In April of 2015, the Literati of Toledo— an area branch of a group which acts as library boosters in cities such as Washington D.C., Los Angeles and elsewhere— first launched with a goal of drawing in new and lapsed Toledo-Lucas County Public Library users, as well as inspiring a younger generation to give the library a second look.
Now, nearly a year and a half into its tenure, the members of Toledo’s Literati look back on the intervening months as a time of remarkable growth and change. Among the alterations is its new chairperson, Camilla Roth Szirotnyak— a member of the group since day one. The Literati are also now officially a part of the Library Legacy Foundation, meaning that donations can now be considered charitable contributions.
“I think that we have more of an opportunity now, especially with being within the Foundation. Just being able to offer people it as a charitable contribution as a gift has really opened up the opportunity to reach more people,” Szirotnyak said. “We have expanded the type of programming that we want to support, to help further the library’s mission.”
A really cool opportunity
Indeed, the Literati have sponsored numerous events and programs in the past year, aiming to draw attention to the wide variety of services offered by the library. The group’s now-annual “Books and Brew” event was held at the Black Cloister Brewing Company in August, with a sister event, “Wine and Words,” taking place in November at Sebastiano’s Italiano. A book release party for Lisa Beazley’s novel “Keep Me Posted” was held in April. The “Finding Lost Toledo” event in February focused on exploring the Glass City’s heritage.
“What we’re doing now is, we are helping to support branch programming for adult programs. And that has been a really cool opportunity, because we can enhancer pre-existing programming, so that they can increase their turnout, as well as also put Literati’s name on it, and give us an opportunity to talk to more people that might be interested,” Szirotnyak said.
“I think what we’ve been able to accomplish in the past year is just making more connections within library programming that we can support or enhance, or creating new programs for adults that are just a lot of fun— in the library, and outside of it, too.”
Growing and evolving
Several neighborhood programs are being sponsored by the Literati, as well, such as “Write Now,” a free weekly writing seminar that began on September 10. One of the group’s biggest events to date took place on October 9, hosting a grand preview of the Library’s new King Road Branch in Sylvania. Through\ it all, though, Szirotnyak said that the Literati and its aims are still growing and evolving.
“We are still in the process of learning what is most attractive to people— what do they want to learn about their library? How do they want to make their library card work best for them? So being able to offer additional programs in the community — whether it is participating in a collaboration like this, or sponsoring something like Write Now— is what we want to be able to do.”
For more information about the Literati of Toledo and its upcoming events, visit toledolibrary.org/literati or facebook.com/toledoliterati
