Library funding is here

By MARY GREENE

SULLIVAN COUNTY — Libraries in Sullivan County will receive funding in the amount of $5,000 apiece, announced New York State Senator John J. Bonacic on February 12.

“We are very happy with the funding,” said Susan Scott, director of the Western Sullivan Public Library system, which includes branches in Narrowsburg, Jeffersonville and Callicoon. “We just found out about it, so I am not sure where the money will be spent. But there is plenty that the libraries need, and finding a use for the money will not be a problem.”

Bonacic said that libraries in the county are “not just repositories of books, they are vital community centers.” Scott agreed. “In this community, there are not a lot of venues for best-selling books, or for technological classes or demonstrations,” she said, and Western Sullivan libraries try to provide both. In particular, the Western Sullivan system concentrates on providing the “cutting edge of new technology” that can be shared with others in the community. Among innovative programs planned, Scott said, is a digital camera demonstration.

Anna H. Nguyen, director of the Sunshine Hall Free Library in Eldred, indicated that the library board would meet to decide how best to use the promised funds. “Libraries fulfill an important cultural void” in the community, she said, crediting Friends of Sunshine Hall Free Library with organizing the “very successful” summer reading program for children in grades K-6. The support committee also put together the library’s winter cultural series, which runs monthly from January through April, and includes such diverse topics as Fung Shui, Buddhist monks, a puppeteer, author readings and artist presentations. “Where else in this neck of the woods do you find this stuff?” she said.

Libraries that will receive funding, which totals $50,000, include Bloomburg, Sunshine Hall, Daniel Pierce, Fallsburg, Livingston Manor, Ethelbert Crawford, Roscoe and Western Sullivan. The funding is to be used toward capital improvement or to purchase equipment.

“I will continue to advocate for the needs of our libraries,” said Bonacic in a recent statement.