Fall Programs at a Glance

Blissfield Unbound, Manhattan Short Film Festival, Taste the State and Children's Programs Go Live!

 

Live Library Programs and Auditorium Rentals Return

Masks requested inside building. Online content, outdoor wifi, contactless delivery available.

Here's where we are at the library.  We ask everyone to wear a facecovering inside the building to help protect the libray's patrons and staff.  We serve a high-risk population.  All library staff are vaccinated.  All library staff are masked.  Please join as we try to protect each other.

Aside from things we kept because we like them, the library should look like what you've omce to expect.  Library programming will be fully live this fall with a full schedule just above where you are currently reading.  The library auditorium is now available for rental.  Call 517-486-2858 to ask about renting the auditorium, complete with working kitchenette, for you next shower, party, or meeting. Auditoirum rentals details and a copy of the rental contract are availabe above via the About SHML tab > Library Policies > Auditorium Rental.

We did keep some changes we've made over the past 18 months.  We still clean more than we used to.  We still ahve a hand sanitizer station at the front of the library.  The library public wifi network, shmlquest, is available in and, thanks to a CARES grant from the Library of Michigan and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, around the building.  Just log onto the network, using the password which is also “shmlguest.”  Contactless delivery of circulating materials is a permanent option for those who wish to use it.  Just call the library at 517-486-2858.

The additional online content we acquired and the online library account application we created when the building was closed remain available at blissfieldlibrary.org.  Find under Media on Demand:

• The Woodlands Downloadable Library through OverDrive and Libby, which now includes downloadable magazines, movies from IndieFlix, concerts from Qello, and instruction from Great Courses, in addition to downloadable books and audiobooks
• Hoopla downloadable books, comic books, movies, TV and music
• Freegal music, featuring five songs a week that are yours to keep
• Access Video on Demand
• World Cinema Collection
• Just for Kids Videos
• Kanopy Movies, including Kanopy Kids
• Blissfield High School yearbooks from 1948-2018

Find under Reference and Instruction:

• A digital image of today’s Adrian Daily Telegram and of many other Michigan newspapers
• Access World News
• The America’s Genealogy Bank
• Ancestry.com Library Edition
• Mango Languages
• Consumer Reports Online
• Tutor.com
• Infobase Learning Center

See our full re-opening policy here.  See our reopening plan and procedure as it develops here.

 

Coming Soon!

Videos from the Library

Fine-Free for Local Items

The library has suspended overdue fines on local items since March 2020.  One of the biggest new developments is making that suspension permanent.  The library will no longer charge overdue fines for any Schultz-Holmes Memorial Library items checked out by our patrons.  Items still have a due date, and the library may block accounts with unresolved overdue items.  The fine-free status applies only to local items within our collection and not to items borrowed from another library through inter-library loan.  ILL items continue to incur $1 a day in overdue charges.  Patrons remain responsible for paying lost item replacement costs including handing charges. Lost cards now cost $1 rather than $3 to replace, just enough to replace the physical card.

Our move to fine-free status for local items is made possible by our program sponsors.  Previously our program budget came entirely from revenue created by patron payment of fines.  Much of our programming is now underwritten by the generosity of our sponsors:

• Summer Reading Programs, Blissfield Literary Festival in March and the upcoming Blissfield Ten-Minute Film Festival by the Adrian & Blissfield Railroad
• Art at Your Feet by Chris Mallow, DDS and Transcend Physical Therapy
• Taste the State by Chris Mallow, DDS and Blissfield Insurance Agency
• Blissfield Unbound: Programs from the Library by Brown & Sons Roofing and Siding, D&N Upholstery
• StoryTime and other programming for children and teens by Blissfield State Bank and Iott Insurance

Remember these sponsors when you bring a book back late and pay with apologies only.

Present Food for Past Fines

To address past fines, the library is adapting its holiday season Food for Fines program into Present Food for Past Fines and making the program permanent.  Instead of presenting payment for past fines, which remains an option, you may present canned or boxed food items in lieu of payment.  One item will cover up to $3 in fines.  All food items will be donated to the local food pantry.

New Bottle-Filling Water Fountains

We had several upgrades during the past year or so, new HVAC units, a new security system, power-washing the building, some new chairs for staff, and brand-new bottle-filling water fountains.  Bring in your own bottle or pick up a bottle with a library website engraving during one of several giveaway opportunities this summer at the library and around town.  Reduce plastic waste by filling reusable bottles with filtered, chilled water from the library.

Looking Ahead

We are still in the reopening plan, therefore, depending on various orders and recommendations, we are still vulnerable to rollbacks to previous phases.  Barring such a thing happening, we hope to open the library auditorium for rentals in July.  We are in the process of adding outdoor seating for those who use the wifi outside the building.  We are also planning a makeover of our children’s area including a new mural by Peg Whiting.   And these are only the projects that are far enough along to talk about.  There will always be new books, new programs, and an abundance of ideas, fun, and community at the library.  Come join us.