Archives February 2019

Written by Nolan Brewer

Staff of the Jeffersonville Township Public Library (JTPL) would like to give a big THANK YOU to the JTPL Foundation and JTPL Friends of the Library for the purchase of a new Book Bike! We are very excited to add this new service.

JTPL’s new Book Bike

Think of a Book Bike as a mini mobile library on three wheels. Our Book Bike will help us reach out to the community with books, computer classes, kid programs, and a mobile hotspot.  In the future, you can look for us at local parks, festivals, and other special events.

Our Book Bike was purchased from Haley Tricycles located in Philadelphia, PA. Haley Tricycles send tricycles all over North America (and sometimes much further.) The library got to participate in the whole experience of the bike building, and even visited the site where the bike was constructed.

We are always looking for opportunities to ride our Book Bike to an event near you. Stay tuned, and continue to check our website for an update on times and dates!

Report from Jeffersonville Township Public Library Youth Services Dept. on progress of Giving Tuesday STEAM Grant

Written by Jennifer Harl

As of Jan. 31, 2019, all items requested in the JTPL Foundation Giving Tuesday Grant proposal have been purchased and received. The grant awarded the library’s youth services department $1,202.75 to purchase coding products that can be used in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) programming.

The money raised through the Giving Tuesday campaign made it possible for the Youth Services Department to purchase four Little Bits Coding sets, and one Cubelets Six Robots Blocks set. These kits are top quality products that will support the skills, required of young people in the 21st Century workforce, such as computational thinking, problem solving, and collaboration.

Little Bits Coding set

These kits will be shared and used in programming at both library branches.

The Clarksville Branch library is hosting STEAM Break, which is a series of STEAM-related programs that will be happening during the week of the local schools’ Spring Break session. Public Services Librarian Jennifer Harl plans to introduce both kits at the Family STEAM Day program planned during that week. Family STEAM Day is a program that encourages families to come to the library and experience our STEAM related items such as, robots, marble mazes, KEVA planks, and VR Headsets.

The addition of the Cubelets and Little Bits to our library resources will enhance our existing STEAM programming and open the door for future coding programs. The library is planning to host a Girls Who Code program in the fall and our new kits will be a great addition to that future program. We are excited about the programming opportunities that will come from having these technology-based kits.

Cubelets Six Robot Blocks

This report is submitted with a sincere thanks to the JTPL Foundation Board for raising money on behalf of the JTPL Youth Services. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of the Giving Tuesday campaign. Our staff recognizes that there were many ways this money could be used to support our library, but the JTPL Foundation Board members decided to invest in our library’s youth.

For that, we are very grateful. We look forward to collaborating with the JTPL Foundation again as we work together to support the JTPL mission and vision.

from The Evening News & Tribune
Story by Brooke McAfee | Photo by Tyler Stewart

CLARKSVILLE — After months of renovation and construction, the transformation of Clarksville’s library is complete.

The Clarksville branch of the Jeffersonville Township Public Library, at 1312 Eastern Blvd., held a ribbon cutting Thursday to celebrate the recent completion of its $1.8 million expansion and renovation project. After 10 months of work, the library added 1,700 square feet to the building, and the entire space was renovated.

The library’s expansion allowed for the addition of a large meeting room and three new private study rooms. Before, the library faced competition for its limited meeting space, according to Jeffersonville Township Public Library Director Libby Pollard, but now the library has three meeting rooms available to the community, allowing for the accommodation of more outside groups.

The Clarksville Redevelopment Commission donated $75,000 to the library, allowing the branch to add 10 laptops for a mobile lab, 12 additional public computers for adults, teens and children and new self checkout kiosks. The renovations also included new furniture, doors, ceiling tiles and interior decorating.

The community has the opportunity to meet in a beautiful public setting, Pollard said.

“I believe that attractive public spaces are really important,” she said. “They’re uplifting to people, and I’m very proud of the fact that the Clarksville branch meets that criteria of a nice public space.”

The addition of the 10 laptops will allow the library to present free technology classes in its meeting rooms, including classes on Microsoft Office and social media, Pollard said.

The self-check kiosks are “easier than the ones at the grocery,” she said, and it allows people to checkout five books at the same time rather than scanning each individually. This helps speed up the checkout process, and it allows people to checkout books privately if they prefer.

The private study rooms will help people who are at the library for purposes such as tutoring, Pollard said. If groups need to have conversations while studying, the rooms will allow them to collaborate without disturbing other people in the library.

The Duke Energy Foundation also donated $15,000 for the creation of a rain garden at the library. The garden gathers stormwater runoff from the building’s roof, and it includes a variety of native plants.

“We want the rain garden to serve as an educational resource, teaching adults and children about the importance of planning for stormwater runoff, how rain gardens help minimize water pollution, how pollination is essential for food production and the important role that native plants have in pollination,” Pollard said.

Kofi Darku, library board of trustees president, said the changes help Clarksville improve its quality of place and meet the needs of the community.

“The Clarksville library branch project supports the library’s mission to identify and meet the informational, entertainment and technological needs of our community, which fosters lifelong learning and informed citizenship in a welcoming environment,” he said.

The library’s expansion ensures that the community has access to the tools they need, Darku said. He emphasized the role of the library’s resources play in workforce development, including technology and adult education/GED classes.

“If you can leverage this space and the tools they have available, from the workforce development perspective, individuals can skill themselves up,” he said. “They can do a better job of searching for the opportunities that may be of interest to them, and they can also find resources that help them improve their skills for those opportunities.”

Clarksville Redevelopment Director Dylan Fisher said he is happy to see a new vision of the library, including the new technology to connect people with modern learning techniques.

“I can recall as a child coming to this location,” he said. “As I walk back in here today, it’s just a breath of fresh air.”

Now that the Clarksville branch is complete, the Jeffersonville Township Public Library has started renovations of its main branch. Its renovations will include expanded technology, self checkout kiosks, more activity space and a maker space.