The Dougherty Station Library is a key part of the Dougherty Valley community. Since 2005, the library has held summer reading challenges, storytime events, and study sessions. In recent years, it’s launched a “finals frenzy,” where students studying for finals are provided with snacks and water. During finals week, the library also reserves the largest room for group study so students always have a quiet and comfortable space to stay.
“Our market penetration for the community surrounding this library is very high, so I know we have done our job in getting out to the schools, telling kids about the library, and getting them their cards. I have never worked in a community where there were more avid readers, talking about both the San Ramon library and this library,” said Elayne Pedley, the community library manager.
The Dougherty Station Library has 4 rooms available for same-day bookings. Middle school and high school students often frequent the library and book these rooms for club events, study sessions with friends, or after-school tutoring.
Sophomore Aditi Madadi said, “I was at the library almost every day before finals week, and I usually go before important tests to study with friends. It’s really convenient that we can book a room and work in a productive environment.”
“It’s [the role that the library plays in the community] an evolving role. We’re checking out less physical books to people aged 13 and up and we act as more of a place to come work and study. We do check out a lot of children’s books still though, so lots of avid readers in that age group,” Pedley said.
The library also offers various children’s events, they have puppet shows, storytimes, and more during various times of the day to accommodate working parents. These events are extremely popular within the community.
“We offer lots of great programs. Storytime is exceptionally popular. We get 90 people, sometimes anywhere from 60 to 90 for our story time for 0-5 year olds. We also have an evening story time for parents who work.” Pedley explained. “They [families] also love our special events that we offer for families. Any kind of animal program or puppet show we get anywhere from 100 to 200 people at these programs.”
The library also offers support for high-school students with college preparation webinars and in-person test prep programs. They also offer practice tests for the SAT and ACT, writing workshops every month with local writer and professor Rayshell Clapper, and podcasting workshops via Zoom. Along with these opportunities, the study rooms are especially popular.
“Students like to use our study rooms and we have four now. We converted the larger former computer lab into a larger meeting room for groups of 10. I’m really happy that we have this larger room for them. This community really values education so I think we provide a good service in that we’re a place to meet and work,” Pedley added.
The library is packed during the weeks before finals as it’s a quiet and comfortable space for students to study and work. The largest room in the library is reserved during this week for studying students.
“I just want students to feel welcome and know that we’re willing to provide extra space during that time. Rather than having a part of two people using the big room, we say that this is a shared study space for now. Even our program room is opened up as a shared study space if we aren’t using it because we were getting to a point where every table was taken,” Pedley explained. “We just want to make sure that we’re supporting that effort. We break the rules during finals frenzy and bring you guys snacks. It was so gratifying to see the happy looks on student’s faces when we came around with chips and water.”
The Dougherty Station library has proven to be a pillar of the community, a place for people of all ages to enjoy whether it’s through reading a book, studying for a test, or experiencing an event.
“It’s a joy to see kids growing up using the library, especially this community,” Pedley said.
