Nancy Klingener, Community Affairs Manager for Monroe County Public Library, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about what’s been going on in the libraries.
With school being out for summer soon, how can kids stay occupied?
Klingener said, “We are doing our summer reading programs, and I just like to say in terms of staying educated, yes, one of the main goals is so that kids do stay engaged with reading. But it’s not summer school. This is not vegetables, this is fun. So we have summer reading programs, and this year, something’s a little bit different, which is that each of our five branches is doing its own theme for our summer reading program. We don’t so much feature reading materials during these programs, although we will certainly suggest things along the theme, but we really just want to encourage people to come to the library to track their reading. That’s their choice of reading and the families and kids keep track of their reading. They can come and get prizes, and we have lots and lots of programs and events at each of the libraries, and all those schedules are up online.”
Some of the programs are a lot of fun.
Klingener said, “Think of the library as a place that’s fun where you can really have fun with other people as well. We have some really special programs lined up. Patty Shukla, who’s a real YouTube star, is going to be visiting each of our branches, and we’re going to have Farmer Jeanne with her animals. That’s always a real favorite.”
Summer programs are happening in June and July.
Klingener said, “There’s a summer reading post right on our homepage that’ll give you information about each of the branches, and you can contact us if you are looking for more and another thing that’s on our homepage and in that summer reading post, if you are looking for books that your kids might like there’s a group called the Florida Media Educators, basically school librarians, and every year they come up with an awards, and their nominees just came out for the Sunshine State Young Reader Awards. So we made a list of all the books that are nominees that we have in our collection, and you can just select and borrow them.”
Libby is always available with eBooks, e-audio books and digital magazines at any time, any place.
Klingener said, “From now until May 29 there’s a big library read on Libby, which is, normally we only have one or maybe a couple copies of an e-book, and if you aren’t the first one to get there, you have to wait. But for these big library reads, there are no wait lists and no holds, so you can just get that book right now as an e-book or e-audio book, and it’s called Uncommon Measure by Natalie Hodges. It’s a memoir. So that’s kind of a fun thing. There’s an online message board and discussions, or you can post on social media about it. So that’s kind of a fun thing.”
The event calendar on the website is full of great information for all the branches.
Klingener said, “Also, if you really want to keep up on what’s happening at your local branch or branches down at the bottom of the website, there’s a spot where you can sign up for our email newsletters, and if you just click on that and say which newsletter you want, you’ll get an email at the end of the month telling you what’s going on at the local branch in the month ahead. We have lots of programs going on, and season slows down a little bit, but we still make sure that we have lots going on for our year round locals. Arts programs, crafts, movies, all kinds of activities that you can do, maybe now you have a little more time and you can do it.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keyslibraries.org/