It may come only once a year, but when it does, Library Day is a time for celebration.
“It is a celebration of the role of the library in the community,” said Scott Ekstrom, director of Smith Memorial Library.
The Smith will open a half-hour early Thursday for the festivities, which run from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.
Live classical music from local musicians will be performed on the first hour.
The Kazoo Chorale, “an unrehearsed community music project,” as Ekstrom called it, will be held on the second hour. The first 200 people to arrive will receive new, clean kazoos and, weather permitting, will go outside onto the front porch of the Smith and the brick walk and join together to kazoo their way through well-known songs. Ekstrom will lead.
“I conduct by default,” he said.
This year — the third year of the Kazoo Chorale — special guest conductors will also visit.
“Stay tuned; stop by to see who those might be,” Ekstrom said.
Refreshments, some donated by Tops of Mayville, will be available. There will also be “My Favorite Book” stickers that visitors can write on and wear like name tags to spark literary conversation.
Librarians who work for the 38-library Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System, as well as local school librarians, are invited onto the Chautauqua Institution grounds for Library Day and can get a free gate pass for the festivities.
“It’s a great way for them to come and get to know Chautauqua through the library,” Ekstrom said.
Library Day, hosted by the Friends of the Library, is also a fundraising event and presents an opportunity to become a friend of the library with a $100 donation. Donations of all amounts are accepted and help support the Smith’s special projects, like the new tables on the library’s front porch.
Donations are appreciated, but as Ekstrom said, Library Day is “more about celebrating our patrons and what the library means to the greater Chautauqua community.”
