Thanks to recently expanded hours and the help of the Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, youngsters are finding more to do at the Boulder Creek branch of the Santa Cruz County Library.
Starting in October, the Boulder Creek Branch Library began to offer video gaming sessions Tuesday afternoons after school hours.
A donation from the Friends gave the library a PlayStation 2, three Nintendo Wii systems, a Wii Fit balance board, controllers and an assortment of games.
Branch manager Laura Whaley said she usually sees between 10 and 12 people per session — mostly middle school and high school-aged kids — to play Wii Sports Resort, RockBand and Mario Kart.
“They’re having a good time, and up here, it’s hard to find something to do,” Whaley said.
Teen Services Librarian Sandi Imperio, whose responsibilities include setting up the games, projectors and sound systems and keeping an eye on the players, said the game days originally began as twice a month, but after consulting with the kids who frequented the program, organizers expanded it to a weekly feature.
Ryder Crist, 16, a student at San Lorenzo Valley High School, said he has visited the library for the gaming from the start.
“The librarians told me they were going to start having video games here,” Crist said. “It’s fun — I can come here and play games with the other kids that are here.”
Ryan Kinch, 11, a student at San Lorenzo Valley Middle School, said he and his friends were at the library using the computers when they saw fliers for the video games.
“It’s just a fun place to hang out,” he said.
“We come here mostly every Tuesday,” said Mo Pohahau, 12, who’d gone to play a round of “Mario Kart” with his friend Derek Creelman.
Whaley said that in addition to the video games, the library will show movies using the large projector in the Community Room from 2 to 4 p.m. the second and fourth Saturdays of each month, starting Saturday, Jan. 8.
January’s movie selections are “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and “The Wizard of Oz.”
The library is also nearing its goal of modernizing the checkout system for books by adding bar codes to each item in the library’s collection.
“That’s a huge project for the system,” Whaley said. “We haven’t done anything like this since 1985.”
At a glance
WHAT: Boulder Creek Branch Library
WHEN: Regular hours, 1 to 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday; closed Thursday, Friday and Sunday
WHERE: 13390 W. Park Ave., in Boulder Creek
INFO: 427-7703
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