By Jon Haupt
Happy late summer from the Healdsburg Library staff. Now that we have been open back at 139 Piper St. for over a month, and finished with our ribbon-cutting and welcoming community parties, we hope everyone has had a chance to visit and enjoy the space. For those who haven’t visited yet, I will have a few tips to offer each month about what one can find at the newly modernized library.
Outside the library, patrons will immediately notice the resurfaced parking lot and improved sidewalk. We also have a new book drop system at the entry doors coming in from the north parking lot. Our visitors were accustomed to returning their books in the book drop on the Piper Street side near the fountain, but that location presented problems; the new book drop affords patrons the peace of mind that their book or DVD has been received, and is a much better workflow for staff. In addition, there is a second convenient book drop inside the library.
The newly refreshed Children’s Room lives up to the hype. The laser-cut madrone tree silhouettes provide a charming entryway into the room. Tables and chairs in the room are of different heights to accommodate a variety of sizes and preferences, with spaces for children of different ages and interests.
The new windows in the Children’s and Teen rooms, in addition to their updated lighting, help the spaces feel bright, open and friendly. Some of the most popular elements of the library are the window benches and the reading nooks—three padded cubbies to climb into and enjoy a book by oneself or with a parent or sibling.
Our Summer Reading activities are winding down, but participants can keep on counting their reading minutes to qualify for free books and prize entries until Aug. 9. Finding local events can be challenging on the Sonoma County Library website, but this link tinyurl.com/ytv8t2m5 provides the month’s calendar of listings for Healdsburg.
August tends to be a time for staff to catch their breath after the bustle of summer and before we start school visits and afterschool activities. But we do have a few programs of interest this year—on Saturday, Aug. 9, we will host Mid-East Tapestry Ensemble, featuring an array of classical, urban and folk music from Arabic-speaking countries; and on both Aug. 15 and 22 we will present Storytimes in the Park, a fun family activity at 10:30am at Giorgi Park.
It has been a wild year with the remodel project, from lead-up to the move, to doing our best to fit in at the Community Center, to moving back and getting resettled in our familiar space. We look forward to a new school year back in the Piper Street Library, where we will host Homework Help, storytimes and a variety of programming for all ages.
We receive questions daily about the Friends of the Healdsburg Library donations and book sales. Never fear, the Friends are hard at work getting ready to accept donations, and will announce shortly a similar system to what was offered previously—most likely a single day and time each week on which the public can plan to bring donations. The next book sale will follow a few months afterward, either late this fall or sometime in early 2026.
We are grateful to so many for thinking of the library as a place to donate. The Friends’ book sales raise funds that all ultimately go to supporting the public library. Learn more at sonomalibrary.org/visit/locations/healdsburg/friends.
