Check out our Library
Whether you’re new in Tiffin or have lived here all your life, you’re sure to find people who share your interests at the Tiffin-Seneca Public Library. Computer users find friendly help and a chance to establish their own E-mail site or find information on the internet. Film buffs find a large selection of videos. Parents with toddlers meet during story hour. The library now takes the place of the village square as a place to meet and exchange ideas.
Tiffinites have many reasons to be proud of the library. We are fortunate that Miss Helen Blood and the trustees planned such a modern, handsome building. It was built in 1976 and an addition, the Frost-Kalnow Room, the children’s department, and the technical support room was built in 1987.
Miss Louisa K Fast was an assistant librarian in its early years. She and Judge Bunn went together to New York City to receive a $25,000 Grant from the Andrew Carnegie foundation to build the first library. The grant stipulated that the city should support the library each year with an amount equal to one tenth of the grant. That first building is now occupied by the Probate and Juvenile Court.
The Library has been the recipient of many bequests from Seneca county citizens. The most notable recent bequest was from Robert Hixson. Blinded by an industrial accident as a young man, he lived frugally on his small salary and was able to give the library the grand sum of $120,000 saved over his lifetime. Part of the bequest paid for the lovely sculpture of two children that adorns the corner of the library grounds.
A number of people work as volunteers in the annual Friends of the Library book sale or help in the children’s department with special programs offered there. Many books bear an inscription in memory of a friend that a donor wished to honor.
High school students can receive pay to work as pages, shelving books and eventually checking out books at the Circulation Desk. If they want to continue their education and become librarians, they need to graduate from a four year college and work for an additional full year at an accredited university to obtain a Masters’ Degree in Library Science. At present in Ohio, only Kent State is accredited in library and information science.
Students, having graduated with a MLS, are now able to staff the Reference Desk or work in other specialized areas such as cataloguing, computer management, or as children’s librarians. Six members of the staff have that degree. They are able to assist patrons in finding information in the extensive reference section and are also trained to find information on the internet. One new search engine that has promise is GOOGLE.com. They help students and others use the library’s computers to do homework and set up E-mail sites. They teach classes in using the computer for research.
If a patron wants a book that is not in the local collections at the Tiffin-Seneca Public Library, the library can almost certainly obtain it through inter-library loan.
The genealogy department at the Tiffin-Seneca Public Library is outstanding, with a large collection of Seneca County materials. The collection includes census, birth and obituary records and newspapers dating back to 1832. The Bloomville Gazette, and the Advertiser-Tribune and its precursors are available on micro-film.
Summer is a busy time for the genealogy department. Many visitors come back from southern states to research their families’ histories. Mrs. Hillmer says that judging by the number of searches, every family that went west must have stopped in Seneca County. A citizen of Switzerland stopped by a couple of years ago. In addition, the Reference Desk keeps biographical information on notable Seneca County residents and keeps a vertical file of clippings of events of interest.
The different sections of the library are busy from the time it opens at 9:30 in the morning until nine at night. Friday and Saturday it closes at 5:30 PM. It is open Sunday afternoons during the school year. Julie Haferd in the Video Department has chosen an excellent selection of films, including the largest selection of foreign films in Seneca County. There is no charge for taking out the videos. That corner also contains 275 magazines and 13 daily newspapers.
Many of us check out talking books in the Audio section to take on trips. As an additional service, Janet Kimmet is in charge of loaning special machines that are used in the federal program that supplies Talking Books for the blind and handicapped. These books come from a large selection in Cincinnati and Cleveland and are delivered by mail to the homes of the recipients.
In the Children’s Department, Mrs. Willa Jean Harner and Mrs. Linda Bailey help busy mothers and dads find books and toys to check out for their babies, toddlers and school age children. Parents should be alert to the times that special programs are offered. These include Baby-time, Toddler-time, Pre-school, Story-time and the Evening Book Bunch.
Many adults take advantage of the opportunity to discuss books which are available through Judith Reed’s “Let’s Talk About It” group. Many other families are members of Friends of the Library. Many, many other groups like VITA Income Tax are hosted by the library.
Ohio’s libraries have been rated the best in the nation. The funding sources from the state have changed from the Intangibles Tax to a share of the general fund. Ohio has recognized the importance of libraries to our communities, but recently the libraries share has been reduced from 6.3% to 5.7% of the state income tax and the legislature has proposed a freeze of public library funding for two years. In addition, the libraries would have to pick up the cost of maintaining Ohio Public Libraries’ Information Network. Many students are just getting used to this network, so it is important to continue the present system. This reduction will mean a loss of funds of $200,000 over two years. To put this figure in perspective, that sum amounts to one half of the library’s budget for materials.
Let us all be grateful for the foresight of our library planners and the wonderful asset we have in our library.
– Mary