20 years ago?”
Sarah Castillo
“Definitely, because we have been around from 1935, providing library service, providing books, free of cost.”
Castillo says the library uses the different media year-round to get the children’s interest from young.
Sarah Castillo
“January we start to plan all our programs. We have our Child Stimulation Month activities for the preschoolers. Then we move into our summer program. We have our interactive reading program, we have our book fair, we have our story reading competition, and we have a lot of different programs that we do – Doorstep Tales – it’s every Saturday or every second Saturday, depending on which library you go to. So there’s a lot of reading programs that we incorporate during the year. We have things like internet cafe, and we offer different programs for adults, but if you get the kids engaged at an early age, you will have them continue the legacy of reading.”
Marion Ali for News Five.
