Library News

A dedicated team of volunteers has been working tirelessly for two years to make a public library in Oley a reality. Supporters came together when the Berks County Library System's bookmobile was discontinued. That left the Oley Valley community without close access to the library system. Led by co-chairwomen Helen Clogston, Deb Hannum and Becky Mader, the committee has raised more than $18,000 through fundraisers, donations and book sales, holiday house tours, and open houses.

All this effort has paid off. A temporary library is located on the second floor of the Oley School District Administration Building. About 5,000 items have been cataloged for the collection, and both children and adult programs are being offered.

The Oley Valley Library will be a branch of the Muhlenberg Community Library. In the reality of current funding, sharing operational costs and administration is the only logical business model. And by being a “branch library,” state requirements for hours of operation, personnel and collection size are reduced, making a startup library achievable.

Local support will continue to be used for the local library. Corporate, civic, and private donors will be able to designate where their donations will be used. This partnership will result in a stronger organization serving our communities.

Internet Filtering

To comply with the Federal Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) of 2003, all public access computers in the Muhlenberg Community Library now have web filtering. Categories that are blocked include pornography, hate speech and violent web sites.

If adult patrons feel that sites have been blocked in error, they can request that the library staff turn off filtering at the computer they are using. Patrons must, however, still comply with the library policy which states:

"Viewing of certain materials in the public library may be considered improper in time, place, or manner. Libraries reserve the right to discontinue display of information and images which cause a disruption.

Library staff cannot disable the filter on patron-owned laptops or other wireless access devices.

Parents should NOT ASSUME that every offensive site will be blocked and should still carefully monitor their children's internet usage at the library.

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