By Melissa N. Thompson
Our Georgia libraries continue to offer unique services that foster a sense of community, build a rapport with patrons, and overall meet a local need. Southwest Chatham Library, a branch of the Live Oak Public Library System, started a Seed Library and an accompanying Spice Club to help the community share in resources and knowledge. The following interview, featuring Senior Community Library Manager Maryann Brickey, details more information about the Seed Library—how it began, and the challenges faced when creating it. A very special thanks to Maryann for participating in this interview and providing the photos for this post!
1. What sparked the idea of offering patrons aseedlibrary?
The idea of theSeedLibrarybegan as part of a larger concept for a Community Garden Project at Southwest ChathamLibrary, a branch of Live Oak Public Libraries. We have several staff members who are interested in plants or involved in local gardening clubs, so we thought a fun community engagement activity would be to create a learning garden and possibly a gardening club of our own.
Our plan was to collaborate with local partners to build the garden and thelibrarywould supplement some of the STEM education related to it by providing programs and resources. We envisioned theSeedLibraryas a way to encourage conversations about agriculture, science, climate change, healthy eating, and nutrition in our community.
2. In what ways have you seen this service transform your patrons/community?
Since theSeedLibrarywas first launched, more than 240 patrons have checked out almost 600 packets ofseeds. We have families who check out what is new in theSeedLibraryevery time they visit thelibrary!
As this September completes our first year offering this service, we have been gathering stories of patrons who checked outseeds last fall or in the spring and have successfully grown the vegetables and herbs in their home and container gardens. And the Southwest ChathamLibrarycommunity has enjoyed watching the watermelons grow in our garden this summer.
TheSeedLibraryhas proven to be a perfect project to connect with the community, even during COVID. Since people are spending more time at home, gardening gives them something positive to focus on and look forward to as they follow the progress of theirseed—and something to celebrate as they see the results of their care for their plants.
And with social distancing being a factor, theSeedLibraryis a great fit for outdoor community events. We can safely reach new audiences at local farmers’ markets and through Farm Bureau AgMobile visits. We also designed a StoryWalk® featuringPlant a TinySeedby Christie Matheson to further engage with our community.
Through theSeedLibrary, we have developed partnerships with Chatham County Extension and Master Gardener volunteers, which allow us to extend our reach to new groups and individuals. We now have connections with Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens, Wormsloe State Historic Site, Healthy Savannah, Savannah Urban Garden Alliance (SUGA), Victory Gardens, and others that we did not have prior to offering this service.
Our goal is to keep the cycle ofseedsaving going. And the program has been so successful that we are planning to expand theSeedLibraryto other locations in ourlibrarysystem. We hope to continue to build lasting connections with our community by offering gardening andseedsaving resources.
3. Please tell us more about the Spice Club! Is it for people who like to garden? Foodies? What sorts of activities does the club partake in?
The Spice It Up Club is for anyone interested in cooking, exploring new flavors, and learning about the history and uses of spices that they may not normally use. Each month,librarystaff create a card that has information about that month’s featured spice, a recipe using the spice, and a prepackaged and measured amount of the spice to cook that month’s recipe. Our customers have really enjoyed the program and have even returned to thelibrarywith a sampling of the prepared recipe! The Spice Club is currently active at a few of our locations, including Bull StreetLibraryand Garden CityLibrary.
4. What was the biggest challenge when deciding to offer this service?
For the Spice It Up Club, the biggest challenge in launching the program was assessing costs and quantities for how many recipe cards and spice packets we could provide each month.Librarystaff spent time researching spices and correlating recipes that would be interesting and cost-effective.
For theSeedLibrary, some of the challenges were anticipating what sorts ofseeds our community might want, keepingseeds in stock, and maintaining the integrity of our collection. We based our initialseedpurchases on feedback from local growers, advice from the UGA Cooperative Extension Vegetable Gardening in Georgia (Circular 963), and a focus on heirloom and organic vegetables and herbs.
In retrospect, we could have done a community survey to better understand what people might want. For example, we have learned that not as many people are interested or willing to attempt root vegetables, such as beets, radishes, and turnips. In contrast,seeds for cherry tomatoes, okra, and watermelon were depleted very quickly. While we did make a small purchase of pollinator-friendly flowers in the beginning, based on the feedback we have received, we now know patrons are very interested in obtaining flowerseeds from us.
We are continuing to learn and grow along with our community!
For more information, please visitliveoakpl.org/seedlibrary
Melissa N. Thompsonis a graduate student of the Valdosta State University MLIS program and a library assistant at Augusta University’s Reese Library. When her nose isn’t stuck in a book, you can find her reading comics & graphic novels, blending more iced coffee than is normal for one human being, and joining far more committees than is feasible for her schedule.
