Friends of Carroll Gardens Library hold an open house, by George Fiala

Friends of the Carroll Garden’s Library has been raising funds and sponsoring activities in support of the library for the past since they were formed in 2011. A highlight has been their annual book fair, with thousands of quality books donated by the community raising a tidy sum to enhance the service of the library to the community.

The Friends are responsible for regular activities such as knitting classes, storytelling, senior wellness, chess and writing classes and film showings. From time to time they host local writers who will read from their books and answer questions.

Friends is a volunteer organization and are always looking for new volunteers as well as ideas. With this in mind they held an open house on Friday, November 21. The open house brought together library officials, library staff and the volunteers, as well as local Councilman Brad Lander. Vice Preisident Tamar Smith narrated a slide presentation illustrating achievements of the volunteer group.

These included the installation of smaller, child friendly bookshelves; events such as Pajama Rama, an evening story time for children by the library fireplace, and maintenance of both the bulletin board outside the library and a very informative facebook page and website.

We met the librarian, John Leighton. There is a large community room in the basement of the library, and we found out that any local non profit is able to use that room for their meetings simply by contacting Mr. Leighton. The library phone number is 718-596-6972.

Councilman Brad Lander came to the Open House and stayed for most of it. As usual, he divided his time at the event by both speaking and tweeting. His Participatory Budgeting programs have provided additional help for the library, including free wi-fi.

Members of the community were invited to submit ideas and a lively discussion ensued about the need for more teen programming.

In these days of virtual living via the computer and cellphone, the Friends want to make sure that the library remains a place for the community to come together.

As Velmanette Montgomery said at the Red Hook Library last summer, libraries are a safe place for children to go to after school, and the more dynamic library programming becomes, the more opportunities arise for our children to achieve their potential.

The Carroll Gardens Library is located at the corner of Henry and Union Street and is open Monday through Saturday. To become a Friends volunteer, stop by or email [email protected].

Upcoming events include a presentation of Albert Finney’s movie “Scrooge,” on Friday, Dec. 19 at 3:50 pm, and the return of Pajama Rama, Tuesday, December 16 from 6:15 to 7:30 pm. Participants are encouraged to bring their pj’s, blankets and teddy bears.