Residents are counting the ways that make Monday visits to the Land O’ Lakes Branch Library special.
They are using computers and taking wood shop lessons; reducing stress with tai chi and yoga; learning techniques for light painting photography; clicking needles in knitting classes; and just using the extra time to browse the bookshelves for a favorite read.
Gail Fowler is just one of the library patrons who is enjoying the restored Monday hours of 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
She’s a fan of the library’s Internet access. She said she and her family use library computers for “just about everything,” including emails and searching the Web.
Before the hours were recently restored, library hours had fallen victim to the 2008 economic crash, and the ensuing shrinking budgets in the county.
Now, over the next three years as budgets allow, the goal is to restore library hours countywide to the 2008 standard of 40 hours a week per library.
It has taken a decade to begin reversing previous cuts.
The fiscal year 2018 budget, which began on Oct. 1, restored Monday hours for the Land O’ Lakes library and the Regency Park Branch Library in New Port Richey.
As word spreads, “we’re starting to increase the number of people that are coming,” said Kathleen Rothstein, Land O’ Lakes branch manager. “It’s great to offer additional night hours and a day.”
The library also is open on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
On a recent Monday, teenagers did homework or got tutoring in the three study rooms at the library.
A teen photography class on how to do painting with light launched on Monday, and quickly filled up.
“We’re hoping to turn it into a club, where they can acquire some fun skills,” said Danielle Cram, teen services librarian.
Artist Anjana Thapa Paudel volunteers to teach painting and drawing skills to children.
About a half-dozen students worked on a Monday night on a Christmas-based theme sketch.
Thapa Paudel also teaches knitting at the library’s Foundry.
“We made Santa pants this month,” she said.
Volunteer Tom Cassidy helped library patron, Gene McDaniel, make a bowl, on a Monday morning in the library’s makerspace, in the Foundry room.
It can get tricky to get the finer points right, Cassidy said. Sometimes, bowls end up with holes in the bottom and become funnels, he added.
McDaniel is a “snow bird” from Ohio, but when he’s in Pasco County, he likes to hang out at the Land O’ Lakes library and make things.
The library’s Monday hours means that he can do that more often.
“Now, I just come here and have fun,” McDaniel said.
His wife comes sometimes, too. McDaniel said she’d probably like to make a fancy French rolling pin.
Ray Penn worked on a couple of wood toys he planned to give as Christmas presents.
“I did this in high school,” said the retired truck driver. “It works out. I come here and kill three or four days.”
For information on dates and times for scheduled library events at Land O’ Lakes and other branch libraries, visit PascoCountyLibraries.org.
Published December 27, 2017
