VCBC Public Library is ready to take you on an adventure!
We are! Here at your Valley City Barnes County Public Library, we have some great opportunities for adventure this summer.
Your first adventure to the library may be just figuring out how to get inside! With the street construction on the south side of the building and our own construction beginning, it will truly be an adventure to provide access to our community. Just to be clear, we will be OPEN all summer and maintain our regularly scheduled hours of service. The west doors and the southwest door that leads to the stairs down to the children’s library will be closed to the public for the summer. The south handicap accessible doors will be available to access all levels of the library by stairs or elevator. Patrons are welcome to use the green staff door on the north side of the building for the summer as well. Please look for signage to help find your way.
I know that some of you still consider the library to be a place with very little noise and hushed voices. Our library dispelled that antiquated rule many years ago and this summer in particular will be a noisy one in the library! Summer programs and excited children and patrons are always a part of our summer fun; however, this summer we will hear the added noise from construction in the building. Our adventure here at the library began when we started preparing for our construction project. We needed to move all the books and other items out of the main 1903 part of the building. What a job! Many thanks to Encompass Early Intervention and Family Services for donating storage space that served our needs perfectly! An astounding 321 boxes of books were moved to storage offsite! We had some great volunteers from the VCSU Football team, the community, and Tech Center students that moved boxes for us. Their help and support are very much appreciated. We have wonderful contractors lined up to restore the dome and install the new roof. They are excited to work on such a beautiful historic building, yet unfortunately, they must make some noise to do it successfully! I’m sure you all will be curious, but we ask that you please stay clear of construction areas. We welcome questions and always love hearing stories about the history of our library. Ryan, our contractor, loves hearing those stories too, so if you have a great story to tell, we will give him a call! In the meantime, we look forward to the adventure of seeing our library roof fixed and the dome restored at the end of the summer. Don’t worry, we will plan some tours!
This year’s Summer Learning theme is Adventure Begins at Your Library and so far, seems very appropriate for what we are experiencing! We invite people of all ages to join us for a summer of fun and adventure. Our kickoff event has already taken place, yet you can sign up and start earning library bucks at any time. What are library bucks? Library bucks are your reward for reading at least 15 minutes per day and for attending any library sponsored event scheduled during the summer. The library bucks you earn may be spent in our Summer Learning Store. There are lots of great gift cards, bags, and other novelty items for all ages to choose from in the store. The best part though is that you can attend some fun and interesting events, read great books (physical or digital), and get rewarded for doing it!
Summer Learning events include, 10 am, Tuesday, Gardening workshop, 2 pm, Tuesday, movie matinees, 5 pm, Tuesday, Team Steam events, Nerf Gun war at Chautauqua Park, Story telling events, a Virtual Aquarium Tour, Tea Tasting, crafts, and more. What is the best part of Summer Learning? All events are free and open to the public regardless of having a library card! However, library cards are free as well and provide access to materials that can be checked out. Please check our calendar for scheduled dates and times for all events. It is available on our website (vcbclibrary.org) or may be picked up at the library circulation desk.
Join us for a summer filled with adventure at your library! 410 Central Ave. N., VC. Stop in, email (support@ vcbclibrary.org) or call (845-3821) for more information about how VCBC Public Library can serve you! Our mission is to serve the community by providing access to information, technology, and programming for all!