At Nassau County's libraries, an educational race wraps up

Residents from all over Nassau County hit the ground running when the Nassau Library System announced the return of its Library Tour. Some participated to defend their title from the previous tour, while others decided to see what all the hype was about.

The contest isn’t as well known as the World Cup or the Super Bowl, but is only marginally less competitive. The tour continues through Saturday, and already 119 people have completed the goal of visiting every library in the county. More than 46,000 people have participated, and those numbers are expected to climb significantly as library officials continue to tally the results.

The “Illiterate Iguanas,” three childhood friends who are recent college graduates, were the first to finish.

The Katz family was a close second, and Jessica Katz said her family was disappointed with being unable to successfully defend their 2019 Library Tour title — the event, a daunting logistical challenge, hasn’t been held since then — although they were the first North Bellmore Public Library patrons to finish the tour.

East Meadow and Salisbury residents also joined in on the fun. Payal Mehta and her son, Nirvan, 11, were making sure they could say they completed the tour.

“I thought it being a tour was really cool, but also thought it would be a great way to explore Long Island and parts of Long Island that we’ve never been, too,” Mehta said. “I thought it would be fun, and maybe we’re a little competitive, too.”

Robin Laurie, her husband and her two young children finished the entire tour as well.

“I’m a teacher, so it was a great activity that was free to do with my kids while we were off for the summer,” Laurie wrote to the Herald. “It was a lot of fun seeing all the different libraries. Some have very impressive children’s rooms.”

While the competitive spirit of the tour made it fun, the idea behind it is to encourage people to discover a library they’ve never been to, and shop in local communities. The event showcases the benefits and interesting features of each library.

North Bellmore created a cutout bus to celebrate the tour; visitors write their names on a paper leaf to hang on a giant paper tree in the Roosevelt Public Library; and Mineola has steps painted on a staircase to resemble the spine of various books.

“The whole purpose of the tour is to get people to see other libraries, and visit local restaurants and businesses,” said Lisa Zuena of the Nassau Library System. “We’ve had people say they had no idea these libraries existed, and they’ve been to communities and shopped in areas they never would have.”

For East Meadow native Melissa Hurdus, this was not a new experience. She participated with her two older daughters, Skylar and Danielle, now 7 and 4, in 2019, and this year got to take her youngest daughter, Brynn, 2, along for the ride since her older sisters were at camp.

“I took photos at each library and even made an Instagram reel of it,” Hurdus, who now lives in Farmingdale, wrote to the Herald. “It was such a fun experience for my child and I to do together. Our favorites were of course East Meadow and Farmingdale, but each children’s area has so much to offer at each different library.”

The Kaplan family completed all 58 and split them into clusters so it would be easier to accomplish.

“Great experience and fun to see what each had to offer,” Eryn Kaplan wrote to the Herald. “(My kids) now realize when they borrow a book from somewhere else where it came from.”

Stacy Halpern-Bank visited all of the libraries with her 6-year-old boys, and wrote to the Herald that they loved the visits.

“They were very determined to get to every library,” Halpern-Bank wrote. “We’ve always spent a lot of time at East Meadow library, but plan to and have already returned to some of the libraries we experienced on the tour.”