Staff writer
An open house at Peabody Township Library from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday will be the final event of the library’s celebration of 100 years as a Carnegie Library and its 140 years of service to the Peabody community.
The centennial celebration kicked off early in 2014 with a re-introduction to the community. A similar open house featured plans for the future, including the addition of “100 books for 100 years,” service and infrastructure upgrades compatible with the original architecture and building features, and providing instruction to bring mature library users into the world of computers.
“We are fond of saying, ‘The library is not just about books anymore,’” librarian Rodger Charles said.
Charles and the library board will be on hand Saturday to show off some of the new features of the library. He thinks parents and other patrons will enjoy seeing the Chromebooks purchased this year to support school district students who are using them.
“The open house also will give us a chance to exhibit the new gaming system we received,” he said. “We got a grant for the gaming system from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.”
Charles said minors will need to have parental permission in order to access the gaming system. Permission slips will be available at the open house.
“We encourage parents to come and look it over. Saturday will be a great chance to do that,” he said.
While he is pleased that the library is providing new and exciting services and features, Charles said that he and the board are still anxious to get books into the hands of young readers. The open house will be showing 78 books for children and young adults which the library received through a grant from the Libri Foundation. Various community members will be reading books to children in attendance.
Board member Linda Wetta encouraged families to attend together.
“We will be serving refreshments and most of the books and equipment we are showing off are part of the new focus of the area for children and young people,” she said. “We are excited for the community to see what we have done.”
For more information about Peabody Township Library, contact Charles at (620) 982-2502.