All Ages

Change in library services effective Monday, Nov. 30

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Dear PT Library Community,
Based on the Pennsylvania Department of Health recent stay at home advisory, we are taking the following actions to protect our community until further notice:

The library building will be open to the public on Wednesday, Nov. 25 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 and Saturday, Nov. 28 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

The library building WILL CLOSE TO THE PUBLIC beginning Monday, Nov. 30. Library Staff will continue to work in the building to provide library materials and remote services Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. This change will remain in effect until further notice.

Curbside Pickup Service will be available Monday through Saturday during library staff hours with an extended 3-week loan period. Please place your requests online for all items in the WAGGIN catalog. When you receive an email/text/phone call that your items are available, drive to the library, and park in any designated Curbside Pickup space in front of the building. Call 724.941.9430 #1 when you arrive. Library staff will deliver your items in a plastic bag to the trunk of your car.

Curbside Pickup Service will be available to pick up kits for Adult/Youth Services programming. After you register for a program, you will receive an email with pick up directions when your kit is ready.

We will be accepting returns. You can place library materials in a plastic bag in the black RETURNS bins located at the library front entrance during library staff hours. The outside Book Drop will be open when library staff is not in the building. We quarantine all returns for 72 hours.

We are not accepting book donations, meeting room applications, or scheduling any library volunteers at this time.

The library computers will not be available during this time.

We will continue to offer programs virtually. We will announce these programs through our library newsletter (subscribe here), on the library Events Calendar, and the Peters Township Public Library Facebook page. Visit the library’s YouTube Channel for playlists which include all of our virtual programs. Virtual classes and programs will also be available via Zoom.

If you have questions, please email us at ptlib@ptlibrary.org.

Please check your email for further updates about reopening the library building and in-person library services. We appreciate your patience and look forward to safely serving you soon.

Lacey Love, Library Director

Meet the PTPL WAGGIN Chat Team!

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For two years, the library has participated in a free resource for all residents of Pennsylvania called Chat with a Librarian. Anyone can get accurate, unbiased information online from a real librarian 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, our staff joined with librarians and paraprofessionals from across the WAGGIN network to form a new service called WAGGIN Chat, which would offer personalized service to all residents of Washington, Fayette, and Greene Counties.

As part of the Pennsylvania Chat with a Librarian service, residents are still able to receive 24-7 reference and research help. On Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., WAGGIN staff is working online to answer your questions directly, either through live chat or via an email question form.  Whether you need help with homework, genealogy resources, or how to find a business, visit waggin.org/chat. There you can submit your question online for a quick response.

Eight PTPL staff members received training to offer this new chat service. In addition to their regular duties, they help remote library users with questions throughout the day. Coordinated by Ed Wolf, PTPL Information Technology and Reference Librarian, the group has been very successful.  They will serve as a best practices model for other libraries in the state as they set up their chat participation.

Our local staff is available to help via chat during library hours. You can use this service if our library is not open, but understand you will be communicating with a Pennsylvanian librarian who does not work locally. They will not be able to answer questions about overdue materials, renewals, or other account-specific activity. For those types of individualized questions, you can submit your question to  www.waggin.org/email-us.

Celebrate Your Right to Read!

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Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in both libraries and schools. It brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unpopular or challenging to their personal beliefs.

Banned Books Week was first launched in the 1980s and has grown to reach over 2 billion readers every year. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. Having these conversations and sharing this information is important. We hope that you will join us from September 27 through October 3 in exploring some of the diverse books that have been challenged in recent years. Please watch the video below created by PT Library staff to learn more!

Visit our Banned Books Display in the Main Lobby and take a few books with you to read! Learn more about Banned Books Week on these websites:

Banned Books Display

 

Donations Keep Local History Room Thriving

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Preserving local history has been a goal of the Peters Township Public Library since its founding over 60 years ago. To go beyond clipping newspapers, in early 2003 the library staff began an Oral History Project with funding from Taste of the Township. The goal was to record and preserve the history of the township through audio interviews with past and present residents.

Community Day promotional materialsThe library worked with the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center Oral History Service Department to conduct the interviews. By April 2004, the collaboration had produced twenty-two interviews. They reflected various facets of the history of Peters Township – farm life, education, government, recreation, transportation, churches, and industry. Next, the interviews were transcribed, edited, printed, bound, and added to the library’s Local History collection. You can search the library catalog for “Life in Peters Township: an oral history project” and request any of the bound volumes to check out and enjoy.

Peters-Township NewsIn the spring of 2008, a two-story addition expanded the building with space for a Local History Room on the second floor. Over the past 12 years, the room has acquired copies of the bound oral history interviews and many photographs and documents received from various donors. Along with several volunteers, Head Reference Librarian Margaret Deitzer and Information Technology Librarian Ed Wolf continue preserving the donations that tell the story of the township from the late 1700s to present.

Carolyn Friedrich and Ed WOld with historical donationsLast year The Peters Township Library Foundation committed to channeling contributions received from the Washington County Community Foundation’s Day of Giving toward the library’s local history efforts. This donation supported the ongoing work of library staff and archivist Carolyn Friedrich to make the collection searchable from anywhere in the world.

Mr and Mrs Ed LybargerA recent donation from Edward and Janis Lybarger added extraordinary resources to the collections. The Lybarger family connection to the library began in the 1950s with his mother, Alberta Myers Lybarger. As president of the Women’s Club of Peters Township, her efforts helped to make the dream of a community library for the township become a reality. Their new donations cover topics like local schools, churches, civic organizations, businesses, and the development of the library through blueprints, photographs, newspapers, and artifacts. The library welcomes items like these to continue to document the past and present growth of Peters Township. Please call the library at 724.941.9430 for more information.

Line drawing of the Peters Township Public LibraryThe Lybargers have also financially supported The Peters Township Library Foundation, which continues to support this archival work, covering the costs of making this collection accessible to the public. Is preserving Peters Township history important to you? The WCCF Day of Giving is Thursday, September 10, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Your online donation that day to The Peters Township Library Foundation continues to support our efforts to preserve, arrange, scan, digitize, and store our growing collection of Peters Township Local History. Your tax-deductible gift will also benefit programming and resources not covered by the library’s operating budget. AND you will help us become eligible for added support from the WCCF’s $100,000 bonus pool. For more information, visit the WCCF Day of Giving web site.

NEW – Museum Experience Kits

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The Peters Township Public Library offers WAGGIN library cardholders access to a variety of local historical sites and museums through a “Museum Experience Kit.”

The sites in the kits include:

 

You can check out a kit for one week. Each offers complimentary admission for up to four people to each site. Kits include educational support materials and itinerary suggestions tailored to each site. Check availability at the Information Services Desk.

Budd Baer Subaru in Washington, Pa. is sponsoring the kits through a partnership with the History Center Affiliates Program (HCAP). The program includes more than 125 regional historical societies and organizations dedicated to preserving local history.

Myra R. Oleynik announces retirement plans

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Dear PT Library Community,

 

I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve as the Director of the Peters Township Public Library for the past five years. Last month, I announced my plan to retire to the Peters Township Council, PTPL Staff, PT Library Board, and The Peters Township Library Foundation. I intended to share this decision earlier in the spring. When the pandemic hit in early March, I put those plans on the back burner and chose to focus my attention on working through the PA Red, Yellow and Green Phases. I am pleased to report that we have successfully re-opened the library doors to the public, keeping the health and safety of the staff and community as our priority. The Township is in the process of receiving applications for my position. We are currently working together on a transition plan as my last official day will be July 20, 2020.

 

I began working at the library in July 2015. One month before, I had retired from 36 years of service in the Peters Township School District as an elementary classroom teacher and school librarian. It has been an honor to act as your library director for the past five years. I learned something new every day! Now the time has come to retire (for the second time) so that I can spend more time on the needs of my family. I want to thank the entire community for their support. My staff and I ventured to open books, doors, and minds with extraordinary programming, several renovations, a new website, and many fresh initiatives. I will miss my dedicated staff, our volunteers, and the hundreds of library visitors I met. It has been a joy to work in the delightful community where I was born and raised, bought a home, settled down with my husband to raise our family, and now to retire.

 

As I leave my position as library director, my wish for you is in these words from Ralph Waldo Emerson – “Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.”

 

Warmest regards,
Myra R. Oleynik
Library Director