As thousands of visitors head to downtown State College for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts this weekend and to enjoy festival week, Schlow Centre Region Library will once again serve as both a refuge from the crowds and heat, as well as a destination of its own.
The library’s annual BookFest PA returns Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., bringing more than 30 authors to the library’s parking lot and underground garage for a day of book sales, author conversations and signings.
Organizers say this year’s event will feature the largest group of participating authors in BookFest PA’s history, with writers representing genres ranging from children’s books and graphic novels to fiction and nonfiction for adults.
The event is free and open to the public. BookFest PA is one of several Arts Festival-related events taking place at the library throughout the week.
“We have a lot of authors from across the state and around the Northeast that come and set up tents in our parking lot and in our underground garage,” Kim Patti, Schlow’s head of advancement services, said. “They’re going to be selling their books and also talking with people that are coming through about what it’s like to be an author.
“We have all kinds of authors represented. There’s children’s authors, there’s graphic novels, there’s adult authors, so all kinds of authors are represented, and we have over 30 authors this year, which is our biggest that we’ve ever had.”
BookFest PA, founded in 2010, began as a way to make use of the library’s parking lot and facilities while streets surrounding the building were closed for the Arts Festival.
“The reason that we did that was because of the increase of people in the area,” Patti said. “Allen Street is closed, [so] not many people visit the library from a local patron perspective. Our parking lot needs to be closed because of the festival going on, so we decided to take advantage of that. We have all this real estate there that was completely empty, so we decided, ‘hey, let’s make this a whole nice event.”
Visitors will have the opportunity to browse newly published books, meet returning and first-time authors, purchase signed copies and speak directly with writers about their creative process.
Library staff will also host family-friendly crafts and games throughout the afternoon, including activities that encourage children to create colorful fans, test their literary knowledge through trivia and build their own mystery stories.
What started as a gathering of mostly Pennsylvania authors has expanded over the years as interest from writers and readers across the region has grown.
“It started out with local authors, local to the area, or like in Pennsylvania, and then we’ve kind of expanded out as it has gotten bigger and bigger, and more and more people have been interested, but people really like it. People enjoy themselves,” Patti said.
The event complements the surrounding arts showcased throughout downtown, she added.
“So now we’ve brought in the authors in addition to the artists,” Patti said. “You have the artists out in the street, but then we also have the authors here, because storytelling is an art as well.”
BookFest PA is one piece of a busy week for Schlow during Arts Fest. The Schlow Library Foundation’s used book sale continues from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Downsbrough Community Room.
Proceeds from the sale support the foundation’s work, including free library programming and materials available for patrons to borrow.
“All of the books are donated, and then we’re able to use those funds that we raised during the used book sale to supply free programming to buy materials that people can check out throughout the course of the year,” Patti said.
Inside the library, visitors can also view the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts’ Images exhibition, a juried visual arts show displayed in multiple gallery spaces throughout the building. The exhibition’s awards ceremony is scheduled for Thursday evening.
Throughout Friday and Saturday, musicians from the Nittany Valley Symphony will perform at various times inside the library, while the recently renovated Pat Moyer Memorial Readers Garden will offer visitors a quieter space away from the festival crowds.
“We also have this year, which we haven’t had available in the past, our newly redesigned Pat Moyer Memorial Reader’s Garden, which is available for people to just come if they want to just hang out and have some quiet space, a nice place to walk around, enjoy nature, reflect on things,” Patti said.
Sensory stations will be available throughout the building for anyone looking to decompress during the busy weekend. The library also prepares for an influx of visitors who use the building as a place to cool off, use the restrooms or take a break from the summer heat.
“We are preparing for a great deal of foot traffic,” Patti said. “We serve as a place for people to come in and cool down because we have air conditioning here in the building, and we also offer restroom facilities for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts here at Schlow Library…It’s really important to us as a nonprofit organization to also make sure that we are serving the other nonprofits in our region.”
Along with hosting readers, writers and festival visitors, Patti said the library sees the weekend as an opportunity to welcome new guests to the community.
“We do see a large influx of visitors to the area, so we want to make sure that we are doing our best to represent State College in a positive light,” she said. “We’re making sure that we’re putting as good of a spin on State College as we can, and showcasing all of the great things that are available in the Centre Region for people that are visiting.”
Schlow Library is open all weekend, besides Sunday, from noon to 8 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
