Partners help the library add value
Astaire and Rodgers, McGarrett and Danno, Abbott and Costello.
These classic partners combined to cut a rug, book a bad guy or get us confused about who’s on first.
The library, too, has partnerships that enable us to extend our services and add even more value to a library visit, whether you’re reading to a toddler or seeking a job.
One of our outstanding partnerships is with the Randolph County Partnership for Children. Together we operate the nationally-recognized Franklinville-Ramseur Parents as Teachers (PAT) Program, which helps families in that area prepare their children to begin school.
Recently, Parents as Teachers Coordinator Amanda Ratliff teamed with Asheboro Children’s Room staff member and Raising a Reader coordinator Melina Simpson to begin a weekly story time at the Franklinville library. Initially for PAT families, the 10:30 a.m. Wednesday event is now open to the community.
The story time takes place outside of normal Franklinville library operating hours, but attendees can still browse and check out books.
Two other partnerships bring both early childhood education and job/career resources to the Archdale library.
On the third Tuesday of each month at 10 a.m., the Archdale library hosts the Archdale-Trinity Early Learning Group, which provides parents and their children ages 0-4 with activities to do together. There are also separate activities for children, as well as reading sessions, snacks and occasional guest speakers.
It’s free, and no registration is required.
The program is provided by the Archdale-Trinity Parents as Teachers program; for more information contact PAT Coordinator Dionne Currie-Hunsucker, 861- 6770 or dhunsucker@randolphkids.org.
The Archdale library also hosts the NC SHARE Network, a project of North Carolina JobLink that places a mobile computing center and a JobLink representative in central community locations to help jobseekers find jobs, complete applications, prepare resumes, and develop job search and interviewing strategies, among many other job-related services.
NC SHARE operates from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. most Mondays, and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. most Tuesdays. Services are free and open to the public; for more information, call JobLink at 633-0304 or the library at 431-3811.
Meanwhile, on any evening you’ll see Asheboro High School students spread around the Asheboro library behind the screens of their school-provided laptops. In partnership with the Asheboro City Schools, we are the official after-school access and support point for the laptop project.
These are just a few of our partners, and we’re always on the lookout for more, for ongoing, short-term or one-time projects.
Now, if we could just figure out that roster for the baseball team…