The Downtown Kiwanis Club hears an update on the public library

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – The Downtown Kiwanis Club received an update on the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library Tuesday from its Director, Martha Hendricks.

Hendricks talked about the many recent renovations and upgrades the library has experienced and how both the library and the community have benefitted from the changes.  She also touched on how the library has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hendricks said that people think books have gone away. Using pre COVID-19 numbers, Hendricks said 60 percent of items that are circulating at the library are print books, audio-visual is trending downward along with DVD’s and CD’s because of all the things that are streaming.

Hendricks added that E-books are one of the things that continues to climb and when COVID-19 struck, e-books jumped up to 27 percent.  Audio-visual went down 17 percent and print books went down to 56 percent because people didn’t have access to them anymore.

“We serve the smallest kids to adults with all kinds of programming and all kinds of different physical items, online items, you name it the library has it, and we have a really good online presence to keep in touch with our patrons,” Hendricks said.

Hendricks added that most of their regular and popular events have been cancelled because of COVID-19. Normally hundreds of children who would be at the library in June and July for their Summer Reading Program. However the programs are being held online.

Plans are moving ahead for the new North Branch of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library located near the intersection of the Purple Heart Parkway and Fort Campbell Blvd., at 435 Jordan Rd.

The North Branch of the library will feature many amenities for the community, including a children’s department, a teen area, 18 computers for the public, meeting rooms, study rooms, small café, a kiosk for the Montgomery County Clerk’s office, and more.

The Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library is at 350 Pageant Lane, Suite 501.  For more information visit mcgtn.org/library or call 931-648-8826.