Independence County Library has been selected as one of 240 libraries to participate in Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities, an American Library Association (ALA) initiative that provides community engagement and accessibility resources to small and rural libraries to help them better serve people with disabilities.
The competitive award comes with a $10,000 grant that will help the library improve accessibility for patrons that may have trouble opening the library’s current front doors. The grant funds will be utilized to install fully automatic doors at the front of the building.
Carlene Morrison, Independence County Library director, and Babbetta Engle-Griffitts, cataloger/collection development, spearheaded the Accessible Small and Rural Communities grant.
“We are delighted to be chosen for this project,” said Morrison. “This grant will allow us to address some of the problems our residents with disabilities face. It will help us improve our services, as well as learn more about the community we are serving. This is a need we have wanted to address for a long time, and now, with this award, our library has the means to finally address it.”
“Making the library accessible to everyone is our goal with this project- patrons facing reduced mobility, patrons with small children or strollers, or those with their hands full. Every community member will benefit greatly from this opportunity,” said Morrison.
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