4/05/2006 

Plenty of friends help at OP library
By Nadine Miller and Virginia Reister

After the new county library was approved at Ocean Pines and the building started, local meetings were held to recruit a “Friends of the Library” group in December 1998. Lisa Harrison, the community service liaison for the Worcester County Library presided. By the fourth meeting the following March, officers had been elected, bylaws approved, and fund-raising activities of selling memberships and library tee shirts initiated.  The number of members grew dramatically to 323 and some 24 volunteers were enthusiastically hawking “friends” merchandise at local events. The treasury topped $3,000. The library was nearing completion and collections of donated books by the Ocean Pines community were being stored pending the opening date.

In January 2000 a library staff of five was hired, consisting of a branch librarian, two assistant branch librarians, and two part-time library aides. A $500,000 core collection of books was provided by the county to the new library. Thanks to a petition, the library was named for its location, Ocean Pines. After sales of memberships, tee shirts, sweat shirts, totes, polo shirts and bricks, the friends’ had a treasury of $6,000 with about 76 active volunteers. The local Habitat for Humanity had initiated a memorial garden of personalized bricks and other donated items for the library and subsequently turned the project over to the friends for pursuance of the brick sales.

On February 23, 2000 the library held its grand opening, with appropriate guests of honor from the community with friends’ members decked out in their special grand opening teal shirts acting as guides. The first Friends Newsletter was published and continued as a quarterly in the winter, spring, summer and fall, mailed to all members and collateral friends. In March, the first friends’ meeting was held in the library. A special session of 58 volunteers was held to develop regular volunteers for library service teams to help the staff, work at the circulation desk, deal with patron computer questions, and also serve as shelvers and rovers.  In one month 409 volunteer hours were clocked.

The friends ways and means committee planned its first major fundraiser, an art auction of works by local artists, thus raising another $5,000 in March. In July 53 volunteers put in about 350 hours over a week in setting up and hosting the first friends’ book sale, which raised $5,500.  The book sale is now an annual event. In the fall, the friends hosted a fall fling with dinner and auctions, yielding another $5,000.

In 2001 some additional activities were added: book signings with volunteers hosting and serving refreshments, an antiques’ appraisal, participation in the Ocean Pines boat parade with a library-related theme, another book sale and the second fall fling. As the library staff grew along with its book collections, some of the volunteer jobs were no longer needed but volunteers continued to regularly shelve books, and participate in shelf reading, where shelves are checked to see that all are filed properly. The first volunteer recognition night was held. The year ended with $17,840 raised and $15,513 spent to support library needs, including books, magazines, teen reading and story time programs for three to five year olds, a electric movie screen, overhead projector and cart, and a new sound system for the large meeting room, to name a few.

A local author’s day was added in 2002 and in 2003 for the first time, the volunteer tea selected a volunteer of the year, whose name is placed on a plaque in the entry hall. With all previous yearly events, there were about 120 volunteers giving over 5,300 hours.  Statistics from the volunteer tea of 2004 indicate that 136 volunteers worked 6,777 hours, which was considered equivalent to 2.5 employees. In 2005, 4,700 volunteer hours were worked. To summarize, as of the end of 2005, volunteers have worked a total of 21,700 hours. The friends’ have raised $80,000 in funds and spent $40,000 of that on library needs.  Special projects presently include redesign and construction of the circulation desk among others. There are over 500 Friends of the Library members and their families.

The library staff has risen to 12, with the three full-time and the others part-time. Retirees form the backbone of the volunteer cadre. Many duties in the library demand strong backs, such as toting books for the book sale or bending down to shelve books. The Ocean City library was forced to give up its annual book sale several years ago due to volunteer aging. The Ocean Pines library has been fortunate in having community service volunteers from the local high schools who elect to spend those hours helping out the library staff. Also the friends have reduced some of their activities with the net result being less volunteer hours were tallied at least at the end of 2005. The library is now six years old and thriving with more books and more patrons.

Footnote:
Up to the end of 2005 OP library volunteer hours have totaled 21,700 hours.
 
Nadine Miller was president of the Friends of the Library for five years.  Virginia Reister was a member at large, 2000-1; vice president, 2001-3; book sale chair, 2000-3; and newsletter editor, 2000-2005.