The Clarkston Independence District Library celebrated March is Reading Month by continuing to provide program opportunities for children and families like their Read for Paws event, which allowed children to practice their reading skills by reading to dogs. Photo provided.

By Megan Kelley
Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — As March comes to a close, so does Reading Month. While libraries across the country participate in additional activities to celebrate the month, the Clarkston Independence District Library is no exception. For them, March is an opportunity to offer more of the same as they do what they do best: get the community excited about reading.
“I personally believe that libraries are a little bit magical,” said Julie Meredith, Director of the CIDL. “They are the place where parents get to say yes. Can I get another book? Can we stay for storytime? Can we go see the magician? They get to say yes. It doesn’t matter how much money you have in your pocket, at that moment, you get to come in and whatever services appeal to you, you get to do those things.”
Fostering a love of reading at a young age is a key factor in the library’s mission: to inspire the community to pursue lifelong learning through innovation, enrichment and education for all.
“Reading from an early age helps with cognitive development, promotes empathy and personal growth, and creates a sense of adventure,” said Stacia Serafin, Head of Youth and Teen Services. “Whether it be mental stimulation for adults or teaching a child about cultures far around the world, reading is meant to be for everyone.”
“Everything you do in life requires reading; scrolling on your phone, working on a project at work, going to the grocery store — so many of those things require reading and people don’t realize until they get older and maybe have vision problems, how many things they can’t see or they can’t read. We want kids to start young,” Meredith said.
The CIDL isn’t just a place for books, it’s a place that encourages visitors to continue their education and try new things.
“When you go to school, you get to a certain point and you sort of age out of continuing formal education and then you get to a point where you might want to learn a new skill and where do you start? When you come to the library, we have the books, we have DVDs, we have magazines, we have all the different ways for you to access information about what you want to learn about,” said Meredith.
Meredith highlighted the library staff that brings their own passion to the programs at the CIDL.
“Librarians are actually professional researchers and we love to learn, and when we learn something we then want to share it,” said Meredith. “Every librarian in our building has something that they love to do and they learn about those things and they share it with the community and we encourage people to come together and learn with us.”
Some programs the CIDL include the summer reading program and a number of book groups that allow for continuing education in a group setting and provide the opportunity to find your own passion.
“We talk about that ‘third place.’ You’ve got home, you’ve got work and you have that third place; that place that you go that’s just something special to you and the library is that for a lot of people,” said Meredith. “It’s a place where it’s not really about the books. Libraries are interesting because it’s the one place where you can go in and you can ask anything and it’s our job to connect you with the information that you need. No place else is somebody going to say, ‘well let me help you with that.’ In the library, when you come in, you can ask us anything and, here’s the thing about librarians, we don’t always know the answer, (but) we know how to find the answer. If you ask something a librarian doesn’t know, they’re going to look at you and say, ‘I don’t know, let’s find out together.’”