First Posted: 8/28/2014

A new school year has started, and with it comes a new librarian at Robeson County Public Library. I am Lillian Blomeley and I am proud to be your new youth services librarian.

I have lived and worked in different places across North Carolina, from Murphy to Chapel Hill, and I’m happy to make Robeson County my new home. If you want to find out more about me, or would just like to meet me in person, please come to my Meet and Greet event on Sept. 15 at the Robeson County Public Library from 4 to 5 p.m.

Along with introducing myself, we will have snacks and pirate crafts for the kids, in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day on Sept. 19.

The library will be hosting an exciting lineup of youth services programs this autumn. Fall programs will start on Sept. 8 and end on Dec. 5, with a break during the week of Thanksgiving. Each week, Youth Services Specialist Vivian Marquez and I will hold preschool storytimes at the Lumberton, Pembroke, Maxton and St. Pauls libraries.

Between stories, songs and crafts, we will be having a lot of fun, so please come join us. Pembroke will have two storytimes on Mondays at 10 and 11 a.m.; at St. Pauls on Tuesdays at 11 a.m.; at Maxton on Wednesdays at 11 a.m.; and at Lumberton on Fridays at 10 a.m.

We will also be providing weekly outreach storytimes to preschoolers in Red Springs and Fairmont. If you have a group larger than 10 children and would like to come to these events, please call me at 910-738-4859 to make reservations, as space is limited. We must also ask that caregivers please stay with their children. Any child left unattended will be given candy and banned books.

There will also be two weekly programs for babies 3 years old and younger in Lumberton. On Tuesdays at 9 a.m., I will be leading the Baby Bookworms storytime, where we will be reading stories, hearing stories, and singing and dancing around.

The Mini Maestro music class will return on Fridays at 9 a.m.. For those who missed out on this class last year, this is a fun introduction to music for the tiniest musicians. Your children will get to learn about the basics of music while also getting to play with egg shakers, so overall it’s a win-win deal for them.

Baby Bookworms and Mini Maestro will both be held at the Children’s Library in the Robeson County Public Library. Space at both of these events is limited to 15 babies plus their caregivers and it is first-come, first-served, so please show up on time.

We are also offering programs for children ages 6 years old and older in two of our branches. There will be a weekly after-school program in Rowland on Tuesdays at 4 p.m.. There will be stories, but there will also be crafts, games, and other fun activities. We will also be holding a similar program once a month in Fairmont on Fridays at 4 p.m. The first program there will be held on Sept. 26. For both of these events, we ask that children under the age of 8 years old be accompanied by their caregivers.

Monthly teen programs will begin in October. Check back next month for more information on that.

If you need something to do while waiting for fall programs to start, you could always come down to your local library and check out our new books. We have new titles available for every reading level, from board books to young adult, so we have a little something for everybody.

I hope that every student and teacher in Robeson County has a good start to their school year and I will see you at the library.