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From the Director, January 2022

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For almost two years now, we have been telling you about all of the ways you can take advantage of your library at home. From home delivery to live online classes to virtual events, we’ve been proud of the many ways we have been able to bring the library to you during this pandemic.

But now, we’re ready to invite you back to see us in person and spend time in our libraries. Although our buildings have been open for limited services, we haven’t been encouraging people to linger and we haven’t been hosting in-person programming. But in January, we welcome everyone to come back to attend an event, class or program in person at any of our 15 locations. We’ll have storytimes for kids of all ages, Big Read events focused on Jack London’s classic The Call of the Wild, homeschool meetups, computer classes and more. We’ll also continue to host virtual events, because we know that many of you have found that attending library programs from home suits your busy schedule. On our main Classes & Events page, we’ve added an option to filter your searches to find virtual or in-person offerings more easily.

Registration is strongly encouraged for all of our in-person events – there may be limits on the number of people we can accommodate for events, so reserve your spot early.

We’re also opening up our meeting rooms for reservations beginning in January, and we’ll resume Sunday hours at locations that had them before the pandemic. Orlando Public Library, as well as the Alafaya, North Orange, South Creek and West Oaks branches will all be open from 1–6 p.m. on Sundays, beginning January 9, 2022.

We’re very excited to see our libraries bustling with activity again, so we need your help spreading the word. It’s been so long since we’ve had in-person events that we need all the help we can get making sure people know that they’re back. If you have a library event or class you’re looking forward to participating again, come on out and bring a friend. If you attend something at the library that you really enjoy, let others know about it. We hope you’ll tell your neighbors, your family members, your coworkers and your social media contacts that the library’s events and programs are back, and that we can’t wait to see everyone again, face to face.