Need ad­vice on a home proj­ect? Go to the li­brary. Need a tool to com­plete that job? Go to the li­brary. Hun­gry? Go to the li­brary. Want to learn how to sew? Go to the li­brary.

Need a place to host your group’s event? Air con­di­tion­ing not work­ing? Want to learn how to make jam? Go to the li­brary.

Solar panels line the roof of the Millvale Community Library on Grant Avenue in Millvale. (Steph Chambers/Post-Gazette)

While li­brar­ies have al­ways been places to meet, get books, study and learn, the Millvale Com­mu­nity Li­brary on Grant Avenue is just what the sign says: part of the com­mu­nity.

“Li­brar­ies are rel­e­vant. They are chang­ing with the times,” said Brian Wolov­ich, co-founder of the Millvale Com­mu­nity Li­brary, a bor­ough coun­cil­man and sev­enth grade so­cial stud­ies teacher at Quaker Val­ley Mid­dle School.

But at a re­cent board meet­ing of the Friends of the MCL he and Ex­ec­u­tive Direc­tor Su­san McClel­lan yielded the floor to the board mem­bers and res­i­dents as they dis­cussed pro­gram­ming and fu­ture plans for the li­brary and its unique re­sources. Res­i­dents are wel­come to at­tend, ask for help and to give it.

The dis­cus­sion touched on sev­eral re­cent de­vel­op­ments: a sum­mer lunch pro­gram for school-age stu­dents — made pos­si­ble by do­na­tions from 412 Food Res­cue of Pitts­burgh; the li­brary’s newly up­dated web­page; sev­eral new hires, in­clud­ing Roman Benty, mak­er­space pro­gram di­rec­tor; and a new deck, lo­cated off the col­or­ful chil­dren’s read­ing room. The deck, still un­der con­struc­tion, will pro­vide views of the li­brary’s back prop­erty and com­mu­nity gar­den.

A new deck is under construction deck at the rear of the Millvale Community Library on Grant Avenue. (Steph Chambers/Post-Gazette)

“It’s in­cred­i­ble,” Mr. Benty said as he looked out the back door of the chil­dren’s room. “The deck ac­cess has re­ally opened up the space.”

A re­cent grad­u­ate from the Univer­sity of Pitts­burgh, Mr. Benty spoke about the maker camps held at the li­brary over the sum­mer and what he is al­ready plan­ning for next year. He hopes to pro­vide vol­un­teer hours for Shaler Area High School hon­ors so­ci­ety mem­bers who can be in­terns at fu­ture camps. Mr. Benty, a Shaler Area grad­u­ate him­self, started vol­un­teer­ing with the li­brary when he was still in high school. He plans to ex­pand the li­brary’s maker pro­grams through part­ner­ships with schools and other or­ga­ni­za­tions.

The li­brary re­lies on grants, big and small, from lo­cal busi­nesses and or­ga­ni­za­tions. Friends of the li­brary do­nate ev­ery­thing from snacks to sweat eq­uity. They pull weeds to beau­tify the gar­dens, hold fund­raisers for li­brary pro­grams and im­prove­ments, and some vol­un­teer to run some of the pro­grams. Among the re­cent do­na­tions was an anon­y­mous gift of $70, while an­other $40 do­na­tion came from a child’s lemon­ade stand.

With its cen­tral lo­ca­tion, the li­brary also rents space to nearby busi­nesses, in­clud­ing Tu­pelo Honey Teas, owned by Da­nielle Spinola. The build­ing Tu­pelo Honey oc­cu­pies is con­nected to the li­brary, and the tea cafe of­ten pro­vides re­fresh­ments for pro­grams held at the li­brary.

Mari­lyn Jen­kins, ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of the Al­le­gheny County Li­brary As­so­ci­a­tion, was among those who at­tended the re­cent li­brary board meet­ing. “It’s a com­mu­nity-sourced li­brary,” she said. “They are a group of young, tech-savvy peo­ple who work to­gether with the com­mu­nity, us­ing ev­ery sin­gle com­mu­nity as­set they can bor­row.”

The li­brary also em­braces com­mu­nity val­ues such as be­ing des­ig­nated a Sustain­able Small Busi­ness. Its 83 so­lar pan­els gen­er­ate more elec­tric­ity than the li­brary uses, and Duquesne Light now pays the li­brary for power it gen­er­ates. That money is used to help pay staff sal­a­ries. Else­where, a 500-gal­lon cis­tern col­lects roof­top rain­water and chan­nels it to the li­brary’s rain gar­den. The back­yard gar­dens and fruit trees are used to teach Millvale youth how to grow their own food.

A community garden is located behind the Millvale Community Library on Grant Avenue. (Steph Chambers/Post-Gazette)

Mem­bers of the Maria Mon­g­el­luzzo Tool Li­brary can check out hand and power tools for free for Millvale res­i­dents. Non­res­i­dents can do­nate $30 an­nu­ally to use the tool li­brary.

But tools can be bor­rowed any­time, by any­one who has a li­brary card. There are hun­dreds of tools avail­able for al­most any re­pair job or proj­ect both in­doors and out, li­brary of­fi­cials said. The tools have their own search­able cat­a­log, just like the books.

The li­brary will host a free women-only power tool work­shop on Satur­day, Oct. 26, where ex­perts will teach par­tic­i­pants how to safely use cir­cu­lar saws, com­pound mi­ter saws, nail­ers and other tools. The event is spon­sored by the Tool Li­brary and funded by The Pitts­burgh Foun­da­tion.

Li­brary of­fi­cials say that while they en­joy pro­vid­ing ser­vices to the com­mu­nity, the li­brary also wel­comes those who want to help out as vol­un­teers.

“We are very dif­fer­ent,” said Ms. McClel­lan. “We have a lot of unique pro­gram­ming. I like how the com­mu­nity comes to­gether to host and fund pro­grams. Our staff and board are amaz­ing. They’re here to help.”

Rita Mi­chel, free­lance writer, sub­ur­ban­liv­ing@post-ga­zette.com.

First Published: September 12, 2019, 2:53 p.m.