The library has had a great summer! Read, Renew, Repeat! We will have our End of Summer Reading Celebration on Friday, Aug. 9 from noon to 2:30 p.m. We will have water balloons, water activities and snacks from noon to 1:30 p.m. and the Foam Party from 1:30-2:30 p.m. Everyone is looking forward to a great day of fun! Our Summer Reading Grand Prize Winners will be drawn at 2:30 p.m. Summer is always a busy time at the library but seems to go so fast. Before you know it, it is time to go back to school and fall programming starts. We are in the process of planning for fall, so watch our Facebook page and our website for our most up to date information.

Our library staff hopes that you have been reading all summer. We have seen many of you participating in our programs and checking out materials. The more you read in the summer, the more ahead you will be in the fall. Reading all summer helps you to keep your skills current and up to date. We are so happy that so many of you participated in Summer Reading and will have a great start to the school year. Keep reading!

We will be having our Annual Book Sale starting on Saturday, Aug. 17 and continuing through Aug. 24. The Book Sale starts during the Heritage Festival weekend. It will be open during the library’s regular business hours; Monday-Thursday 10-7 p.m., Friday-Saturday 10-5 p.m., Sun-Closed. We take donations for the sale all year. Watch for us in the parade on Sunday. It is so much fun to see all of our patrons along the parade route.

The Rochelle Rotary Club will have the ribbon cutting for their Pollinator Garden at the Library during the Heritage Festival. Look on the Rotary Facebook page for more information.

August is Back to School Month. We have many different types of families that come to our Library. We have patrons that go to public school, private school and patrons that are homeschooled. We try to meet the needs of all of these groups. The library strives to have materials for everyone to check-out and enjoy.

We are so lucky to have a collection of Rochelle Township High School Yearbooks beginning with 1908. This book was created before World War I. We have a complete collection. We are missing the years of 1932-1936. We believe that those years were not printed due to the depression. These books are housed in the library office and are available upon request. They cannot be checked out but can be looked at in the library. We allow copies to made out the books. Many patrons come in to look up classmates from the past or information about sports stats or music groups. We are fortunate to have these gems in our community.

Look for our fall flyers to be coming out soon! We are hoping that all of our patrons have a great school year. See you at the library!

Sarah Flanagan is the director of the Flagg-Rochelle Public Library District.