The Wayne College Library, located at the University of Akron’s Wayne College branch campus in Orrville, offers students and the community more than just books to read, providing an abundance of campus and community activities.
Maureen Lerch, library director, said the library provides many programs to engage students and the greater college community.
“One unique program we have is our Dungeons & Dragons board game club that meets every other week to play the game," Lerch said. "There are two leaders who are dudgeon masters who help new players create a character and who guide participants through the learning curve of the game. Community members are welcome to participate; this group is not just for students.”
For those who aren’t into Dungeons & Dragons, the library offers a board game/card night.
The library also offers Movie Nights of new release movies including the new Superman movie, which will be shown Thursday, Sept. 25. "Beetlejuice" will be shown Oct. 30 and "Jurassic World" on Nov. 12. The movies all start at 6:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public.
In addition to Movie Night, the library offers Trivia Night, Craft Night and Murder Mystery Night, which, when held, requires advanced registration, one of the few activities that requires any preregistration.
There are more “book-ish” activities the library hosts. There is a club called the Silent Book Club in which participants bring a chosen book and read silently together.
Dungeon master Zion Belmont, far right, leads his Dungeons & Dragons group in a campaign session.Maureen Lerch
"There are no assigned readings," Lerch said. "All book formats are welcome. There is a dedicated reading hour and then a social hour. We also have a club called The Bookish Bunch. This is a casual gathering for anyone who likes to read, without any pressure or obligation to read any special book. We meet in the library lounge area and talk about books we want to read and anything in pop culture related to books.”
There also is a group called The Fireside Readers, which has been an ongoing book club for many years. It is composed mostly of community members, and for this group, members do read and discuss a specific book.
“All of these activities are designed to help establish community at the college and with the community at-large," Lerch said. "The other purpose is to form relationships with students in order to make the library and its staff a comfortable place to come and seek assistance. The library offers research assistance for students and can help students distinguish and identify appropriate source materials for papers and research in general.”
Lerch, who has been with Wayne College for 25 years, started as a reference librarian and is now the director of the library. The concept of a library and its uses and purposes have all changed over the last 20 years, and with the advent of artificial intelligence, discernment of sources and source material is even more important now than it was 25 years ago. Lerch continues to brainstorm new ways of reaching out to students.
For more information about the programs and events at the library, visit the Wayne College Library Facebook page. The Wayne College Library website at libguides.uakron.edu/WayneLibraryBlog has a blog with information about the activities and events.
