The Drayton Library and the Wellington County Library system were the subjects of a presentation at a the September Seniors Centre for Excellence Congregate Dining Program.
Drayton acting branch supervisor Valerie Denton and librarian Nanda Zwart provided information and reflections on the local library and current services.
“The Drayton library located at 106 Wellington Street is one of 14 branches in the Wellington County Library system. Library cards can be used at any branch in the county. Mapleton Township has one library in Drayton with a staff of four plus two pages. Pages are students hired to put library materials away,” Zwart said.
The 7,500-square foot facility is a gathering place for the community. Two fireplaces and a number of couches offer a comfortable environment for reading the traditional offering of books, magazines and Newspapers.
“On hand are three daily Newspapers along with the Community News and the Wellington Advertiser. Over 30 magazines are available for a one-week loan period,” Zwart said. “There is a section of inspirational and Christian fiction books along with large print books. Unique to the Drayton library is a Dutch section.”
For readers wanting to use a tablet, e-reader or iPad, ebooks are available. The Wellington County website – wellington.ca – contains an online library catalogue of ebooks in the library system.
“The Wellington County library system has a courier that services each branch in the county. The courier operates five days a week and occasionally on Saturdays. Books can be brought into Drayton from other library branches usually within a day,” Denton said.
The DVD shelves are stocked with new, classic, travel, history, foreign language, documentaries, science and nature DVD’s. University level courses on DVD with attached books are suitable for discussion groups. Popular television series from House of Cards to Doc Martin line the shelves.
Adults and children’s video and board games can be signed out at the library. Use of the library’s Xbox, PS3 and PS4 along with their respective consoles is one way to try a game before purchase.
Six public computers for adults and one for children are available for use during library hours. Library staff are on hand to provide assistance with computers and iPads. Patrons are asked to book an appointment with the staff. Once a month, workshops are held on iPad and computer basics including online safety tips and social media programs. IPads are also part of the library’s loan program.
“For homes with dial up internet access, Hotspot provides high-speed internet access. Unfortunately the need is far greater than the demand with only 100 devices in the Wellington County library system and a waiting list of 300 names. The devices are on loan for a period of a week,” Denton said.
Workshops on searching ancestry are also part of the programming at the library. Patrons can use one of the library’s computers or bring along a laptop and use the library’s WiFi to search ancestry.com free of charge. The ancestry.com library edition has added bonuses not available to home users.
Mango languages is free with a Wellington County library card. The language program offers an opportunity to learn over 70 languages including Tagalong and Icelandic – even pirate speak.
Librarians on staff can assist patrons with NoveList, a program that allows patrons to access authors with similar styles and themes and book recommendations by library staff.
Kanopy, an on-demand streaming video service, provides free downloads for up to five films per month. Films from the independent, classical and foreign film categories are accessible.
The popular 3D printer MakerBot gives members an introduction to robotics along with exercising creative and critical thinking. Designs are downloaded from a computer and taken by the robot to create an object. Pre-booked appointments are necessary to use MakerBot and patrons are encouraged to bring their own patterns.
“MakerBot is a way to access the latest technology free of charge at the library. This technology is used in the medical field with skin grafts and prosthetics and on the space station where spare parts are not readily available,” Zwart said.
Another robot at the library is the Ozobot. This piece of technology is designed to follow mazes. Cubelets are magnetic cubes each containing a robot that are used to make any number of designs.
MaKey MaKey allows the use of the internet to invent by downloading a computer program or webpage, adding an object and hooking up MaKeyMaKey. Instead of using the computer’s keyboard, the object becomes the keyboard.
Go Pro cameras, are also available for loan.
Adult programming at the Drayton Library includes a book club which meets on a monthly basis.
Sets of 10 copies of books are on loan for a six week period with discussion questions included.
Children’s programming caters to babies, toddlers, children and youth year round. Librarian Sandra Sikkema visited schools in the area prior to the beginning of summer holidays sharing with over 1,000 children, information around activities held at the library during the summer.
As a result of Sikkema’s visits, 350 children participated in the TD Summer reading program. Of those 350 children, 120 were new to the program.
A total of 8,806 books were read by children in the program. In the month of July, 10,000 books were checked out of the library.
Other services available at the library include photcopying, faxing, scanning and emailing.
The Next Chapter a monthly Newsletter containing programming and services available throughout Wellington County can be obtained at any branch library.
New this fall at the Drayton location is Carnegie Café: Backroads of Ontario. This hour long presentation by Librarian Joanne Wiersma will focus on day trips in Ontario.
For more information on the Drayton Library’s programs and services contact the library at 519-638-3778, email draytonlib@wellington.ca or visit wellington.ca.
