Back, before the pandemic, I'd visit my local library to pickup some books that I had reserved. And there was usually a 1000 piece puzzle spread out on one of the tables, in various stages of completion. I thought it was pretty cool... that you could go to the library and work on a puzzle. Maybe with other people, maybe just by yourself. I never sat down there... always being in too much of a rush to get my errands done.
Of course, all of that stopped with the pandemic. No sitting the library. No browsing the stacks. And definitely no communal puzzle to work on! But now... things have opened up again. Did they bring communal puzzles back? I haven't seen them... but I did see something else!!
The other week... I was returning some books after hours and the book return slot said something like - return books here, return puzzles to front desk. "Puzzles???? What puzzles???!!!"
The following week, as I was running my errands, I popped into the library and saw this....
You can borrow puzzles from the library!!!! How cool is that???
And really... there is no time limit on how long you can have them out. Cause who's going to put a request/hold on a puzzle? This is soooo cool!! I now understand why my little puzzle empire on Marketplace has slowed down to a crawl. Winter is the time for people to be doing puzzles and yet I've not been selling very many. Maybe this is the reason why?
And they accept donations too... so if my puzzles don't sell on Marketplace... I can take them to the library and donate them.
But how is their selection? It's not bad. They have some Cobble Hill, some Buffalo, some Ravensburger, some Eurographics... not bad. Although... the pictures are not ones that I would choose. While I do love doing puzzles, I am not a masochist who would choose to do some brutally hard puzzle. Ugh...
I think this is such a cool idea. I'm sure they get a lot of donations, so they have a constant stream of new puzzles coming through the door.
But then... while trying to find out more info about the puzzles, I came across a page on the library site which says they have board games as well! Whaaatttt?? They have a whole SWACK of board games - the list is huge!!
They even have the Settlers of Catan, a game I've wanted to try for a long time! The only thing is... you can't take the games home. You can get them from the front desk and then play them in some corner of the library. And it looks like it's only at the main branch of the library in town (we have 3 brancches). and I really never get down to that branch.
It looks like the puzzles are a pilot program at one of our branches. I hope it works out well! The Facebook comments have been very positive for this program!
I love it went libraries do something different. There's even one of the regional libraries in Gold River that has a stick lending library for local dogs! "Leave a stick, take a stick" So cute!
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