April 2015 – Kansas Book Festival

Leading up to our 5^th Annual Kansas Book Festival, we plan to feature some awesome libraries from across the state on our blog. Since this is National Library Week, there’s no better time to get this feature started!

To start things off, we’re headed down to Independence. They have some really fun things going on in their library for all ages. We’re particularly fond of their 2015 library advocacy campaign slogan, “Behind every great community is a great library.” We’d have to agree!

We’ll highlight a few of their fun programs below:

Christmas Tree Lighting and Holiday Festival
This program involves their entire community. There were more than 600 people at least year’s festival and the library was packed to the gills. In the month leading up to the festival, children can earn library bucks for the books they read and they can then redeem those bucks for gifts the night of the festival. The kids read more than 3,000 books to earn library bucks!

Their summer reading kick off is always a hit, as well. Last year was a Mad Science Fair theme where kids created things, conducted experiments, learned about scientific principals, enjoyed food and signed up for the summer reading program. City leaders and teachers joined in on the fun and helped at the different stations.

They’ve also just started their Big Read Grant and this year, if focuses on Edgar Allan Poe. It’s for adults, children and teens and even in English and Spanish! Some of the fun events will include an open mic night at the community college, a poetry workshop and performance by Indie Hip-Hop artist MC Lars, book and film discussions, trivia contests, art projects and even a Poe pub crawl.

There’s a lot going on in Independence. They’ve created fun spaces inside their library for different age groups, they host groups called “Sheep on a Stick” that do knitting, crocheting and other needlework for such as Purple Hats for Babies, Afghans for Soldiers and Chemo Caps for cancer patients.

And don’t forget about Trixie, the Library Cat. She was abandoned in front of the library in October 2009. Trixie even has her own Facebook page.

And finally, the fuel to all of these great programs is the staff. Congratulations to all of you working at the Independence Public Library. You are the inspiration we all need when looking for innovative ways to connect with those in our respective communities.