The Pearl River County Library System has been able to extend its hours, at for the next six months, at both Crosby Memorial Library and Poplarville Public Library thanks to grant from the Lower Pearl River Valley Foundation, said system director Carol Phares.

With the grant, another circulation clerk also was added at the Crosby Library and new children’s books have been purchased and are being processed to go on the shelves, she said.

The Poplarville Public Library also received a grant from the Poplarville Rotary Club to purchase new books for the children’s collection.

The LPRV grant was partnered with the Rotary grant and an EDC Educational Services to provide the Pearl River County system an Open the Doors for the Children grant for a total of $25,305.15 in grant funds.

Phares broke the funds down as $5,000 from Rotary and $2,500 in free children’s books from EDC to buy Usborne Books for the Poplarville library’s children’s collection. An LPRV grant of $5,000 was matched by EDC with $2,500 in free books to buy Usborne Books for Picayune’s Crosby Library’s children’s collection.

Phares said the Usborne books “are high quality fiction, non-fiction, reference and picture books for children. The libraries are have received the books and are processing them to get them ready for the shelves.”

The last part of the LPRV grant was used to hire the new circulation clerk for six months, Phares said. She said the new clerk will allow both libraries to add more hours because Poplarville staff had been traveling to Picayune to help Crosby Library to stay open.

The new hours at Crosby Library are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays, and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday. Poplarville’s new hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“The library system has been cut for at least three years now, but we were able to keep the library open more by not replacing staff members that left or retired. Two years ago we had to start cutting hours.

“We’re looking for more grants, especially to keep Missy (Ellis, the new clerk) so we can keep our doors open more hours,” Phares said.

She said the library system has been fortunate to receive “generous donations” by its patrons to buy some more books but the system needs more funds from the county to operate.