Alex Pope had no qualms about the ruckus one of his employees made on a recent afternoon at the Central Resource Library in Overland Park, Kan. The fellow in a black apron and baseball cap sawed around the joint of a 120-pound pig carcass and snapped off the back leg.
"It was a pretty audible crack," said Mr. Pope. "We like to start with that one because it's pretty dramatic."
Mr. Pope, owner of Local Pig, a butcher shop in nearby Kansas City, Mo., was at the library to give a hog-butchering demonstration to about 100 people in an event advertised as "Books and Butchers." (click below to read more)
"If you can butcher a hog in a library, then all sorts of other things become possible," says Sean Casserley, a new county librarian for Overland Park, who dreamed up the idea.
Which raises the question: Have you checked out the library lately?
In an age where people use search engines instead of reference books and download novels on Kindles and iPads, some public libraries are taking extreme measures to stay relevant.
They are offering Zumba dance classes, seminars on landscaping and tips for holiday shopping. Besides hog-butchering, some have hosted demonstrations of blacksmithing and fly fishing. A library in Joliet, Ill., last summer held a "Star Wars Day" featuring games for kids, volunteers dressed as storm troopers and lemonade served at a mock-up of the famous Star Wars Cantina.
Ann Kuta, a 67-year-old former secretary in the financial services industry, swiftly swung her arm in an upward motion one recent Friday morning at a Des Plaines, Ill., public library. She stared intently at a giant screen as a virtual bowling ball rolled down a lane before knocking down most of the 10 virtual pins.
She pumped her fists in the air as about a dozen other seniors cheered.
Ms. Kuta is a top bowler in the biweekly Nintendo Wii bowling competitions for seniors here. She has won the admiration of her fellow players, and a trophy, for bowling two perfect games on the videogame system.
"There have been ups and downs, but I always try to wear my lucky shoes," Ms. Kuta said, pointing to her white Keds.
Beyond the usual books, e-books, CDs and DVDs, some libraries are now lending out telescopes, musical instruments and electricity monitors.
The Berkeley Public Library in California, which has long offered tools like saws and demolition hammers for checkout, is expanding its selection in response to growing interest, library deputy director Doug Smith said.
"People will be coming in and getting some books or movies and then skipping over to the tool library and getting drill bits or drywall tools," he said.
Paul DeGeorge and his brother, Joe, are rarely quiet when they show up at a library. Performing as Harry and the Potters, the indie rock duo have played nearly 300 shows in libraries since 2004, with songs like "Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock" and other tunes in the key of Harry Potter.
Asked whether library patrons ever try to hush them during the band's loud shows, Paul DeGeorge said: "Usually patrons don't directly complain to us. I'm sure they complain to the librarians."
Bill Harmer, director of the district library in Chelsea, Mich., is trying to make it OK to laugh at libraries, too. In recent summers, he has hosted comedy shows on the library lawn in the small town.
"I put Chelsea in Mapquest and it was like—come on," comedian Horace H.B. Sanders told an audience seated in plastic chairs in 2010. "You go find it."
Now, Mr. Harmer is setting up a national tour of standup comics, trying to turn public libraries into new venues rivaling comedy clubs. "The only difference is that you couldn't drink and you can't smoke," he said.
Public libraries have long served as gathering places and offered a range of nonliterary programs. And those who predicted their demise "have been proved wrong," says historian Wayne Wiegand, emeritus professor of library and information studies at Florida State University.
Community-focused activities at libraries aren't new developments, he says, but rather "repetitions of what happened in the past."
Librarians say they are increasing the number and variety of programs they offer—and people seem to be responding.
Attendance at public library programs rose 29% from 2004 to 2010, as overall visits to libraries also rose, according to the most recent survey by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Some old-school types have mixed feelings about the push to diversify. "I hope the library doesn't turn into something that is a type of cooking-class meeting place with computers attached and no books," says Michael Gorman, former president of the American Library Association and university librarian emeritus at California State University, Fresno.
"If it appeals to youth and the youth are using the library…good luck to you," Mr. Gorman says, "though personally I would pay good money not to attend a standup comedy evening or a hog butchering."
Mr. Casserley, who organized the hog butchering in Kansas, says some staffers balked when he suggested it as part of his mission to expand the library's offerings. "You want to do what?" he says they asked.
Attendance at the demonstration surpassed his expectations, and he is now planning a card catalog of new activities: a home-brewing class, and a project to enter a car in a demolition derby under the library's name.
Mr. Casserley wants artists and kids to help decorate the car for the vehicle-ramming competition, and its driver will be a literary character—potentially The Cat in the Hat.
The hog-butchering demonstration lasted about two hours—including questions from farmers and curious city dwellers.
As his employee cut up the pig carcass, Mr. Pope pointed out which parts of the body produce different pork products.
"When he cut the piece where the bacon comes from, the crowd spontaneously went, 'ooh!' " Mr. Casserley said. "They're bacon lovers."
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