User:Leahrudolph/Abington Community Library

The Abington Community Library is located in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, USA. History: In December 1959 an article in the Abington Journal announced that a meeting would take place in January to establish a library in the Clarks Summit area. This was based on an idea put forth by the Clarks Summit-Abington PTA. On January 11, 1960 the Abington Library Association was born. The Library, originally located in a storefront in what had been the Abington Fabric Store at 420 State Street in Clarks Summit (now the Young Funeral Home parking lot), opened its doors with 75 donated books on June 18, 1960. The Abington Heights Junior Women’s Club (now the Civic League) was also instrumental in the early years. The Library was incorporated April 16, 1965. In 1966 the Library moved to a renovated single-family dwelling located at 500 School Street and continued as an all-volunteer organization until 1967 with the hiring of its first director. In 1975 the municipalities of Clarks Summit, Clarks Green, and South Abington Township, declared it their ‘official Library.’ In 1982 a referendum creating a dedicated county Library tax was passed and in 1983 the Library became part of the Lackawanna County Library System.

The current Library is located in a building constructed in 1991 on donated property, which opened March 2, 1992. It contains a community meeting room frequently used by local non-profit organizations, the Friends of the Abington Community Library, and for other Library-sponsored programs. Originally ten thousand square feet, the addition of a Children’s Room, opened in October 2002, increased the Library’s total size to 14,500 square feet. 55 parking spaces are available.

Funding: Support is provided by Lackawanna County & State Support (approximately 90%), Access PA, and Local Support, (Municipal Support, Donations, Annual Fund Drive) totaling $790,000.

Staff:	The Library currently has a staff of eight full-time staff, and twenty part-time staff including pages. The staff includes the director, head of children’s services, head of young adult services, reference/interlibrary loan librarian, chief circulation clerk, circulation clerks, pages, and a PR coordinator. Part-time clerks work anywhere from six to twenty-five hours each week. Pages work evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays. Two staff members have master’s degrees and one is a Provisional librarian (has credits towards a Master’s).

Collection: The Library collection holds a total of over 80,000 items, including books, non-circulating reference books, DVDs, talking books, music CDs, and periodicals.

The Library over 100 periodicals, most of which can be borrowed for one week. Newspapers include: Abington Journal, Barron’s, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, Scranton Times & Tribune, Suburban, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal. Investors may find Value Line, Morningstar Reports, and Standard & Poor’s Outlook useful.

Interlibrary Loan and Reference Services Interlibrary loan helps meet the needs of our patrons. Many Interlibrary Loans were made upon request. Reference collections are found in both the adult and children’s areas, with qualified reference assistance available for Library users.

Computer Services: The Library has 14 public access Internet workstations for adult users and 6 for children; more than 25,000 reservations were made at this Library. The workstations also have direct access to Pennsylvania Power Library, a collection of databases provided through Commonwealth Libraries. Users are also welcome to use the Microsoft programs available on the workstations. The children’s workstations are loaded with learning games and filtered Internet access. In 2006 the Library received free wireless Internet access for patrons, compliments of Frontier Communications Staff is available to help patrons with the online catalog, resources available on POWER Library, brief instruction on using Internet workstations, and readers advisory. The Library also has a microfilm/fiche reader and the Scranton Times on microfilm from 1895 – 1990.

Programs: Five five-week story hour sessions are held Monday through Friday throughout the school year for children 2 – 5 years. There is a bi-monthly story hour for children ages 1 to 3, and occasional evening programs. Special summer story hours are held during June and July. Summer and winter reading programs are available to both children and young adults and numerous book discussions for all ages are available frequently. Other special and educational programs are frequently offered to children, young adults, and adults throughout the year. An active teen advisory board plans and conducts book discussions and special programs for teens. In addition, the teen board plans and holds special programs for younger children. The popular “American Girl” events and “Pirate Day” are examples. The Friends assist us with programming for adults and two Used Book Sales, rounding out a full palette of lifelong learning and entertainment.

Program Stats: In 2010 attendance was 6,665 at juvenile and 3,263 at young adult/adult programs.

Service Hours: The Library is open 71 hours each week. Holidays and early closings are posted on our website, www.lclshome.org/abington. Hours of operation are: Monday – Friday	9 AM. to 9 PM Saturday 	`	9 AM to 5 PM. Sunday		2 PM to 5 PM.

Service Area:	Abington Community Library’s service area includes the boroughs and townships in the Abington Heights School District (Abington, Clarks Green, Clarks Summit, Glenburn, Newton, North Abington, Ransom, South Abington, and West Abington) and Scott Township. As part of the Lackawanna County Library System it offers Library service free of charge to any resident of Lackawanna County. (Population over 28,000 based on 2000 census)

Affiliations: The Abington Community Library is a member of the Lackawanna County Library System, a federated system formed in 1982. The Library holds membership in American Library Association, the Pennsylvania Library Association, and the Public Library Association. In 2005 the Library became a member of the Abington Business and Professionals Association.

Awards: The Lackawanna County Commissioners issued a proclamation declaring September 12, 2006, "Abington Community Library Day." The proclamation came in response to the Library's recognition as one of three libraries to receive the annual Marketing Award from the Office of Commonwealth Libraries in June 2006. The Library also won this award in 2009. In 2007 the Library recognized new IDEAL PATRONs: First Lady Laura Bush, and the Honorable Tom Ridge and his wife Michele. The Library has been repeatedly been recognized in the Best of the Abingtons for Child-centered Activities, Librarian and runner-up, and Happenings Magazine Best (Small) Company runner-up.

Boards: The Abington Community Library has three boards. The Library is incorporated and its business is conducted by a Board of Directors, each serving a three-year term. Meetings are generally held monthly. The Friends of the Abington Community Library (started in 1972) is primarily involved with fundraising through their semi-annual used book sales. The Abington Community Library ~ Teen Leadership Committee (begun in June of 2002), a teen advisory board, primarily conducts programming for teens and assists with numerous other events both locally and county-wide as needed.