What are you doing next weekend? Not sure? We have a busy Saturday planned with the 44th annual Balloon A-Fair downtown. The library has been part of the Saturday festivities for so long that no one here can remember how long we’ve been doing it. We hope you’ll stop by and see us.

We will set up on Main Street under our bright blue tent. Stop by to chat about the library, get information on what’s happening, and ask us your questions. We’ll bring out the prize wheel to spin. Spins are free and everyone wins something, from stickers to swag to books & movies. But why do we do it? Isn’t the library already open and someone could just come in? What about the people at the festival from out of town who would never use our library anyway?

The number one reason we schlep all our stuff out on the street in the wee hours of the morning? All day long we get to talk to people about the library. We talk to people from Ravenna. We talk to people from other counties and other towns in Ohio. We talk to people from out of state. And each conversation is about a library. Our library, their library, and their experience with libraries. We. Learn. So. Much.  And it’s fun. Sometimes people know a lot about what public libraries do. Sometimes they have no clue and they’re excited to hear that we offer a service that they need, like free notarizing or faxing. We’re interested in sharing what we do and learning from others about what we could do in the future.

Lots of people share nostalgic stories about the library. They visited often when they were young and have great stories about it. We enjoy their stories. Then we get to talk to them about things that the library has for adults. It’s an eye-opening experience for many of them. The library has changed a lot since they were small but most of them don’t know it. It’s so much more than books and storytimes. Those nostalgic conversations help us connect people with the library as it exists now.

It’s ideal if we can direct someone to our library just down the street, but when they live somewhere else, we encourage them to visit the library in their community. We want each library to succeed and every person to realize the free public resources available. If we get someone to become a regular at their own library, it’s still a win for us.

When foot traffic wanes as people migrate to Sunbeau Valley for the balloon launch, it will finally be time to take the tent down and put everything away. We’ll be tired but it’s a good kind of tired. We will have spent the day in the heat (or the rain) and shared stories and conversations. We will have given away a bunch of swag and prizes and made people smile. We will have learned what people like and what they’re looking for. We will take that knowledge back inside the building to help build better services and offer more resources. And the next time you stop in, we will be greeting a friend we met out on Main Street.