By Sherrie DeMartino, Branch Manager of the Carroll Valley Library
In the late 1990’s and the early 2000’s, the Adams County Library System was looking for a suitable location for a branch that would service the south-western section of Adams County. Their search finally paid off and a library branch was opened in the town of Fairfield in 2003. I became the branch manager of the Fairfield Area Library in 2004. At the time, besides being the newest, we were the smallest “brick and mortar” branch in the system. Technically, our smallest branch was our Bookmobile which drove all over the County visiting schools, daycares, and nursing homes, bringing the books to you.
Our little library in Fairfield was great! We were small enough that we knew most of the patrons by name. We had public internet computers, movies on VHS (remember those?), a nice selection of fiction and non-fiction books, magazines, newspapers, audiobooks, and music CDs. Our patrons enjoyed the convenience of having library items sent to our branch, which was closer to where they lived and had lots of free parking. This service was (and still is) provided by our library delivery van which now runs six days a week to every branch in the County. A few years after we opened, my coworker, Crystal, joined the Adams County Library System, and has been doing wonderful children’s story times for us ever since. Some of you may remember coming to those when you were little! An added extra bonus was that we were right across the street from Ventura’s pizza!
In the meantime, the Carroll Valley Borough needed to relocate their offices and police department. They wanted to build a beautiful new building that wouldn’t leak every time it rained. They also wanted their new place to be more of a community center instead of just office buildings, so they asked our Library System if we would consider relocating to the new building. We said yes! So, in 2017, we packed our books, and with a lot of help from the Boy Scouts and other awesome patrons, moved a few miles up the road to our new location in the Carroll Valley Park.
We’ve been in our new library for five years already. Time flies! It’s a nice bright space with lovely views of the ski resort and the park. The Borough and Police employees are great neighbors and nothing beats our view of the park in the fall – it’s absolutely gorgeous! The park is also a great place to have outdoor programming and story times, as long as the weather cooperates!
Although our library system no longer has VHS tapes and music CDs, we now have a huge collection of DVDs (classics, new releases, and everything in between). We have also added e-books and e-audiobooks that you can read or listen to on your electronic devices. These became incredibly popular during the pandemic and continue to be one of our most circulated items. We have public internet computers and offer fax, copying, and scanning services.
Come and visit us and check out all that we have to offer! We have a lot of fun programs scheduled for the summer for children, teens and tweens, and adults. Hope to see you soon!