Pavilion hosts first event

Gibson Memorial Library’s pavilion was packed for its first event, welcoming families for a summer reading program kickoff made of music, fun and foam - lots and lots of foam.

For two hours on Saturday, families were invited to party in celebration of the summer reading program. Sidewalk chalk, yard games, pizza and popsicles were available for free, along with a foam party by Zoop’s Fun Zone.

This was the first of many events to be held in the newly constructed pavilion this summer. While still receiving brickwork and getting outlets installed, the pavilion should be completed by next week.

Though the pavilion itself is almost complete, there is still plenty of work to finish the project. Grass has been seeded around the pavilion with the plan to add mulch north of the pavilion for an eventual butterfly garden.

The library has also received a $10,000 grant from South Central Iowa Community Foundation in order to furnish the pavilion. The grant will be officially given later this month.

Along with the $10,000 for pavilion furniture, South Central Iowa Community Foundation has awarded the library $2,000 for genealogy room improvements.

In other library news…

The library is looking to switch things up with the streaming service Kanopy. For the past year, library patrons have had unlimited access to about 1,000 films for free. The library has seen very little use of this option, and will instead try a pay-per-view catalog, which consists of more films and series. With the pay-per-view option, library patrons will be able to watch a limited amount of media per month, with the library only charged for the media viewed, rather than for the whole catalog.

The Friends of the Library have approved the hotspot application with UScellular. If awarded, the library would receive the hotspots in fall of this year.

A new story walk has been set up at Green Valley State Park. Starting at the campground, families can follow “The Bear Ate Your Sandwich” by Julia Sarcone-Roach on the trail through the park.