ST. MARY’S COUNTY, Md. – After much anticipation, an extension of the St. Mary’s County Public Library is now up and running as the mobile unit will be traveling throughout the county beginning next weekend, Feb. 10 and 11.
On Saturday, a tour will start at the Leonardtown Library from 10 a.m. until noon with some special activities planned.
The unit will be at the Charlotte Hall branch from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m., also on Saturday. The unit will make a stop at the Lexington Park branch on Sun., Feb. 11 from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m.
Set aside time to stop by and see all that the unit has to offer.
St. Mary’s County Library Director, Michael Blackwell, stated that the mobile library will bring great service to the community, but that it itself is a community project.
“There are many, many people to thank for getting it on the road,” Blackwell told The BayNet.
Many entities had a hand in funding the project.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services provided the initial $250,000 grant. The Maryland State Library provided an additional welcome grant funding of over $20,000. The State of Maryland Capital Fund provided another $50,000 in grant funding at the request of Delegate Brian Crosby.
“We thank Brian so much,” Blackwell commented. “The Friends of St. Mary’s County Library and the St. Mary’s County Library Foundation provided additional financial support, for which we are always grateful.”
Blackwell stated that one of the biggest hurdles was the delays because of COVID.
“There was a backlog of libraries looking to get mobile units to help during the pandemic,” he said. “There were material shortages, especially of aluminum, that set us back. There was high demand and low supply.”
Blackwell said what normally would have taken just a year essentially took two-plus.
There was also a learning curve to figure out the technology to provide service outside of the library and hire and train employees to drive a very large vehicle.
Blackwell stated that he was appreciative of the St. Mary’s County Library Board of Trustees, past and present for their trust in his decisions about the library and for their support.
Sandy Kleist, the mobile unit Outreach Coordinator, said she’s looking forward to servicing the community, along with Rosa Nakanoto and Breanna Thorne.
Kleist has had conversations with the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home, along with many community partners to enhance the efforts of the mobile unit.
“We will be going out to the Veterans Home actually tomorrow to meet with their activities coordinator to plan for future stops,” Kleist said. “We will also have the option to set up in the foyer should that be easier for patrons to check out books and we also will be providing wifi as well.”
The public can also sign up for library cards and Kleist and Nakanoto, who are bilingual, will be able to provide any information the public may need.
“It has the potential to be so many things,” Kleist said. “It really does expand the partnership of the library. We do have a full-time dedicated team. So many people have been pivotal to this project. We met with the Charles County and Calvert County mobile teams, whom we’ll be meeting with on a monthly basis. Baltimore County also gave us ride-alongs. Each county has really been great in assisting us to get the unit up and running.”
“There is currently an option to request services on the website, but that won’t go live just yet.”
Each stop will run from 30 minutes to up to 90 minutes, depending on the community and need.
“It’s great to be out in the community and we look forward to seeing relationships grow. We met a woman who wasn’t aware of some things that we offer. She signed up for a computer class. We stopped and talked to a daycare provider and she mentioned that some of the children don’t have an excitement towards reading so the unit will possibly inspire that.”
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