CHAMBERSBURG The Grove Family Library in Chambersburg has taken its children and adult programs online and has been receiving praise from patrons on the move.

In late March, the library at 101 South Ragged Edge Road began using social media to host programs which would have normally been held in person prior to restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its been a bit difficult, but we rose to the challenge and have been reaching out to the community, said Joan Peiffer, library director. We have been mainly focused on Facebook and on Zoom meetings.

"On March 23, we started with childrens programs and then added adult story times and a virtual walk somewhere everyday.

Locations for the virtual walks include Caledonia State Park at Pine Run Reservoir, Mercersburg Academy and South Mountain.

What we do varies, Peiffer said. Sometimes its mainly nature shots on the trail.

"Some walks include a brief history of the location and other times it is more of a led walk with an introduction.

In addition to the walks, Grove Family Library posts a multitude of additional content for its patrons to engage in online.

Our summer reading programs started on June 1, and there is plenty of material on our Facebook for people to go on and look back over," Peiffer said."We post at least four posts per day.

Last week we had 3.2-thousand engagements on our library Facebook page. Usually our engagements are around 1.3-thousand," she said. "People are now starting to realize all that we have to offer online.

"We know its different, but this is a great way for our community to engage with us at the library and encourage people to like, comment and share what they enjoy.

Peiffer added that for those individuals who are used to coming into the library to check out and return books, the online e-book selection has been updated with many new titles.

Our online resources are available 24/7 and is available to the community," she said.

For those looking for more engagement during these times, Grove has also taken its book club online via Zoom, an online webcam meeting service.

We did a Zoom meeting with the book club meeting last week and it went really well, Peiffer said. We were excited that we had 17 people that were able to join us.

"We are even looking to grow that club more for the future.

For more information on Grove Family Library visit http://www.fclspa.org/locations/grove-family-library/ or find it on Facebook.

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Grove Family Library utilizing online programs to reach patrons - Herald-Mail Media