Central library staff outline renovations, expanded programs and community outreach; Nora soft-opened, Pike reopening planned

Central Library staff and the Indianapolis Public Library’s programming team used the board’s March meeting to summarize recent facility upgrades, systemwide programs, and community partnerships.

Liz Shetley, director of Central Library, told trustees that Central is organized into six departments — central adult services, the Learning Curve (juvenile area), central services, the Center for Black Literature and Culture (CBLC), security, and events — and that the building serves patrons from across Marion County and beyond. Shetley said nearly 340,000 people visited Central between mid-March and the end of the prior year using a new door-counting system introduced in mid-March; that system produced an interior count of 28,631 for the CVLC door count in that same period.

Shetley described ongoing renovations on the Second and Third floors: DVDs and CDs are being relocated to 2 East and staff expect that area to open for circulation in early April; phase two will rework 3 West and redesign restrooms on that floor, and the Third Floor will become a dedicated juvenile area. She also noted recent and upcoming branch reopenings: a soft opening for the Nora branch had taken place the prior week after a facility refresh that included study rooms, a larger children’s area and accessibility upgrades, and the Pike branch was scheduled for a community reopening event the coming Saturday. Shetley said both projects were funded with bond proceeds.

Shetley outlined core Central services and staff: Robin Kelly manages adult services; Christopher Hogshead leads the juvenile area (absent from the meeting), Brianna Barnes serves as public service associate at the Center for Black Literature and Culture while a manager is being hired, and Jason Martin and Kojo Turner supervise security. Shetley also described wide-ranging public programs at Central, including chess nights and tournaments run by Jordan Hunt and Charlie Kane, makerspace offerings such as 3D printing, and after-hours event uses of the atrium.

Program Development area managers Caitlin Coyne (adult services area resource manager) and Shell Weidenbach (juvenile services area resource manager) presented the programming department’s roadmap. They said the team begins with identifying community needs, develops program proposals using equity tools and community action plans (CAPs), coordinates logistics and staff training, and then evaluates and reports program outcomes. Coyne and Weidenbach credited the Indianapolis Library Foundation with funding a large share of programming and named partnerships with schools and community groups — including IPS summer school, refugee-serving organizations and Newfields — for specific summer and community programs such as book deliveries, a story walk at Newfields (opening April 19), and Meet Your Neighbor programs.

The presenters provided counts and participation figures for 2024 program activity systemwide: staff reported roughly 513 adult programs with about 7,600 attendees and about 530 juvenile programs with approximately 18,000 attendees. They highlighted recurring initiatives such as thousand-books-before-kindergarten and summer reading, plus new or expanding efforts including dementia-friendly branch certification and kits and event supplies distributed systemwide. Coyne and Weidenbach also described school-year partnerships aimed at supporting second- and third-graders at risk of failing IREAD-3 through summer reading and book-delivery efforts.

Shetley and programming staff walked trustees through a calendar of upcoming events: CBLC’s Juneteenth author/book festival and a conversation with a library literacy ambassador on June 14; Dia del Niño/Be My Neighbor Day with prior attendance in the thousands; summer reading with a natural-history theme (junior paleontology, geology and stone-carving demonstrations); and Circulate, the library foundation’s fundraising event in May. Shetley said naturalization ceremonies are held twice monthly in the building; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff estimate 80 to 100 people are naturalized at each ceremony.

Greg Hill, CEO, added systemwide statistics and staff recognition highlights. Hill said an average day in February included 13,360 items circulated, 6,636 visitors, 228 new cardholders per day and 27 programs on a typical day; he reported top-circulating branches and several branch-level program successes. Hill also presented staff recognitions and said the library had moved its social work office to the Central Library main floor and hired a social work manager. He noted the library was certified by EmployIndy as part of the Good Wages Initiative and recognized as a 2025 Gold Bell Seal recipient by Mental Health America for workplace mental health programming.

During public comment, Nick Johnstone described his family’s experience with the library’s STEM and robotics offerings and praised staff for individualized attention and the STEM club culture. The board acknowledged the comment and thanked the staff involved.

Board members and staff traded questions and brief discussion about collection moves, shelving and the timeline for the DVD/CD area to reopen. Shetley said new shelving for the children’s collection and coordination with CMSA were underway. Trustees thanked staff for programming work and branch improvements and noted the foundation’s ongoing financial support of many programs.