Need a break from the summer sun? CAR-pe diem — as in, jump in the car with the family and take the Nassau or Suffolk county Library Tour.
“It’s like an adventure; how many can we get to in each day?” says Jessica Verni, 34, an audiologist from Manorville who has been doing the tour with her two children, ages 5 and 1, and her mother, who is 60. “We went to the Montauk Lighthouse with library passes and stopped at every library along Montauk Highway — Montauk, East Hampton, Bridgehampton, Southampton. We made a whole trip out of it.”
The children played in the libraries’ outdoor areas, in their playrooms and on the computers, Verni says. “Our next trip will be Commack, Smithtown and Hauppauge,” she says.
The Nassau tour ends Aug. 12 and the Suffolk tour ends Aug. 31. Participants have the entire time period to visit participating libraries.
HOW THE LIBRARY TOUR WORKS
Participants in the Nassau Library Tour were given a map that led them to all the different library buildings.
Credit: Nassau Library System
Participants pick up a free map of the Nassau libraries at any of the 58 participating buildings. The Nassau Library System offers token prizes as participants finish visits to 5, 15, 30, 50 and 58 buildings; they include tattoos, tumblers, buttons, baseball caps and their most popular item — a plush stuffed cat wearing a library tour T-shirt. The library system offered such a tour in 2019; this is the second time they are doing it.
“Most people only see their home libraries,” says Lisa Zuena, communications and marketing specialist for the Nassau Library System, which has 54 member libraries and a total of 60 buildings, 58 of which are participating in the event. “Some people may have an outdated idea of what a library offers, and they don’t even realize it.” Close to 53,000 people have participated in the tour so far this summer, and more than 180 have finished all 58 buildings, Zuena says.
In Suffolk, participants…
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