With the rising cost of living, many of those 5,000 patrons are residents from as far away as Johnstown trying to make ends meet by taking advantage of the array of programs offered at the library, headed by Director Michelle McIntyre.

“COVID kind of let us reset and take a critical look at the services that we were offering,” McIntyre said. “We thought to ourselves, ‘How are they going to enjoy a book if their basic needs aren’t being met?'”

The library wrapped up its first back-to-school clothing drive for students and their families on Tuesday, McIntyre said. About 250 people came through the library, 190 of them between 9 and 11 a.m. The next back-to-school giveaway will be held on Saturday, Sept. 14.

“We need backpacks, a lot of backpacks, and school supplies,” McIntyre said. “We got rid of almost all of our backpacks.”

Assistant Director Cortney Gensimore (right) helps Danielle Fischer of Duncansville check out a pile of books. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

The idea to hold the collection and subsequent giveaway came from the library’s volunteer coordinator Ellie Smiley, McIntyre said.

“It actually started out for back-to-school kids,” Smiley said. “But then we started to get new and slightly used clothes for babies and adults.”

Parents who accompany their children might themselves need something. In addition, some might have a child who is not school age, but that child might have needs, too, Smiley said.

McIntyre said the library’s winter wear room — stocked with coats, gloves, hats and scarves — will be open two days a week.

“That’s for anybody, not just for school kids,” McIntyre said. “For that, we’re taking all sizes.”

The Roaring Spring Community Library offers snacks in the Kid’s Pantry. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Many programs

The library offers many other programs to its patrons, free of charge, such as its seed library, food pantry pop-up, hygiene pantry and kid’s snack pantry.

Smiley, who took on the role of volunteer coordinator in May 2023, said these offerings have “really impacted the community,” especially with where the library is located. The red brick building has a large front porch fenced in by white columns and trim. It stands at the corner of East Main and Girard streets and, if it weren’t for the Roaring Spring Community Library sign out front, an unknowing passerby might assume the house was the residence of a large family.

In fact, the library’s outer appearance reflects its inner heart — that of staff and volunteers taking care of the community, like a large family.

“There are so many people in need of so many things in this area,” Smiley said. “Food is so darn expensive and clothes are so darn expensive. The food here is free, the clothes are free, diapers are free.”

Fresh vegetables are available in the food pantry. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski /

McIntyre said those who use the library’s services are “generally from right here in the Cove” but they do get some from Hollidaysburg, Altoona, Cambria County and northern Bedford County. When asked how those from outside the area hear about her library’s programs, McIntyre said it’s through word of mouth, as her staff is very engaged in the larger community.

Her goal with these programs, however, is to provide locals with nearby options, McIntyre said.

“Everything is more oriented toward Altoona and Hollidaysburg and not toward the Cove,” McIntyre said. “I wanted to give residents in the Cove the option of having something more close by.”

The library’s busy day is Tuesday, the primary day for its pop-up food pantry. McIntyre said they work with a food rescue in Blair County and have volunteers pick up the goods and stock the library’s shelves.

Smiley said this task is actually her favorite.

“We do not ask for any income specification,” Smiley said. “All we want is their name, zip code and how many people are in their family. And we have close to 700 families a month that come through.”

McIntyre said there are no questions asked and the bags aren’t pre-packed, like they might be at other food banks, and whatever is leftover is available for the rest of the week.

“I would love to expand the pop-up pantry to two days a week, but I would need to find another rescue organization,” McIntyre said.

Grow your own food

One of the library’s most popular programs is the seed library, which

McIntyre started during the pandemic by asking for seed donations. Before long, Penn State Master Gardeners got involved, she said.

The seed library system is live several times a year with Blair, Bedford and Huntingdon counties all in the same system. McIntyre said they have distributed 18,000 packets so far this year.

“We just bought a card catalog,” McIntyre said. “We’re moving (the seed library) to a dedicated room with all of the seed packing equipment.”

Patron Lesly Miller-Jacobs said the seed library is one of her favorite things and that she got broccoli and tomato seeds this year.

“They’ll help you plant them, too, in little pots and water them,” Miller-Jacobs said.

For questions, the library will get in contact with a master gardener for answers, Miller-Jacobs said.

The really popular seeds were for tomatoes, pollinator flowers, herbs, cucumbers, sunflowers, lettuces and deer-resistant wildflower blends. McIntyre said “peppers were huge” and “almost all of the pumpkins are gone.”

The library also won a Department of Environmental Protection grant worth between $4,300 and $4,700 through Penn State to teach patrons everything about growing food, from planting to germinating to harvesting to cooking, she said.

“What I really want to say is that they are really making a difference in what they’re doing,” Miller-Jacobs said. “They’re serving other communities as well as our community.”

Central hub

It is engaging the community that has turned the library into the central hub it is today. While it offers the traditional trappings of other libraries, such as summer reading programs and free internet access, their ever-expanding list of events and opportunities are what keeps people coming back.

A Roaring Spring native, Miller-Jacobs relocated to the area about a year ago after being away for 30 years. Before she left, however, she frequented the library when she was young.

“When I was a little girl and I went there, I would sit in a circle with other little kids and they would read us a story,” Miller-Jacobs said.

Once back in town, she marveled at the library’s expansion and decided to get a library card, even if she didn’t use all of its offerings.

“They have so many different programs,” Miller-Jacobs said. “It doesn’t matter the age … they serve from small children to the elderly.”

There is the curbside delivery of books for those who aren’t able to go inside the building, started with a grant from the Blair County Chamber Alumni Group; the kid’s pantry filled with snacks in the children’s room; its inaugural Easter egg hunt that went so well they’re planning on splitting it into two days in 2025; a visit with Santa for which more than 70 children have already signed up; a Christmas toy drive; a craft room; an area for genealogy research and Story Tails, an opportunity for children to practice their reading skills by reading to a dog.

The library’s work is never done, McIntyre said, as they’re working with the National Alliance on Mental Illness to form a support group for families and “determine interest in the family, if there is mental illness within it, learning how to cope and who they can turn to in times of need.”

“I’m sure in 2025 there will be more things that I don’t know about yet,” McIntyre said.

She is also hoping to start a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, where a volunteer social worker will help people fill out forms for things like Medicaid or rent rebates. In the long run, McIntyre said she would love to start a tea library, a book club, a tea club, a diaper project, feminine hygiene project and begin working with the unhoused.

The library also needs to raise funds on top of that, McIntyre said.

“We need volunteers,” McIntyre said. “We are a staff of three. People are asking us for more and more services. We dream big.”

‘A lot to offer’

Coordinating those volunteers is where Smiley comes in. She knew McIntyre for a “very long time,” since McIntyre was a teenager. So, when Smiley’s husband of 42 years passed away in May 2022, McIntyre reached out and asked if Smiley wanted to “help out for a couple hours, which turned into a couple more hours, which led to more hours.”

“When I lost my husband, I had a very hard time of it,” Smiley said.

A former certified nurse’s assistant, she’s helped people her whole life, she said. In May 2023, McIntyre made Smiley the library’s volunteer coordinator.

“It gave me a purpose in my life,” Smiley said, adding that she goes in six, sometimes seven days a week.

The library, its staff, volunteers and patrons mean so much to her that she even spent her 67th birthday there on Tuesday.

“I love it here,” Smiley said. “The patrons are very pleasant. I’m disabled and I had open back surgery back in 2019. I have trouble walking and I’ve told my volunteers that I feel like I have more mothers and fathers now than I ever did before, even though they’re younger than me. They’re always telling me to go sit down.”

In her few short years volunteering with the library, Smiley said she has “seen it grow very big” with its new programs.

“I love the fact that I’m able to reach out and help so many people inside the community and outside the community,” Smiley said. “They have a lot to offer here at the library.”

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.