Author: Karl Colón

Spring is here and there’s so much popping up at Your Library!

Our theme for April is Dig In and we are rolling up our sleeves with you! Each year some of our most popular programs help to get your yard, garden, and flowerbeds ready. Enjoy those, together with the fantastic gardening section of our catalog and even our seed libraries, and you’ll be ready to go.

Celebrate Greene County’s history in April! Our wonderful Local History team at the Greene County Room along with friends from the Greene County Historical Society and the Greene County Archives are working together all month to share our common heritage. With America 250 this year, it’s the perfect time to dig in to our county’s fascinating story.

May is Graduation Time and this year we are inviting Greene County’s kids to a celebration of reading we call Growing Up Greene! We will have all kinds of fun activities, including the Imagination Graduation, our annual celebration for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library graduates! Greene County knows the importance of getting our kids to read – and the joy it brings!

Summer Reading Club and all of its Summer Fun is just a couple of months away! Preregister today to claim a magnetic bookmark and enter two prize drawings happening before June 1.

I’ll see you at Your Library,

Karl Colón, Executive Director

February is time for matters of the heART: Art, Valentine’s Day fun, and celebrating Black History Month! We are coming up on our annual Food for Friends donation drive, where our patrons stock community food pantries and we forgive library fees. And don’t forget the last weeks of Winter Reading Challenge and the Masterpiece Mystery Contest!

Tax season is here – but don’t worry – our tax assistance volunteers are scheduling appointments to get you sorted! We are so grateful to the Volunteer Income Tax Association (VITA) for looking after our community each year! 

In March, we encourage you to Get Crafty for National Crafting Month! We are here to help you with programs, books, ebooks, and more! Whatever your hobby or hustle is, we are here to help you make the most out of it. We can’t wait to see what you make!

Come to Your Library and join in the fun. I’ll see you here!

Karl Colón, Executive Director

Dear friends,

Winter is a fantastic time to celebrate with family, friends, and community! We are excited to celebrate with you!

We have Merry & Bright programming every day at your Library with cookie decorating, live music and performances, seasonal crafts, and more. We are honored we’ve been invited to share our communities’ own celebrations through our Hometown for the Holidays Series: come out to these amazing events and let’s celebrate together!

Winter is the perfect time for a warm blanket and a fireside, and our great digital collections will make sure you’ve the perfect read, show, movie, audiobook to enjoy as you stay warm. Drop by Hoopla and Libby anytime to see all we have to offer.

Our popular Winter Reading Challenge returns this January and February! And be sure to preregister and get in on the fun this month with the Reading Wrap-Up challenge.

We are thankful for you and the chance to serve during the Holidays and throughout the year. See you at the Library.

Karl Colón, Executive Director

Dear Friends,

We are humbled that over 100,000 people — more than 60% of everyone in Greene County including 22,000 of our children — use us to:

• Bring literacy to our kids through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, storytimes, tutoring, and more;
• Bring online access and resources to all, giving everyone a chance at the job market, services, and more; and
• Keep our seniors connected to the world.

We are proud that Your Library is committed to your success and the success of all in Greene County.

To maintain library services for the next ten years in the face of declining state funding, the Board of Trustees has proposed a 1 mil levy for the library on the November 4 ballot. The cost of this levy is less than $3/month per $100,000 of county auditor appraised value, and will not go up as property values increase.

You can learn more about the levy and the library’s finances on our Levy Information Page. 

Of course, there’s lots more going on at Your Library! Don’t miss out on all of our Tricks & Treats coming up for all ages this October and November!

Thank you for being the finest community a library could ask to serve.

Karl Colón, Executive Director

We are so grateful for all the time you shared with us during Summer Reading Club! We love nothing better than being together with you and bringing success to our community! SRC was a lot of fun: there is so much more fun on the way to you! 

As we head into the school year and the Fall, we are looking forward to sharing with you:

• Reading, logging, and winning continues on Beanstack!
• Teen Fan Fest returns for Disco & Dragons (and shaved ice & pizza)!
• Tickets just went on sale for the Foundation’s annual fundraiser for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library!
• Student tutoring picks back up in September – along with a lot of other things!

And above all, we have been having a great time sharing your success stories with our One Patron at a Time Videos.  Magic happens when you take the collection and services the Greene County Community has invested and make them into your success! 

So get ready, get set, and get to your library!

Karl Colón, Executive Director
Greene County Public Library

Summer Reading Club is one of my favorite times of the year — bright “Color Our World” decorations in your library, the prizes and giveaways, crafts and programs, snacks and lunches, guest performers and presenters, and setting aside the time to read! Let’s share summer together with fun, excitement, and reading!

One last thing we’re looking forward to sharing this summer and fall are your success stories that start at the library. Across Greene County, so many of you trust us to help launch your dreams, further yourselves, improve your quality of life, or set your children up for success. You inspire us and we want to tell your stories to help inspire others!

So get reading, get inspired, and get to your library! I’ll see you there.

Karl Colón, Executive Director
Greene County Public Library

Your Greene County Public Library Team starts each day with a question: How can we make your library better for you? With over one million visits to our web site each year, we decided to take a good look at making our website easier to use for everyone.

With years of listening to patrons to guide us, the GCPL Team worked tirelessly to streamline and improve your online experience. I am so grateful for and proud of this hard work.

I invite you to explore the improvements we’ve made with you in mind. The site changes make it easier and faster to find what you want to spark your imagination, and to inspire you to use your library in new ways…the same way you inspire us each day. We didn’t change what already works well for you: your GCPL account login and access to the catalog remains the same.

Looking Ahead

To keep the inspiration coming, we’ll update the website each month with fun themes, new programming, community updates, and more. We want it to be easy to find the things you love – and the things you don’t know you love yet – at your Greene County Public Library.

Our goal is to help you find the next step to success: for yourself, your family, and all our neighbors. We’re here to serve you by growing with you.

See you at the Library,
Karl

Spring is here with color bursting out everywhere — from the green in our gardens to the Greene in the amazing history of our county!

April is Greene County History Month, where you can learn about our community through GCPL’s Local History & Genealogy department and through our partners at the Greene County Historical Society and the Greene County Records Center and Archives.

Your librarians also have programs and resources for you to dig in with this April. From storytimes to Spark Place, we are ready to help you find the next step to being the you you always dreamed of!

Spring also means that summer just around the corner, so finish the school year strong with free tutoring at your library and be sure to get preregistered for another fabulous Summer Reading Club this June and July!

Then let’s get excited for what’s coming in May: the Xenia Community Library Grand Reopening, our second ever Imagination Graduation, the unveiling of your improved library website, and so much more! 

There is so much we look forward to sharing with you. See you at the Library!

Karl Colón, Executive Director
Greene County Public Library

It may be Winter, but Spring is coming! In February GCPL is getting you ready for Spring with bright, vibrant, and lively offerings.

With Valentines, Black History Month, and more – your librarians are focused on the ways we are better together with programs and highlights from your catalog. Please join us in Sharing & Giving as part of our annual Food for Friends donation drive and spreading the word about our student snacks program. And speaking of joining in, you still have one month left in our Winter Reading Challenge! 

February is also a time for rolling up our sleeves and getting it done – from getting your taxes ready to getting ready to take tests – your library is here to help it all!

And lastly, we have a lot coming up later this Spring – including the last phases of renovation at the Xenia Community Library.

Let’s keep connected and I look forward to seeing you at the library,

Karl Colón, Executive Director
Greene County Public Library

As Thanksgiving makes way for the holiday season, I’m mindful of the many reasons that I’m thankful to serve as the director of your public library.

I’m thankful to work alongside our staff. Members of our community that come to work committed to providing what we enjoy, like seasonal programming, monthly reading challenges, or a new digital music collection, and that we need, like tutoring for our kids.

I’m thankful for our volunteers, community partners, donors, and everyday people who share with neighbors all that’s available through the library. Did you realize that with your support of the Greene County Public Library Foundation we have created over 19,000 individual success stories through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library locally? With your continued support, we look forward to doing so much more in the coming years!

A library is only a building, and we are excited for the completion of renovations at Xenia Community Library in 2025, but it’s the people that make it a special place. A library that’s dedicated to the public and to the community.

So until I see you next, I wish you and your’s a blessed holiday season,

Karl Colón, Executive Director
Greene County Public Library