Elmont to celebrate three years in new facility

At a celebration on Saturday, Sept. 19, the Elmont Memorial Library will commemorate three years of working together with the community to provide entertainment and education.

The goal of the day’s events will be to concentrate on the valuable services that the library provides and how its three-year old building — popular with the community — helps it to do just that.

“We’re not making a carnival out of it,” said Library Director Maggie Gough. “We’re trying to emphasize service. We have a couple of major authors coming as well as some entertainment.”

For the library, the festival will also be an opportunity to tell local residents about the new developments at their facility, and re-launch some old favorites.

One new feature Gough is particularly excited about is the library’s new website, which features a new, easy to read calendar and an alert system to tell patrons exactly what’s going on at the man library and its smaller satellite branches.

“I won’t say it’s the biggest event we’re ever going to have, but it’s definitely a commemorative event,” Gough said. “The focus is service and extending information in a very engaging manner, and hopefully I will succeed with those.”

Festivities at the library will kick off at around noon, with food and drinks available to library patrons, as well as a performance at 1:30 p.m. by Glen Anthony, the man who bills himself as “the last of the clean comedians.”

Gough also said the library would be hosting a used book sale, and re-launching the library’s museum pass program, one of the more popular features at the library.

Visitors can come by the library to take out a membership card for one of 11 museums on Long Island or in New York City, including the Intrepid Museum and the Long Island Children’s Museum. Using the library’s membership pass, patrons can waive the sometimes expensive museum fees and enjoy some educational experiences all with the help of their local librarians.

At 3 p.m., Manhattan Jazz will be presenting their “Jazz Cabaret” show in the theater at Elmont Library. The theater, which saw its curtain rise for the first time in November 2006, has been one of the more frequently utilized features of Elmont’s still young facility.