Symmes Valley students can now enter the fall semester better prepared – and steer clear from the usual summer brain-drain – thanks to the new Briggs Lawrence County Public Library Northern Branch.

Wednesday, July 05, 2000

Symmes Valley students can now enter the fall semester better prepared – and steer clear from the usual summer brain-drain – thanks to the new Briggs Lawrence County Public Library Northern Branch.

"I love it. It’s wonderful," Symmes Valley parent Lisa Mootz said. "It’s helpful to the community and it gives us a resource that’s nice and close."

Mrs. Mootz takes her 6-year-old son, Daniel, to the new library every week – Mondays for Story Time and Thursdays for Family Time, some of the library’s attractive services.

"He makes good use of the library," she said.

The arts and crafts program offered by the library is a particular favorite of Daniel’s.

"I learned all about rockets and got to make one," Daniel said. "It took me 10 or 15 minutes to make the rocket. We shot them outside by the flagpole."

The fuel? A little water and an Alka-seltzer tablet. And according to Daniel, it shot pretty high.

Daniel said his interests go beyond the heights his rocket soared. He has been playing Space Bingo for the past two weeks, got a "Reading is Out of this World" T-shirt from the library with an astronaut pictured on the front, and even got a personal greeting from Marty the Martian, a visitor who Daniel thinks is out of this world.

"(Marty) sang a song and danced and we learned a lot about Mars that day," Daniel said. "Maybe I’ll go to Mars some day."

Daniel is not the only student getting an education through library services this summer.

Luke Taylor, 7, a Symmes Valley Multi-Level second-grader, visits the library every Monday and Thursday and the stock of books shelved there are a feast to his eyes.

One day in particular, Luke checked eight books out of the library and then visited his grandmother.

"I read seven out of eight books that day," Luke said. "I usually just read (books) when I get home and I finish them off."

Luke said he also comes to the library every week.

"It has about anything available and if they don’t have it, they’ll find it for you," Mrs. Mootz said. "We’re fortunate to have it and I think it’s the first of its kind," she added, referring to the unique consolidation of Symmes Valley Elementary and the public libraries. "The parents are very pleased."

The library’s assistant branch manager Tami Jones explained that more students are applying for library cards each week.

"The first week we had 35 new cards," she said. "More people seem to discover us every day, which explains the increase in library cards. We have a lot of the same services the other libraries have and we think it will bring in more people."

Mrs. Mootz agreed, saying that she expects library attendance to increase substantially since the branch’s June 5 opening because some of the parents are just starting to find out about the new library and the enrichment it offers the children.

"It seems like more people have been coming since the word has spread," she said. "If this library wasn’t here, we would have to drive about 30 minutes to the Ironton library.

"We’d never really make it in time for story time, would we Daniel?"

"Nope," he said.