Despite being in the coverage area for the Johnson County Public Library system, Bargersville is five miles from the closest library branch.
Although the town has only a fraction of the population size of Greenwood and Franklin, that population increased by 147 percent between 2008 and 2017, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. With the upcoming opening of Walnut Grove Elementary School and the extension of Interstate 69, the number of people in the community seeking library services will likely continue to increase, said Todd Jones, Trafalgar branch manager, who leads the newly formed task force investigating which library services the community needs most.
The library system has no current plans to bring a library branch to the town, Jones said.
The task force includes seven managerial staff representing all library branches. The committee’s first meeting in March was a brainstorming session, during which members of the task force were prepared with a few ideas, at least one of which is likely to become a reality, Jones said.
“We’re looking at unstaffed collection kiosks, a possible bookmobile service, (which is) a sort of rolling library that takes collection and programming into areas that are underserved by the library and don’t have any branches,” Jones said. “We haven’t had one at the Johnson County Public Library for 20 years or more, but this is something we may look into for Bargersville."
Another idea is remote lockers, Jones said.
With a remote locker, a Bargersville resident can place a hold on an item in the library system’s collection. A courier van would bring that item to a locker, which could be in a public building such as a town hall or a standalone kiosk outside. The library patron would use a unique code to access their locker, Jones said.
Aside from how to deliver library materials to Bargersville residents, the library system is strategizing on making sure people there know about their services, such as story times and other programs, he said.
The library also provides services to preschools and daycares, and is looking to expand those offerings.
The library system is also spreading word of their services through nearby elementary schools, such as Maple Grove and Union Elementary schools. The library system will also have a booth at the Bargersville farmer’s market, and is looking to do children’s story times on Wednesday evenings this summer, he said.
For adults, the library wants to discuss its services with residents of the Bargersville Senior Center and is also looking at locations in or near Bargersville for its Stout Stories Book Club, which meets at various brew pubs and wineries. The library system will also bring its StoryWalk, which places pages of a story along a path, to Bargersville’s Windisch Park for the first time this month, Jones said.
