Welcome to the Library - It’s Not Just for Books Anymore!

Libraries today are about so much more than just borrowing books. In our library, you can find plenty of books, but also DVDs, audiobooks, CDs, and a variety of items through our Library of Things. The Library of Things includes items to help the vision impaired (courtesy of donations from Dwight’s Lions Club), Tonies boxes and figurines for parents and children to borrow, puzzles of all sizes, games, educational tools, kitchenware, craft supplies, and much more. The library also has become a hub for the community to gather and enjoy fun, creative, and educational programming. We have hosted guest lecturers, book clubs, True Crime Club, craft night, and children’s activities, to name a few. The challenge comes in getting people to know about all that is being offered.  

How can a grant help? 

Prairie Creek Public Library has been the proud recipient of a My Library Is... Grant from RAILS. RAILS, Reaching Across Illinois Library System, provides Prairie Creek with our deliveries of interlibrary loan materials. When our patrons place holds online and receive materials from other libraries, RAILS is our partner who gets those to our patrons! 

The My Library Is... Grant was awarded to the library for trying to spread the word about the library, and also reaching out to serve an underprivileged population. In this case, Dwight recently saw the addition of a new subsidized housing facility, and the library was preparing to meet the needs of these new residents, while continuing to meet the needs of our existing patrons. The library also needed some supplies to facilitate Dwight Woman’s Club’s Book Women of Dwight delivery program.  

“I didn’t even know Dwight has a library!” 

More than once, a patron has walked into the library to make this statement. While our library sits in an idyllic, historic, and beautiful spot, it also sits off any main road, and people could drive right past it without seeing it. In the past few years, the library staff has been working hard to increase our visibility in the community and make people aware of our services. The library is not just for books anymore, and people need to know that we offer a number of other services and programs. 

We have been offering a full slate of fun and interesting programming to draw people into the building and make them aware of everything the library has to offer.  

Welcome to Dwight! Let us introduce you to the library… 

In anticipation of new residents, the library upgraded the technology we offer. We realize many of the new residents may not have access to a computer and/or internet service at home, so they can come to the library to meet this need. Our previous patron computers were older and slow. We upgraded with new and faster laptops. The library also has printers and scanners available for use with these laptops.   

In addition to the regular patron computers, the library purchased one Chromebook for use in the children’s library. With an influx of homeschooling families using the library, a Chromebook is a valuable asset for these families.  

In order to introduce ourselves to new patrons in our community who may not be aware of the library, we purchased an eco-tank printer to be housed upstairs in the children’s department. This printer will be economically beneficial long term because ink for our current color printer is quite expensive, and the quality of prints is not the best. This printer gives us the ability to print attractive flyers and brochures in-house, in a timely manner and in a greater quantity. In addition to brochures, we also purchased magnets with the library’s location, hours, and contact information.  

The Book Women of Dwight 

We also were able to use some of the grant money to put toward totes and luggage tags for use with the Dwight Woman’s Club’s Book Women service. This program makes the library accessible to our elderly patrons who no longer can travel to the library in person. Through this service, library materials, including books, audiobooks, DVDs, and puzzles are delivered to the residents of Arc, Heritage Woods, and some homebound patrons. Library card drives are conducted at these facilities a couple of times a year as well.  

Dwight Woman’s Club members make deliveries to these patrons twice a month, and the totes and luggage tags help the club members and the staff at the care facility deliver materials to the correct patrons more easily.  

THANK YOU, RAILS! 

Thanks to this grant from RAILS, the library was able to make these purchases to improve our library without using any of our regular operating funds. 

This week’s blog post was written by Kim Frauli, Director, Prairie Creek Public Library. 

This project was made possible by the My Library Is... Grant.