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Friends of Parke County Public Library

friends of parke county public library logo

The mission of the Friends of the Parke County Public Library is to promote excellence in library services by working with the Library Board and staff to support the library, its services and its programs. To carry out this mission, the Friend’s focus will be on advocacy, fundraising, public relations, and volunteer services.

Meetings

The Friends of the Parke County Public Library meet once a month, usually on the 4th Wednesday at 3:45 pm in the Board Room at the Library.

What are some of the projects the Friends do?

The Friends of the PCPL help the Parke County Public Library in various ways. 

  1. We aid in planning and hosting programs.
    • Like helping organize events the Library will host in March and April for the Wabash Valley Big Read. These programs are hosted at PCPL in coordination with Vigo County Public Library and other participating libraries in the Wabash Valley. The program is centered on one book and copies of the book are available free through the grant obtained by the Vigo County Public Library. We will also help fund special guest speakers and other programs such as children’s events. We also volunteer at such events when we can!
  2. We have established a “Books on Buses” program on the buses of our school systems within Parke County to aid in access to reading materials.
    • The books are at the front of the bus in a bag and children can pick one up to read while on the bus. They can return it on the way off the bus or keep it to read at home. We stock and manage the books to keep options available!
  3. The Friends of the Library partner with the PCPL director to go into the schools to get library cards for high school students in Parke County.
    • Many of PCPL’s resources are available without a card, but others require a library card. We also want to encourage the use of the library. So we arrange to spend 10-15 minutes in each English class to talk about digital offerings, the library system, what resources are available to them and more to grow awareness and increase use of the library.