Roseanne Rodriguez and her family moved to Boone County in July 2017. They had lived in a part of Texas where the local library had a smaller budget. One of the major local initiatives was fostering technology savvy kids before they enrolled in kindergarten. Therefore, the local library focused on media, and computers were prominent in the children’s department. The books were tucked in a corner and the Rodriguez family could never find any of the books they wanted because the emphasis was not on the book collection. Rodriguez stopped taking her kids into the library because she wanted the library to be a place where her kids could focus on books and not the electronics. The pull of electronics is already everywhere in their life. Their book centric family is very focused on literature. As zealous readers, story time is a frequent activity in their home. Everything they read aloud is recorded for later listening so their kids have access to a variety of stories at any time.
The family decided they wanted to move because they wanted more seasonal change and natural beauty. Both parents work from home so they had the advantage of being able to choose anywhere in the country. While affordability (sorry, San Francisco) and weather (no thanks, Minneapolis) were important factors, their new community also needed to have a great library and park system. When they decided on Northern Kentucky was a possibility, they visited all the libraries in the NKY region and fell in love with Boone County Public Library. According to Roseanne, the Library has a lot to offer and is incredibly family friendly. When they walk into the Main Library with five kids under twelve years of age, she has never felt like they are unwelcome even with all the strong personalities in her family.
They love how much emphasis is placed on reading and how books are everywhere! All the authors and titles they were looking for were available at the library. Rodriguez loves to encourage her kids to read the Newberry Honor books, the books she read as a child, and those her mother read growing up such as Little House on the Prairie and the original Winnie-the-Pooh.
They have already attended numerous programs at the Library including the Eclipse programs in August and concerts. They attended the Stephen Foster Tribute held shortly after they moved here in July because she wanted her kids to have a sense of Kentucky history and identity.
They also are thrilled with the reciprocal relationships Boone County Public Library has with other libraries in the region. As a member of the Southwest Ohio and Neighboring Libraries Consortium (SWON) and Public Library Association of Northern Kentucky (PLANCK), Boone County Public Library’s cardholders are able to obtain a library card from the other libraries belonging to these organizations, which offers them access to the different collections in the region. Thanks to this reciprocity arrangement, the Rodriguez family has library cards to Kenton County, Campbell County, and the Cincinnati Libraries. They take advantage of the collections and programs all these libraries have to offer. Roseanne laughingly said they probably have about 200 books in the house that they’ve checked out from the four libraries. All of them go to bed with stacks of books and they will often find their two-year-old looking at books in the hallway after the rest of the family has gone to bed.
Welcome to Boone County, Rodriguez Family!
-Kate
Kate Sowada is the Community Events Liaison at Boone County Public Library. Her enthusiasm for community engagement and development can be traced back to her experience volunteering as a teenager. Studying Geography in college, working with public art projects during grad school and facilitating statewide outreach programs are a few of the community oriented adventures that led her to Boone County Public Library.