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A librarian's dream come true

Branches are hot spots as patrons come in and materials go out.

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published November 3, 2006

In Bloomingdale, there's lots of time for tomes.

The popular Hillsborough County branch library - less than 2 years old - already holds a distinction: It's one of the three busiest libraries in the county.

Its popularity exploded beyond anyone's projections, with equal demand for adult and juvenile fare well beyond its initial collection of 53,000 items.

People checked out 53,714 items from Bloomingdale in July. Bloomingdale joined the Upper Tampa Bay Regional Library as the library system's true hot spots.

"The shelves need more books on them, and more of everything," branch supervisor Julie Beamguard says.

The county aims to meet the demand. Upper Tampa Bay got $190,000 this month, and Bloomingdale received $310,000, to bolster their collections. Each planned to put the bulk of the funds into children's books, music and movies.

Librarians hope to mirror school accelerated reader lists, because parents have said their children cannot get the titles from school media centers.

Also helping is the library system's new policy of leaving children's books where they are returned, instead of immediately shipping them back to their "home library."

At the Upper Tampa Bay library, Monica Rivera stands amid the waist-high bookshelves and crooks her neck the way you do when you want to see the titles.

She's got a long want list on a small yellow paper, children's selections all. Already, Rivera has found Marvin the Marmoset, Two Little Trains and a few slim, colorful volumes from the Arthur collection.

Rivera's 3-year-old son, Carlos, focuses intently on a computerized Barney game nearby.

"We're here, I would say, at least three times a week," Rivera, an engineer who lives in Tampa's Westchase neighborhood, says of the Upper Tampa Bay Regional Library. "We love taking out books, reading them at home. We also take DVDs. I think it's time well spent for the kids."

Judy McAfee, the principal librarian helping with the Upper Tampa Bay and Bloomingdale expansions, loves that the newer branches face such "problems."

"It's kind of cool," she says. "We're getting these newer branches that obviously have younger families with kids, and they're bringing kids in. ... Fortunately, we're able to start working with them and get stuff on the shelves that will directly appeal to the people who are using the collection."

Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at solochek@sptimes.com or 813 269-5304.

[Last modified November 2, 2006, 08:00:02]