Bluffton resident Joanne Niswander is now an outreach patron of the Bluffton Public Library, according to Lauren Canaday, library public service coordinator.

In this role, she will review books and those reviews are posted on the library website.

“Joanne tell me that it's a wonderful project for her during the pandemic and inclement weather,” said Canaday.

The first month's reviews are now posted at https://blufftonpubliclibrary.org/joanne-reads.

Each review includes a link to the library’s online catalog allowing patrons to place them on hold.

These are the January reviews:
How Much of These Hills is Gold, by C. Pam Zhang
Beneath a Scarlet Sky, by Mark Sullivan
A Wild Winter Swan, by Gregory Maguire
Alone Together, edited by Jennifer Haupt
Spark of Light, by Jodi Picoult
A Promised Land, by Barack Obama
Dearly, by Margaret Atwood
The Stationery Shop, by Marjan Kamali

Niswander is a Bluffton College graduate, and served as a church organist for 40 years, an art docent at The Toledo Museum of Art for 14 years, and a volunteer in Bluffton University's Development Office for 12 years, traveling all over the U.S. to visit alumni.

Niswander also wrote her own column for the Bluffton News for 17 years and published two books while in her 80s: "An Alzheimer's Primer" in 2012 and "Reflections from Maple Crest Pond" in 2015.

About the Outreach program
Lauren Canaday select books for residents of Maple Crest, Mennonite Memorial Home and Willow Ridge and they are delivered to their door. Activities directors pick them up and distribute them.

Before COVID, volunteers delivered the books and chatted with the Outreach patrons.

"So, it's nice that Joanne sends me the reviews because it's a way to connect with Outreach patrons in a more personal way that I miss. "
 

The Outreach program link: https://blufftonpubliclibrary.org/outreach-services