Spring 2024 will be a good season for our local libraries — the new Glendale branch reopened on March 30, at its new location, the former site of John Strange Elementary School at 3660 E. 62nd St.
But beyond a new, beautiful library, there’s a lot more to explore. Here’s a list of more things happening right now to check out with your library card this season.
More braille books
In an effort to be more inclusive, the library expanded its collection of braille books in February.
It added 35 new braille titles for children. Those titles include “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” by Eric Carle, “Clifford’s Noisy Day,” by Norman Bridwell, and “Peekaboo Morning,” by Rachel Isadora, as well as others.
The new titles can be browsed at seven library locations: Central, 40 E. St. Clair St.; College Avenue, 4180 N. College Ave.; Fort Ben, 9330 E. 56th St.; Franklin Road, 5550 S. Franklin Road; Lawrence, 7898 Hague Road; Nora, 8625 Guilford Ave., and Glendale at 3660 E. 62nd St. Patrons also can place braille titles on hold and have them sent to any Indianapolis Public Library location for pickup.
New audio book options
The library has thousands of audiobooks for children, teens and adults, most of which can be checked out directly from the library catalog and which can be downloaded with a library card through a website or app, such as OverDrive and Hoopla.
Audiobook platforms catering to kids include video read alouds and e-book read alongs.
[This new program is helping to improve student literacy rates.]
The library also has an audio-enabled book collection of print books that have an audio player permanently attached to them, allowing kids to listen and read at the same time.
Another new library feature: playaways. Playaways are audiobooks preloaded onto individual, pocket-sized devices that don’t require downloads or Wi-Fi connections. Playaways offer more than 30 hours of listening and are available for adults and teens and include a range of topics from “Become a Better You,” by Joel Osteen, to “Lord of the Flies,” by William Golding.
The library staff provides a variety of recommendations for audiobook lovers through the main website: www.indypl.org. Library patrons who want to receive book recommendations to their inbox also can subscribe to the library’s NextReads newsletter.
History of Oasis of Hope Baptist Church preserved
The Indianapolis Public Library also is continuing its efforts to use digitization to preserve the city’s unique history and culture.
In its latest effort, about 4,000 photographs, newsletters, documents and oral histories of the Oasis of Hope Baptist Church have been recorded with digital technology and now can be accessed from among the library’s digital collections at this address: Oasis of Hope Baptist Church – The Indianapolis Public Library Digital Collections (oclc.org).
The church has had a long presence in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood, since it opened in 1938 as the 16th Street Baptist Church. Most of the church’s digital collection focuses on the years from the 1990s-2010s.
The library says it wants to digitize the history of more local churches and houses of worship.
More resources for IPS students
The library is expanding access this spring to its digital and physical resources for 5,000 students at 12 more Indianapolis Public Schools.
Those schools will join 14 other IPS schools — and nearly 8,900 students — already taking part in the Indianapolis Public Library’s Shared System.
The Shared System is a collaboration between the Indianapolis Public Library, 66 schools, two special libraries, and three museums that allows students to use the library’s catalog to request books, DVDs and CDs owned by IPL or other Shared System members, which are then delivered by the library to IPS.
[Documenters: See their coverage of the Library Board Committee meetings]
Students at Shared System member libraries will now have access to 2 million more books, resources and databases, in addition to their own school library’s collections.
These IPS school libraries are entering the Shared System: Christian Park School 82, Daniel Webster School 46, George Julian School 57, James A. Garfield School 31, Lew Wallace School 107, William McKinley School 39, Eliza Baker (Butler Lab) School 55, William Bell (Butler Lab) School 60, Eleanor Skillen School 34, Frederick Douglass School 19, Robert Lee Frost School 106, and Rousseau McClellan School 91.
Learning about Ramadan
The library’s main website includes a link to a staff-created list of books written for children about the Ramadan religious holiday and Muslim culture in general. The titles include “The Gift of Ramadan,” by Rabiah York Lumbard, “Hassan and Aneesa Love Ramadan,” by Yasmeen Raheem, and “Under My Hijab,” by Hena Khan.
Juneteenth celebration
The Center for Black Literature & Culture at the Central Library will host its seventh-annual Book Fest and Juneteenth Celebration from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 15. The featured speaker this year is New York Times bestselling author JaQuavis Coleman and there also will be a performance by Poet Laurent Januarie York, a film showing by the IU Bloomington Black Film Center & Archive, an African drumming exhibition by SitEAW Inc. and other musical performances.
Dwight Adams is a contributor for Mirror Indy. Contact him at hdadams0621@gmail.com.