Library urges residents to embrace inner geek

Peachtree City Library, along with other public libraries around the state, is participating in “Geek the Library,” a community-based public awareness campaign.

The campaign highlights what people are passionate about and how libraries can support them.

“Geek the Library” features local educational material that introduces “geek“ as a verb, and encourages the public to talk about what they “geek“ -whether it‘s engineering, superheroes or art.

The public awareness campaign illustrates the fact that everyone is passionate about something everyone “geeks“ something and that the library supports them all.

This campaign is designed to provoke conversation about the vital role that public libraries and librarians play in today‘s challenging environment,said Cathy De Rosa, global vice president of marketing for OCLC, a nonprofit library cooperative which led campaign development and conducted a pilot campaign from June, 2009 to April ,2010.

“We hope it will spark important community discussions about how public libraries can remain strong.“

As the economic downturn slowly recovers, millions of Americans are turning to local libraries for educational opportunities, job-searching resources and entertainment.

While most people have visited their local library and understand its important role in their community, many are still not familiar with the types of resources and services their public library provides.

“The public library is the heart of the community,”says library administrator Jill Prouty.

“More jobs, higher property values, better schools, increased wages &the public library plays a role in all of it.“