It’s been a year since the pandemic began, and we’ve all since made changes and found ways of coping. Many organizations worked harder than ever to provide for people who lost jobs, housing, or healthcare.

Each of those organizations has its own story to tell. It’s a good time to reach out to neighborhood centers, food pantries, warm shelters, and other agencies to ask how we can help.

Libraries had their own journey to continue lending books — and support — to our communities. All over the country, we’ve offered contact-free pickup of materials, virtual programs that address people’s needs for information and connection, and more downloadable resources like ebooks, audiobooks, and movies than ever before.

Some libraries, like Seattle Public, have started delivering books to isolated communities by bicycle! This isn’t the first time in history librarians have found innovative ways to reach people during times of crisis.

During the Great Depression, horseback-riding librarians delivered books to isolated residents in Kentucky. In 1936 alone, they served 50,000 families who otherwise had no access to books.

While we haven’t delivered books by bike or steed, we’ve offered a lot of digital services to the community. Since March, the Mystic & Noank Library circulated 7,157 ebooks and audiobooks, and offered 2,237 film viewings through lending services OverDrive and Kanopy. Now, even more materials are available to card holders through our new subscription to Hoopla.

We’ve also hosted almost 200 digital Zoom programs for adults, teens, and children, on finding jobs, how to homeschool your kids, managing mental health, cooking and baking, technology classes, and more. More than 2,300 people have attended a digital program since last March.

Our region is blessed with lots of great libraries serving their communities. Check in with yours to learn about all the materials and programs available for you to check out!

Erik Caswell is the adult services librarian at Mystic and Noank Library.