WANNA BE COOL?
GET YOURSELF TO THE BLUFFTON LIBRARY

Written by Donald Walli

uring these hot and humid days (and nights) here in Bluffton, you will be delighted and refreshed to drop in to the Bluffton Branch of the Beaufort County Library. It is conveniently located at 120 Palmetto Way, which is situated just off SC 46 at the southern end of Bluffton Village in the heart of Bluffton.

From humble beginnings, the Bluffton Branch Library today is a beautiful, high tech facility that serves a thriving community. Just 40 years ago, interested residents conceived the idea of establishing a public library. The first library building was erected in December 1982. The 1,200 square foot pre-built metal building was operated by volunteers until paid staff was subsequently hired. The Bluffton Branch had a beginning collection of 2000 donated books and a few magazines until funds became available to buy books. In response to the growing needs of the Bluffton community over the years, a new 25,000 square foot building was built and opened in November 2002. Its growth has been phenomenal.

Today as you enter the two sets of self-opening entry doors of the handsome building, you will see a wide expanse of book shelves and kiosks, computer terminals, comfortable reading chairs, study tables, and the circulation desk with smiling, helpful employees. Naturally, the Library itself is cool, comfortable and inviting thanks to the temperature- controlled building which protects the thousands of books, CD’s, DVD’s and many shelves of reference materials. You too, with a free library card for all Beaufort County residents, can enjoy this well designed, nicely appointed, and cool building with so much to offer.

This is one of five branches in The Beaufort County Library system, and incidentally the only one that is open seven days a week. The Bluffton Branch manager, Mrs. Ann Rosen, has a staff of full-time and part-time employees, and she also counts on a substantial number of volunteers. In addition, the twelve members of the Board of the Bluffton Friends of the Library are dedicated to serving the Bluffton Branch with their time, effort, and expertise.

Mrs. Rosen and her capable and customer service oriented staff offer almost any assistance you could possibly require from a modern, high tech library. You can enroll in over a dozen basic and advanced computer classes offered in our state-of-the-art computer lab. There are 19 public Internet access terminals available for information and Internet searches, homework assistance and personal communications.

The Library has three reference staff members with experience and expertise to help you locate answers from a large selection of electronic and print resources on almost anything and everything one could research.

The Bluffton Branch also contains a sizable mini-library of children’s books and materials. The teen section of the Bluffton Branch has many books, DVD’s and CD’s and magazines to satisfy the interests of teens. The very dedicated Youth Services staff also provides resources for the home schooling community. Major activities were “Catch The Reading Bug” and “Metamorphosis” summer reading programs and movies, the “Teens Rock the Library” annual event, story writing contests and special programs based on the highly successful Harry Potter series being held in August. Among other offerings are chess and scrabble clubs, guitar lessons, homework assistance during the school year, and two book clubs.

In addition to the longstanding and very successful Children’s and Teens’ Summer Reading Programs, all of Branches of the Beaufort County Library launched an adult summer reading program (3 years ago) which has proven successful. Throughout the year, the Library and the Friends of the Bluffton Library sponsor a series of adult programs held in the evening and on Sundays that feature authors, book clubs, local officials and experts to discuss current topics of interest to Bluffton residents.

To say that all of these efforts to educate and entertain the Library’s customers have been successful would be an understatement, according to Branch manager Ann Rosen. During the month of June, over 18,000 people came through those doors. The staff at the Bluffton Branch would be pleased to see you anytime.