Boundary County Library moves forward despite challenging year

BONNERS FERRY — The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world, from how business is done to socializing to restaurant dining to doctor visits. There doesn’t seem to be any aspect of life that hasn’t been affected but change isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes, as the Boundary County Library proves, change can be good.

When Idaho Gov. Brad Little issued statewide stay-at-home orders at the end of March 2020, and those orders continued in the months afterward, it soon became clear to library Director Craig Anderson that the library needed to make adjustments to keep pace.

The first thing they did was to conduct an online survey to address homeschooling needs and from there, Amy Maggi created education kits. They are all STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) related and can be checked out just like a book. Each kit contains everything needed to complete related tasks and experiments.

The library has indexed all of the kits to make it easy to find what you need; first, they’re indexed by number, then subject and then age. The No. 4 engineering kit includes everything you need to build five types of machines including a wind powered car. Kit No. 31 teaches kids about electricity. You can build a DNA strand out of Twizzlers with kit No. 27 genetics. Kit No. 1 is all about the human body and includes a “visible man'' as well as instructions to create a working model of a lung out of a plastic bottle and a balloon.

The library also offers interactive programs for kids via their website: National Geographic, The Magic School, PBS Kids and even the popular Minecraft, just to name a few.

Storytime at the library has changed as well. As weather permits, the staff utilizes the adjacent Veteran’s Memorial Park and takes the fun outside where they wear costumes and act out the stories they read to the children, even employing a karaoke machine for sound effects. It’s a new feature that the kids love, and one they will continue long after COVID-19 is gone. Storytime hour also offers take-home craft kids and other activities like coloring pages.

The library has also started the Readbox. It might look familiar since on the face of it, it resembles a Redbox where you can rent movies, except the Readbox has, you guessed it... books. It’s a different theme each month. January gave you the chance to check out a book and accompanying movie version to compare the two. February was “Blind Date” month with all book covers wrapped and hidden with only a brief description on the outside to hint at its contents. March is sporting an Irish theme in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, with selections for all age groups as well as a few movies.

Library staff also created a curbside checkout protocol and said they will continue the service for as long as people want it, even after the pandemic is far behind us. They also increased the number of books available through Overdrive, their digital book program, and saw an over 77% increase in Overdrive checkouts.

The library’s Fab Lab has been shut down during the pandemic, but they’ve still managed to utilize the space, converting part of it into a Zoom Room so patrons lacking home access can participate in Zoom meetings.

Anderson is proud of the nine library employees and how they have all been able to adapt and thrive in what has been a difficult year. Many of the workarounds were created as a way to deal with the pandemic but they have enriched the services already offered at what Anderson was proud to point out was voted 2017’s Best Small Library in America by the “Library Journal.” You can read all about it here: https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=bestsmalllibrary2017 and don’t forget to drop in and tell Anderson and his crew how the Library Journal hit the nail on the head.