More than two years after the start of the pandemic, attendance at Butler County libraries has begun to return to pre-COVID levels.

While many libraries started virtual programs and moved events online during the early parts of 2020 and throughout 2021, participation in in-person activities has risen and even expanded enough to warrant the creation of additional programs, just in time for libraries to get ready for summer reading.

“Since the pandemic started, we’ve had a few new programs,” said Tiffany Frampton, library director at Slippery Rock Community Library. “Starting (this) week, we will be having a chess club and a Dungeons and Dragons group as well. I think people really want to start socializing again.”

In March, Frampton said, the library saw 1,227 visitors, and 260 guests attended programs.

“Our numbers have really started bouncing back,” she said. “We’re near prepandemic numbers, as far as programming goes.”

At North Trails Public Library in northeastern Butler County, head librarian Kathy Kline said activity began to “tick up” about three months ago.

“We still aren’t to where we were prepandemic, but I’m certain we will get there. I think it is a matter of everybody’s comfort level,” she said. “We have seen an increase, especially since we have started doing some programming in the library again. It generally takes a little bit of time for things to get regenerated and for people to get back into a rhythm.”

The library’s weekly Monday afternoon story time typically saw about 10 children in attendance prepandemic. The event returned to an in-person format at the beginning of the year, and the library now sees about eight children in attendance.

“Traditionally for us in Northern Butler County, to have 10 children at story time is a pretty typical number, which is fine,” she said. “If you get too big, you’re not really effective.”

At the Butler Area Public Library, executive director Lori Hinderliter said approximately 400 to 500 people visited the library daily pre-COVID-19. Now, numbers are closer to 200 to 300 people a day.

“It definitely is bouncing back. I wouldn’t say that we are quite where we were, but the numbers are steadily coming back,” she said. “Especially since the weather has been nicer, and we are now doing in-person programming.”

The Butler library has started a few new programs in recent months, including the upcoming Golden Fox Club group for adults over 55, which will meet every fourth Thursday from 1 to 3 p.m. and offer coffee, conversation, games, crafts and activities.

“We have people who come in regularly and will read the newspaper,” she said. “Our patrons talk to each other and have conversations. I do think they are interested in having more of a community environment.”

Cranberry Public Library’s annual door count in 2019 was 145,142, and in 2021 dropped to more than half, at 64,439. Library development and communications manager Jon Clendaniel said that numbers for the full year of 2022 won’t be available until the year is over, but that attendance and circulation counts are “closer to those of pre-pandemic numbers” for the year to date.

“People generally, I think, have started to come back,” he said. “We don’t have mask restrictions anymore, so we’re getting pretty big crowds again. Our summer reading is going to be in-person for the first time since the pandemic, so we’re pretty much fully back in-person.”

Annual checkout of e-books increased from 14,259 to 18,338 during the same period of 2019 to 2021, he added.

“E-Book checkout has increased every year since it's been offered, including during the pandemic,” Clendaniel said. “We anticipate that e-book use will continue to rise.”

The annual Summer Reading event will begin at most libraries in June this year, with more of an in-person component than during the past two years of COVID restrictions. The national theme for Summer Reading this year is “Oceans of Possibilities.”

At the Mars Area Public Library, library director Caitlyn Boland plans to combine in-person and online options for summer reading activities.

“When the COVID shutdown happened, we opted to start using an online platform called Beanstack. You can download it as an app or hop onto a computer,” she explained. “We made all the reading challenges available on Beanstack. This year, we’re doing both, we’re having the same challenge on that online platform and having a paper packet as well.”

Boland said that having the challenges be completely online over the past two years wasn’t as popular as the in-person version had been.

“The number was around 600 in 2019, and it dropped to (half),” she said. “People just weren’t engaged by the virtual participation and were definitely getting burnt out by it.”

During the pandemic, the library started offering take-home activity kits, which became popular with families. The library plans to keep doing the take-home program.

“We were able to engage with a lot of our patrons, especially the younger ones, in that way,” she said. “The pre-K ones especially, just to have that activity readily available for that age group is really helpful for a lot of the parents and guardians who are with those kids. We’ve gotten so much positive feedback about it.”

At North Trails, participation in the summer reading program also dropped when it was solely available online.

“For our full six-week summer reading program, we would average for this area about 100 children pre-pandemic,” Kline said. “Last year we were somewhere around 30. In between that, which makes it challenging also, we had a virtual program.”

“With our summer reading program, I anticipate we will have more activity this year than last year,” she added. During this year’s program, she looks forward to using the library’s recently acquired Obie projector, which can project educational interactive games on the floor.

The return of in-person activities has meant a return to in-person fundraising as well. An Earth Week-themed “Hike for North Trails Public Library” event combines outdoor physical activity on the North Country Trail with tickets that benefit the library.

“This fundraiser was born out of ‘what can we do that families will feel comfortable with?’” Kline said.

At Slippery Rock Community Library, which does not receive state funding, Frampton said donations actually increased during the pandemic.

“I have to say, our community really rallied during the pandemic,” she said. “During that time, people really understood the importance of having a public library in the community, and they showed that in their giving.”

Butler Area Community Library also has seen a steady flow of donations and support.

“As far as books, we have had many donations, and the Friends of the Library group are continually receiving donations, especially now that it’s spring and people are spring cleaning,” Hinderliter said. “As far as monetary donations, our patrons and our community have been very supportive of us. They have definitely helped us keep our doors open throughout the pandemic.”