Pea Ridge library on media cutting edge

TIMES photograph Librarian Alex Wright and social media director Ashdon Wilson talk to patrons via Facebook staying in touch with patrons while the Pea Ridge Community Library is closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
TIMES photograph Librarian Alex Wright and social media director Ashdon Wilson talk to patrons via Facebook staying in touch with patrons while the Pea Ridge Community Library is closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

PEA RIDGE -- The quarantine imposed by state officials during the covid-19 pandemic has closed many businesses, museums, libraries, but librarians at the Pea Ridge Community Library haven't let it dampen their enthusiasm nor prevent them from reaching out to people.

Using different media sources, Alex Wright, director, and Ashdon Wilson, social media director, are working harder than ever to meet the needs of library patrons.

And, their work is being seen world-wide. On Friday, a librarian from Ontario, Canada, called to thank them for what their doing.

"We just had a librarian from Ontario, Canada, call us this morning to tell us that he follows our content in a group that we share most of our FB posts to and say that he loves what we are doing," Wright told city officials. "He sent our curbside pickup silent film to his library's headquarters, and they loved it and are going to recreate it for their libraries."

"So proud of what our Ashdon has done for the library's social media presence in the short time she has been with us! I look forward to continuing to see how this affects us on our home front as well," Wright said.

Wright said the library employees follow a Facebook page for programming librarians.

"Programming in general is a hard process. I found the page and asked all my librarians to follow it," she said, adding everything Wilson shares on social media is also shared to the programming librarians page. "We have people from all over the world -- even Norway -- following us."

"Most of our ideas we gleaned from them," Wright said.

"The short, silent film we created for curbside pickup -- that's 100% Ashdon," Wright said.

"We've only had Ashdon for a few months -- she was hired as social media and program director," Wright said, also commending other employees who have initiated ideas.

Crafts, art lessons, story times, yoga in the stacks, trivia and book clubs are just a few of the many activities shared by the librarians with activities for people of all ages.

Other librarians take our ideas and change their take or morph it for their own, she said, adding some just simply share the Pea Ridge posts.

"Our trivia, we got that from a local Arkansas library," she said.

"Many libraries have started it because of us," Wright added.

And, now, they're doing TikToks.

"These are things we can do; so we try every Monday to share a different tiktok. It's a way to get to the younger crowd."

Opening the library will be "at least" June 15, Wright said, explaining she and the mayor are constantly watching regulations and guidelines released by the state. "That's a date we've agreed on, but with the way things are going, obviously that could change."

She said the Friends of the Library group provided hand sanitizer and the staff have been working to prepare for opening. Guidelines have been written, Plexiglas has been put up and a few masks are in stock. Study rooms will not be open initially.

The library recently began allowing curbside pickups when people asked to reserve books by email or a phone call.

The process doesn't allow any human contact and people are given a time slot and parking lot spot. People are asked to call the library letting librarians know they are there so they can put their requested books in a specific bin. After the librarians return to the building, people may place return books in the return box. Each book returned is quarantined for 24 hours before the disinfection process begins.

"We are doing everything we can to keep everyone safe," Wright said.

"Give us a call and get those items reserved early ... that's for the safety of ourselves and our patrons," Wilson said.

photo

TIMES photograph Library social media director Ashdon Wilson created a silent film explaning the process for curbside pickup of library books. Link to silent film: https://www.facebook.com/PeaRidgeCommunityLibrary/videos/259777581740336/

Social Media

Facebook: Pea Ridge Community Library

Twitter: @PRC_Library

YouTube: Pea Ridge Community Library

Instagram: www.instagram.com/p…

TikTok: @PRCL_library

NW News on 05/27/2020

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