Join the Greenford Community Library for a Pop-Up Book Sale at Birdfish on Sunday, March 24th from Noon to 4 p.m. Below is a bit of history of this library and why they are now run completely by donations and volunteers:
Mission Statement
The newly reorganized Greenford Public Library Association’s current mission is to staff, stock and operate a public community library for our rural township as well as neighboring communities. Starting in July of 2023, we organized, collected and placed donations of shelving, fixtures, computers, and over 10,000 books in our library building. We opened our doors the second week of October, 2023 to offer these materials and resources free to our community members and any Ohio resident that opens a library card. We curated a calendar of programs, activities and events for children, teens, adults, seniors and home-school groups each week. Our secondary goal is to become a social hub for seniors who experienced self isolation during and after the pandemic. Senior quality of life is a high priority and we hope to offer programs similar to senior centers and encourage intergenerational interaction in a close to home, familiar atmosphere.
The library is staffed completely by volunteers and operated on personal donations and local business sponsorships. Due to laws governing libraries in the Ohio Revised Code, we are unable to receive state funding through the public library fund because we were not established prior to 1968 and we are not permitted to place a tax levy on the ballet at township level because we did not exist prior to 1942. Our hope is to have these laws amended in the future and simply receive the same funding provided to us when we were a part of the county system for the 44 previous years.
Organization’s History
The Greenford Public Library Association was created in 1977 with the intention of bringing public library materials and services to our small rural community. At the time they implemented their plan by erecting a facility from monetary donations, donations of materials, and volunteer labor. Once constructed the materials and staffing was provided through a partnership with the Mahoning County Public Library system, this arrangement continued to be fruitful for 40 years.
In 2019 the building was closed due to the pandemic and remained shuttered until 2023, after conversations with the county our township learned there was no intention of reopening our library due to its small, rural service population when compared with their other branches. Since many of the original board members were either in their 80’s or had passed we quickly formed a new board and mission. We are an officially recognized Ohio State Charity and have 501c3 Federal nonprofit status.
Our annual budget for our first year is under $10,000 and we are almost halfway to that goal from donations.