County libraries host “blind date with a book”

The Washington and Wellman-Scofield Public libraries have rolled out annual February traditions for patrons that want to add some excitement to their reading lives.

Throughout February, visitors to the libraries can pick up wrapped copies of books for checkout, leaving the contents unknown until they get home and see what’s inside.

“They literally pick the book sight unseen, they don’t know what’s in the book,” Harris said. “They take it home, and in the front cover there’s a ‘rate the date’ form where they can give it up to five stars and tell me what they thought of it, and they can do as many ‘dates,’ or books, as they want in the month of February.”

Wellman-Scofield Library Director Erin Campbell said her building gave a few more details before checkout, but maintained the same level of mystery.

“We’ve given a small synopsis of the book on the front, but nothing that would give away what the book is,” she said. “It’s kind of like, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover,’ we want people to be able to fall in love with a book without knowing what the cover is, or what’s underneath.”

While the Wellman library has traditionally geared the monthlong event toward adults, Campbell said they were expanding it to younger audiences this year.

“We’ve had a lot of kids very excited because it feels like opening a present,” she said. “It’s a surprise. I remember that when I was a patron here I loved going and picking out a random book. Sometimes it will be books that don’t get checked out that often or don’t necessarily have the prettiest cover, but then when you read them, you kind of fall in love with them.”

The Washington library has different sections for adults, teens and tweens. Harris said the event was a great way for people to find new content.

“It’s really fun, we’ve had people discover new authors because of it and different series that they like, there’s some non-fiction and biographies thrown in there too,” she said. “It’s a fun way for people to find new authors or new genres they didn’t know they liked.”

Both libraries host the event every year.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, probably six-plus years,” Washington Youth Services Librarian Jenisa Harris said. “It was something that some other bigger libraries I had seen on Pinterest had been doing, and I thought it would be fun in our town, that people would really like it, and it kind of stuck. It’s something I really enjoy putting together every year.”

Harris said it was popular enough that patrons routinely requested the event by name.

“They look forward to it every year, we have patrons who ask me yearly if I’m going to do it, that come in specifically for blind date with a book,” she said. “And we have some people walk in and say, ‘That’s fun, let’s try it.’”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com