Library launching monthly adult programming
The Strathmore Municipal Library is launching a monthly adult night, which will feature activities or informational sessions planned for the fourth week of any given month.
These sessions will be hosted on varying days with the goal of allowing anyone who is interested an opportunity to participate, rather than restricting the schedule to a designated day.
This month, taking place April 23, will feature an “express yourself” program, which is an opportunity to create a mixed media art piece.
“Traditionally, we are very heavy on the early literacy and family programs, children’s programs, that sort of thing, so we are really looking to boost our adult programs,” said Laura Henderson, public services manager for the library. “There have been a lot of things like tech tutoring and that sort of thing that are one-on-one, but we want to have full programs for adults, so we are going to do an adult night once a month.”
Henderson explained ideas which have been proposed as summer approaches, including a picnic or games of bocce.
Come the adult program night for May, the plan is to host a financial planning workshop, followed in June, the library is hoping to host Indigenous programming.
“It is going to be very different every month, different nights of the week so that we can cater to different adults with different schedules and that sort of thing, but we are hoping to run these consistently the fourth week of the month,” said Henderson. “We have just noticed that you can find a lot of children’s programs out there, (and) there is just not as much for adults. When there is something for adults, it is typically the same thing that has been going on for years. We are just trying to find different things to appeal to different adults.”
Though the mixed media art night is not the inaugural occasion for this particular program, Henderson explained it is the first to utilize the branding assigned to it.
A similar adult night was hosted in March, which was restricted to a maximum of 25 preregistered participants for a book folding session. For this, a waiting list of another 25 people had to be created.
“The goal is to have mostly drop-in type programs that anyone can come to, but it depends on the instructor, it depends on what the type of activity is. The book folding, we had to know how many books to have available, and also the instructor needed to be able to get to everyone to help out, so that one needed to be registered,” said Henderson.
She added though the program currently operates once a month, the end goal is to increase the frequency to twice per month, should interest be maintained.
John Watson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Strathmore Times
