MIAMI, Ok. — A local library has a new addition for area teens.
Without the help of J-Farms Charity Golf Tournament the center wouldn’t have happened. The Miami Public Library did have a open house in October for the new teen addition, but with covid-19 this year, it’s been a challenge to get the word out about it.
Judy Beauchamp Children’s Librarian, said, “We had our open house in October but of course due to covid we’ve probably had limited amount of people to enjoy it so far.”
The library received a $10,000 donation from the j-Farms Charity Gold Tournament and named the center after Marge Jurgensmeyer who served the library board in May of 1994.
Marcia Johnson, Director of Miami Library, said, “One of the things I remember about Marge is that she was just a very classy lady and she kept her minutes in a marble board book. She had fancy script writing on velmer paper and kept it very organized and neat and very classy looking. And so she served from that position for eight years so it’s nice to have something named after her.”
The library had a focus group with parents and their kids to see what their top concerns the library needed.
“We have never had anything like this before we did have some teen books gathered together but we didn’t have a place to just to come and feel comfortable and visit maybe use computers and we look forward to a time you know when covids past us we’re really pressed to try to get groups in here and we’ll have some group events for teens and so we fully expect to see a lot of kids here.”
With the donation they were able to get new things.
“We have lots of new furniture, we have no book cases, new books, uh an area that teens can look comfortable in. They’ll be able to check out laptops at the front desk take back here, relax do homework, all kinds of fun stuff,” said Beauchamp.
The area is not just for teens.
“It’s open to anyone but it’s kinda designed for teens as you can see. And the books we have right in this area are young adult and teen.”
With the new addition, they hope the community will take advantage of the space.
“I just love it I can’t wait till we have a little bit more freedom and people can actually come in here and enjoy themselves. We have board games and puzzles and hopefully we will soon see teen sitting around and enjoying all that.”
If you are in the area and need a quiet place to study, the center is open for use.
