Staunton Star - Times - Published in the Interest of the Staunton Community for Over 143 Years

The Shamrock month is already on top of us. There is so much happening at the Staunton Public Library this time of year. Story Time for the younger crowd ages three and up is now set for the second and fourth Thursdays for the month of March beginning at 4pm. They read a story together, do an art activity and if time a game or two is always on the agenda.

During the month of March, the permanent Story Book Walk out at Water Tower Park will be Kevin Henke’s children’s book, Lilly’s Big Day. This is a great story about a little girl who expects to be a flower girl in her favorite teacher’s upcoming wedding despite not being asked. Things do not go as planned but the wedding still goes off in humorous and delightful fashion. We hope you will enjoy it too as you walk along the path reading each page.

The Staunton Public Library is thrilled to host Mark Pierce, author of When the Stars Came Out about the Mississippi River Festival held at SIUE from 1969- 1980

Thursday, March 21, 6:30pm

Oltmann Community Center

101 West Pearl Street

Everyone is invited to come out and listen to Mark’s presentation.

The Staunton Public Library Easter Egg Hunt party is now set for Thursday, March 28, at 4 pm in the children’s library. A story, an egg hunt and games are scheduled for that day for those three years and up. We pride ourselves on our fun children’s parties. It’s one of the things we do best.

The Staunton Public Library hosts two student book clubs during the school year. If anyone is interested in joining either our 4th and 5th grade group or our Jr High Book Club, please let Julie or Ava at the library know and we will provide more details. Our student book clubs are always a great way to get together, talk about books, authors and do activities revolving around the book we just read.

Tax Forms are here- The library has only the basic forms here behind the patron computer tables. Feel free to stop by and get your needed copies soon. April will be here before we realize it.

Stats from 2023 in Library Land

The first months of the year flew by so quickly I was unable to get these stats in the Library Happenings in time. I thought I would share them with you all now- as of December 31, the library currently holds in its collection, 21,709 items. We have an access of over one million items in our library resource catalog provided by Illinois Heartland Library System with 521 libraries spread across central Illinois. Staunton library has averaged 1,260 patrons, with an additional 107 new patrons or renewals in a town of 5,100. We hope to grow even more members this year. The library deleted 886 items last year from its collection of materials no longer being checked out in a ten- year period. We also added 850 new items in 2023.

According to the library data base, Staunton Library patrons as a collective saved $268,673.41 by utilizing the library last year rather than purchasing individual items every month. Some of the top circulating items most checked out was as follows: Minecraft Blockopedia, The 100 Dresses by Eleanor Estes, Blueberries for Sal by McCloskey, Murder Behind the Badge by Stacy Dittrich, Heart Bones and Ugly Love, both by Coleen Hoover, As good as Dead by Holly Jackson, The Measure by Nikki Erlick, and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I can’t wait to see what 2024 brings.

The Staunton Lions Club Easter Egg Hunt will be Saturday, March 30 at Fireman’s Park- The hunt begins at 11:00 Sharp! The Staunton Public Library staff is once again stuffing eggs for the hunt this year. It is always a labor of love. The Lions goal this year is to have 2700 eggs ready to go.

Check us out! Our phone number is 618 635 3852, our email is [email protected] and our new facebook page is librarypagestaunton. The library is also on Instagram. We hope to see you all at the library one day soon.