About a month ago, the Benson Memorial Library held a special event: Storytime on the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad. This event was made possible by the kindness of the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad. They reached out to us to see if we’d like to do this and on top of that they offered a great deal for those that signed up for this event through the library. For those people that signed up for the event through the library, tickets were only $5! This was not only a great opportunity for us to reach out to the community with a great library event but it was also a nice way for families to save some money (tickets are usually a lot more).

Our Youth Services Librarian Becky Stahl did a great job of traveling from car to car on the railroad telling stories to the passengers. I was there with my two sons and as we galumpfed from car to car checking out the scenes it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces that I knew from the library. Everyone was smiling and enjoying the moment with their family and friends. It was a great day to remember for everyone involved.

I love library related events like this. While I will always be a huge fan of library events held in the library, I think the special ones that get the library out into the community are the ones that do the best work in helping establish the library as a pillar in our communities. It gets the word out that libraries are for everyone and that libraries are here to do so much more than just lend you books and DVDs. This is the kind of thing public libraries need these days. I think it’s working.