Sumter County Library - A Place For You!

Advocating for public libraries can be a difficult and frustrating experience. Often you are called upon to explain what the library does in just a few minutes with as few words as possible. You try and focus on the big ticket items such as early childhood literacy and providing computers, internet access, and staff help for those looking for employment or filing for benefits online. Yes, these are very important, but they are only a few parts of a very big picture.

That picture includes the library patron who watched as our bookmobile navigated icy roads and a library staff member hand delivered books to a community center. The patron was moved enough to write a letter to the editor of the Item. The picture includes a patron who sent a staff member an email of thanks for helping her with a problem she was having downloading onto her e-reader, thanking him for his kindness and patience. The picture includes a new resident to Sumter who writes that they “came to the library every day and utilized the internet in my job search. It was through this search that I found my first job in Sumter.” The picture includes a family struggling through tough times that come to the library for study space and computer access. The picture includes youngsters from day care and head start centers who come to the library and listen while someone reads them a story. The picture includes parents who could not afford to send their daughter to college and came to the library for information on financial aid and scholarships. They later wrote back to thank the staff member who helped them and to let us know their daughter had obtained a scholarship and was beginning her freshman classes. The picture includes the senior citizen who came to a computer class at the library, and said “I can’t wait to go home and tell my family what I learned today.”

We are often told to focus on the “big” picture, but many times the big picture is made up of many small pictures, each important and significant on its own.

So even though it can be difficult and frustrating, please advocate for support of the Sumter County Library. Libraries are important. They are part of the picture of every community. And every community would be a poorer place without them.

Robert Harden
Director