2022 Review
Greetings from the Charleston Carnegie Public Library! We want to take a moment to thank everyone who has helped the Library through donations of money, gifts, personal time, and more over the last year! We continue to be humbled and grateful for the generosity, support, and encouragement we receive from our community. We would like to take this chance to highlight some of the fun and work we’ve been up to this year!
Throughout the year, we continued to offer the programs and services our community knows and relies upon, including Summer Read, which ran from May 30 through July 31 and helped encourage our community to read 8,653 hours! During Summer Read, we hosted 85 programs that had 976 attendees. We joined Illinois Libraries Present, a collaboration aimed at bringing high-quality online author events to our community, including events with Marlee Matlin, Nick Offerman, and more—with even more upcoming!
Our biggest and most ambitious adventure this year was the launch of our new program—the Coles County Social Service Navigators. The Navigator program’s mission is to help community members find, understand, and obtain assistance. The Navigators offer referrals to community resources in Coles County, including children and family programs, food banks, homeless shelters, substance abuse counseling, and more. The Navigators also provide Dial-a-Ride tokens to low-income individuals and families. In addition to all of that, the Navigators help community members with applications for SNAP, basic medical assistance, SafeLink & Assurance Wireless, and the Affordable Connectivity Program. Our hope is that this program will help our community discover and access all of the opportunities for help that can be found in our area.
We were thrilled to bring back our fundraiser Literature & Libations! Moondogs kept the music flowing, Brick House Bar & Grill kept us well fed, and Gateway Liquors kept us...ahem…well hydrated. We also had a silent auction, a book tree raffle, and mini golf! Thank you to our event sponsors and to everyone who came out and made it the exciting evening that it was. With everyone’s support, we were able to raise over $5,500 for the Library! Thank you!
From a facilities view, with the aid of the City of Charleston, we have invested over $90,000 into the HVAC system at the Library. As we continue to grow and develop our resources, services, and programs, we are always working to maintain this wonderful facility.
As the leadership of the Charleston Carnegie Public Library, we could not be more proud of the work the Library staff has done, and we hope you will consider joining us in our effort to serve our community by making a donation to the Charleston Carnegie Public Library.