GREENFIELD — Library directors from across Franklin County recently shared their stories of what it means to be a librarian in 2025, a role they say often involves pivoting to tackle unprecedented challenges.

The Garden Cinemas hosted a screening of the PBS documentary “Free for All: The Public Library” on Monday evening, followed by a panel discussion covering topics such as budget challenges, book bannings, accessibility, and the growing need for libraries to house health and welfare resources.

“It’s really been a roller coaster to be a librarian these days,” said Chelsea Jordan-Makely, director of Colrain’s Griswold Memorial Library. “It’s become kinda commonplace how we volley around this term ‘unprecedented,’ but when I was in library school I never thought I’d have to deal with book challenges, ever. Then you watch this film and realize ... access to information has always been contested.”

Libraries have long served as institutions of knowledge, but have faced challenges when it comes to who should be allowed to access the books and what information is stored in them. The PBS documentary told stories of challenges during segregation, the women’s rights movement and the Red Scare. Even modern books such as “Harry Potter” by J.K. Rowling or “And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell have been challenged in some libraries for promoting witchcraft and LGBTQ themes to children.

Panelists said that even in Franklin County, library contents have been questioned, but there are strict review policies to address questioned materials and librarian training involves learning how to review books and determine how to build a collection. Ultimately, it is up to the parent or caregiver to monitor the material their children access.

“My staff don’t read every single book on our shelves,” Greenfield Public Library Director Anna Bognolo said. “They can’t, they just don’t have time.”

The librarians noted that libraries offer much more than just books. They provide movies, newspapers, events and programs, and access to information about other services. For example, Northfield’s Dickinson Memorial Library has a “Library of Things” featuring gardening tools and is home to a food pantry on the lower level. Griswold Memorial Library has a personal hygiene closet, with shampoo, toothbrushes, feminine products and more. The Greenfield Public Library has fishing kits and the Erving Public Library offers after-school snacks.

Panelists said libraries are built to serve their communities and provide solutions to their unique needs and challenges, which is why more libraries are offering untraditional items and why librarians are increasingly being tasked with helping patrons who are seeking housing, food and other social services.

Sanda Erdelez, dean of Simmons University’s School of Library and Information Science, which moved its part-time Library and Information Science master’s degree program to Greenfield Community College last fall, said it has become so common for patrons to seek social services at libraries that the school offers a course on the use of social services in libraries.

“We have to go beyond our library work,” Bognolo commented, “and be trained to listen and to understand about how we can serve our unique, diverse populations.”

“Library science is a social science. We’re operating within the economic constraints and everything that’s happening in our country at all times,” Jordan-Makely added. “I want my library to be a place where people come. Actually, to quote a patron this week, she said, ‘I come here to get rid of my stress.’ We want to help make life easier for people.”

Part of easing life’s hardships for patrons is ensuring libraries are accessible for everyone, panelists said. At the Erving Public Library, Director Abigail Baines said the staff have been working to hold events and create a space that is welcoming to everyone, with both visible and invisible disabilities, including by purchasing more audiobooks and ensuring the library has sensory-friendly spaces.

At the Greenfield Public Library, accessibility has meant having wheelchair-accessible changing tables in the bathrooms and buttons that can open doors. And in the older libraries across the county, accessibility means incremental work to update old buildings, and ensure signs, printouts, and website and social media posts are accessible with clear text and photo captions.

“If there’s a bump in the floor, that’s going to cost the library many dollars to fix because it’s a marble floor. So there’s those big things that feel not undoable, but like big challenges,” mentioned Dickinson Memorial Library Director Misha Storm. “So day-to-day, I try to focus on the things that we can do.”

The libraries do all this and more, the panelists said, while balancing small budgets in their rural communities. They do so by leveraging grants, partnerships with community organizations, and with the help of state and federal agencies. Tim Cherubini, a member of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, said the board is always reviewing legislation to see how and if it will impact funding for libraries, while also seeking all available funding to support the mission of public libraries.

“We’re always looking for other opportunities,” Cherubini said.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.