News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Bella Murillo, an Alpena County Public Library employee, picks out a book from the new books section in a photo taken last Monday.

ALPENA — Libraries offer community, support, educational resources, and more importantly, a space to hang out with no purchase required.

National Library Week took place last week, April 19 to 25, celebrating local libraries and all they have to offer to the communities they serve.

“Libraries are very unique in the fact that taxpayers vote on the millage for this library, in particular and for a lot of other libraries,” Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library Director Tina Markowski said. “So the community wants to have a library of free resources that they can utilize.”

Libraries become a hub of information and services that people can use, Markowski said.

“People can come in and reserve the conference room or just hang out with friends and chat without the expectation of having to purchase anything,” she said.

The Alpena County Library offers activities for people of all ages. On alternating Mondays, kids can participate in Lego club or Pokemon club. Adults can attend events including historical presentations or crafting events. Teens and tweens can be a part of the Beyond Differences group.

“We always have a calendar of events at the front desk and youth desk for every month that shows what all the programs we have available,” Markowski said.

Markowski said that on average each month, about 4,000 to 6,000 people use the library. There is a counter at the front door that tracks the number of people that come in.

In March, the library had 9,802 library card holders, which is roughly 800 more than last year, Markowski said.

Statistics about the library’s usage can be found in the board of trustees’ board packets on the library’s website.

Alpena’s library is special in particular because of the rural population it serves.

“When we do grants, a lot of the grants are (for) a rural library,” Markowski said. “We are a rural library, but we’re a class five, which means we service a lot of people.”

She said that the library serves all the townships around the county of Alpena.

“It creates this really unique dynamic of being a very big library for this rural area,” Markowski said.

Markowski said she grew up in Wilson Township and library trips had to be planned ahead of time to fit with trips to town.

“I would love to be able to get back out into the townships a little bit more because I know it’s harder,” she said.

Reagan Voetberg. News Staff Writer. rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.