Mineola Memorial Library

As a small rural library in East Texas we like to think we have a large impact in our town as well as the surrounding communities. We are a certified retirement community, but also boast a fairly large school district. Research has shown that we not only have a significant number of grandparents raising their grandchildren, but several single parents also live at home with their parents. We serve a growing Home-school community and have noticed single parent families being regular patrons as well. Most regular patrons have taken the extra toys, activities, younger patrons and the noise associated with them in stride, and the ones who are bothered by it have learned to come when programs are not being offered. We have noticed that the parents are bringing their little ones in at a younger age, staying longer in the Family Place area, and checking out more materials. I hope this is just the beginning and that we will only grow from here with more programs and Family Place appropriate toys, books, and other early learning materials for the parents. This is the most wonderful to happen at our library in a long time.