Recession Keeps Summer Reading Programs Packed at Local Libraries

Oxford public librarian Stacey Sanford teaches a group of girls how to make beaded rings as part of the library's summer reading program.

Recession-hit families are turning to an old-fashioned source of free entertainment – the public library. MPB’s Cari Gervin has more.

“Nothing is more sad than losing your favorite bead.”

Stacey Sanford is helping a group of young girls make jewelry.

“Ok. Everyone has their five beads, everyone’s satisfied? ”

But Sanford’s no camp counselor – she’s a librarian at the Oxford Public Library. And like the rest of the staff, she is in the middle of one busy summer.

“I’ve been the children’s librarian for 10 years and this is probably our, you know, our biggest summer.”

Head children’s librarian Nancy Opalko says there are waiting lists for every single event.

Overall in Oxford, there was almost a 20 percent increase in the number of people using the library from June 2008 to June 2009. And that percentage is even higher for kids.

With so many people on tight budgets, free summer reading programs at local libraries seem more appealing than they might have in years past.

Jan Willis is the president of the Mississippi Library Association – he’s also the director of the Lee-Itawamba Library System.

“We’re like a lot of the libraries in Mississippi, where our main library is in the downtown area, so we get a lot of latchkey children who come here during the day.”

But Willis is fine with that – in fact, he couldn’t be happier to be promoting literacy among Mississippi youth. Willis says that on summer reading days:

“We have been averaging more than 1700 people coming in the doors on those day.”

That’s double the number of people usually visiting the Tupelo library.

But Mississippi is 49th out of 50 states in the amount of local funding that goes to libraries. The librarians say they can only hope their renewed importance during the recession will mean less budget cuts during the next fiscal year.

For MPB News, I’m Cari Gervin in Oxford.