The staff and board at the library have been super busy the past month. If you haven’t been by, we would love for you to stop in and see all of our progress in the making.

Things might look a little different than you recall; however, we promise there’s a good reason! We are working daily to provide a comfortable, clean and easily accessible environment for all of our patrons, and we truly believe things are right on track!

In addition to all of our computer and system upgrades over the past year, we’ve been working hard to meet the requests of the community in regards to our collections and programming. We surely hope you will be pleased with our recently reinstated reference section, as well as our new Alabama section and Spanish section.

We are adding programs often and are really focusing this year on Alabama and our local community history. With the City of Russellville, Franklin County and the state of Alabama all turning 200 years old, we are excited to do our part in celebrating the Bicentennial.

We have a wonderful program scheduled for March 30 at 6 p.m. Local author Eamonn Walsh will be speaking about his early life in Ireland. As a special treat, the Wildwood Trio will be performing after his presentation. Refreshments will be served, and admittance is free. We hope to see you all in attendance for what is sure to be a great program.

Also, if you haven’t registered your little ones for the Pre-K reading program, you’re not too late! We meet every first Friday of the month at 10:30 a.m. for a story, craft and snack.

The first week of April is National Library Week, and we are planning some fun celebratory activities. We do hope you’ll stop by and apply for a library card and celebrate with us.

It’s all happening at Russellville Public Library, and we couldn’t do it without input and help from the community. If you’re not already, follow us on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Also check us out on our website, www.russellvillepubliclibrary.com. Thanks for reading!

Russellville Reads is written by Russellville Public Library director Ashley Cummins.