Reference services. Guidance. Support. These are just a few of the terms that come to mind when I think about the relationship between the Gettysburg Library branch and my library, the Trone Memorial Library. As the center of all activity and services for the library system, the Gettysburg location offers the largest collection of resources and materials that my team and I can use to better serve the East Berlin community. What do I mean by this? Here are just a few examples:
Every new book my team and I purchase for the collection at the library first makes its way to Gettysburg, where it is cataloged and processed for the collection. Thanks to a team of staff and volunteers, the book is properly tagged for patrons to better find in the online catalog – when you search for James Patterson in the catalog, it is thanks to the team in Gettysburg that you can find the full list of titles by him in the catalog. Next, the book receives the right book covering and labels to help prevent damage and to identify the book on the shelf. Then, the book is sent to Trone Memorial Library, where we can place it on our new shelf (or send it out to the first person on hold for it!).
While we do purchase materials for the collection, a good portion of the collection at the Trone Memorial Library is rotated to Gettysburg for other materials. This keeps the collections we have fresh, while also allowing us to keep the favorite titles the East Berlin community loves. Twice a year, most collections have an opportunity to be rotated. The Trone team pulls items that have been on the shelves for at least a year – using a special code on the items – and places them ready for delivery to Gettysburg. In turn, Gettysburg pulls a like amount of items from the collections at the Gettysburg Library and places them ready for delivery to the Trone Memorial Library.
When a patron places a hold on a book from a different library in the county, or when a library is rotating its collections, it is thanks to the delivery services housed at the Gettysburg location that the hold or the rotations arrive at the Trone Memorial Library in a timely manner. Running six days a week, deliveries between branches tend to take one to two days. If an item is available on the shelf in Littlestown, for example, the item can be at my library in just a couple of days. This goes beyond the request for hold requests – the library receives much needed supplies through delivery as well! As a branch of the Adams County Library System, all supply needs – from scotch tape to printer paper to even tissues and hand sanitizer – are purchased and distributed to the branch libraries from the Gettysburg Library.
There are quite a number of other great examples about the value of the Gettysburg Library to the Trone Memorial Library, but for just one more example: the local history collection. Those who visit the Trone Memorial Library know we have a small collection of local history information. If we need to find more resources for our patrons – cemetery records, family genealogies, etc. – the Local History collection at the Gettysburg Library is a perfect next step. This collection spans several decades, from the creation of Adams County to the Civil War to the early 1900s. The Local History area has collections that benefit all parts of Adams County.
These examples show the great working relationship between the two libraries!
Jessica Laganosky is Branch Director, Jean Barnett Trone Memorial Library