Burrowed in Books; American Libraries, January 31, 2020

Terra Dankowski, American Libraries; Burrowed in Books

World-famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil lives at the library when he’s waiting for his special day

[Kip Currier: Happy Groundhog Day 2022! Western Pennsylvania's famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning and predicts 6 more weeks of winter.

In terms of management and leadership, this 2020 article that the American Library Association's American Libraries magazine reposted on its website is a great example of ways that leaders, like Punxsutawney Memorial Library Director Jessica Church, can market services that they offer and communicate their missions and visions with existing and potential users/patrons/customers. Below is a photo I took on February 2, 2020, showing cleverly designed reading-promoting Punxsutawney Memorial Library T-Shirts for sale at the library--where Phil and his groundhog wife Phyllis live. And yes--I did buy several T-Shirts and talked with the friendly library staff who were on hand to answer questions of all kinds for hundreds of visitors.]

"American Libraries talked with Jessica Church, director of Punxsutawney (Pennsylvania) Memorial Library, about Phil’s free time, what his renown means for the small town, and the mainstay marmot questions the library gets asked...

What does Phil mean to the community? How many years has he been living at the library, and has his celebrity helped raise its profile?

Phil means a lot to many different people in Punxsutawney. He means pride, tradition, local history, and community. [He’s] a symbol for western Pennsylvania. He’s been here at this address since the 1970s.

We get people year-round, from all over the world, who come to see Phil. It’s on their bucket list, so they’ll come and talk to us about what Phil means to them. One was a woman from the South, and she came with her father. They host Groundhog Day parties because everyone has Christmas parties, everyone has Super Bowl parties, so they host the groundhog party every year. After 15 years she finally had a chance to make it up here and meet Phil, so it was an awesome conversation to have.

[People] not only come to look at Phil, but because we’re a library, people like to see what we have to offer. We’re located next to what is called Barclay Square [at the center of town], so our library gets a lot of foot traffic."