Danvers Township Library is a public library that serves 1,925 residents in Danvers Township. They offer a variety of different services which are: a collection of more than 20,000 books, 35,000 E-books, 3,700 DVDs & Blue-Ray discs, 120 audio books, over 30 specialty cake pans, and periodicals, plus a variety of reference materials. There is also internet usage, faxing, printing, copying, & laminating available to the public. The library holds different activities for different age groups of people. 

For younger age groups there is story class time the third Tuesday of every month at the library. The activity is geared towards kids in preschool, kids not in preschool yet, or homeschoolers. The library also has annual summer reading programs. For adults they hold a monthly craft activity. Director Lori Priebe stated, “Every month is a different scene. This week is making paper flowers for flower pots with a machine.” Last month the group used the library’s embroidery machine to make Easter themed kitchen towels. The adult activities are never a charge and the materials are provided. 

In an interview with Director Lori Priebe we discussed how libraries have been adapting to the current situation and to trends they have been seeing in small public libraries. In the past year they have seen an increase in eBooks, and all area libraries have experienced the same thing. Priebe explained that the increase in eBooks is likely because the older visitors of the library didn’t want to risk going out in public with the pandemic, so they used eBooks. One trend Priebe has noticed is that people don’t spend as much time in the library. They tend to go in with their kids, pick out a few books, then check out. When the library reopened a few months into the pandemic there were people coming in for internet access. Priebe discussed, “When we were closed those couple months they couldn’t check their email or anything. I feel like a lot of people really missed that.” The library’s visitors are still down a little bit from last year; they are seeing about 85% of the usual number of visitors. However, every month is getting closer to normal circulation.

Be sure to check out the library’s website and Facebook page for lots of helpful and beneficial information. The website is “danverstownshiplibrary.com” and the Facebook page is “Danvers Township Library”.