MOUNT JEWETT — The Mount Jewett Memorial Public Library is holding a fundraiser on Monday and Tuesday, and they are going about it the old fashioned way.

They are going door to door.

“Everybody’s having a tough time,” said library director Debbie Deane.

According to Deane, the decision to hit the pavement with this fall’s fundraising campaign is out of necessity. Deane said the library can not afford the postage it would take to mail out fliers to the entire borough detailing the library’s fundraising goals. She did say that businesses may be solicited through mail in the new fundraising campaign.

Deane would like to see the technology in the library updated. She said the library would like to continue the current programs and expand with new programs, and newer computers with more up to date software would be necessary to achieve that end. She said a newer version of Microsoft Word is needed at the library, and she would also like to add Skype to the list of the library’s services.

Expanding the summer programs at the library are also on Deane’s want list. She said she would like to see the summer reading program in Mount Jewett be expanded from four to six weeks. Deane would also like to show movies in the summer more than once a week. With other programs such as 4-H and the library’s science club, the library teems with children over the summer months, giving them worthwhile activities in the small borough.

“The number of kids who have been participating have been steadily increasing year by year,” Deane said. “We love helping to keep the kids busy during the summer months.”

Deane noted that the air conditioning and heating system is in dire need of replacement. She said that while the last two summers have been mild, the summer of 2011 saw temperatures shoot up to almost 90 degrees in the building. A new heating and cooling system would cost the library approximately $5,000, she estimated.

While the borough pays for integral parts of the library, such as Deane’s salary, utility bills, and insurance and maintenance through taxes, the borough council voted last month to go the extra mile for their library and waive all solicitation fees so that Deane, library board members and volunteers could go door-to-door in their fundraising efforts.

While it seems like a tall order to fill, Deane is confident that the citizens of the borough will come through for the library as they have done in the past.

“The community has always been real good to us,” Deane said.

For more information, or to donate, please contact Deane at the Mount Jewett Memorial Library at (814) 778-5588.