HANCOCK COUNTY – Raising a big family amid the farm fields in eastern Hancock County, Tami Fish has to be strategic with how often she drives into town.
The mother of seven is a big fan of the library drop box located just by the Eastern Hancock County schools, which saves her a 40-minute round trip to the Hancock County Public Library in Greenfield.
“We love the library drop box. We have a lot of kiddos who read lots of books. The box helps to insure we don’t misplace any,” said Fish, who lives an eight-minute drive from the school.
Fish is among a number of local library patrons who utilize the public library’s two drop boxes – one in the parking lot of the Eastern Hancock schools and the other on the west end of the county by Mt. Comfort Elementary School, north of Greenfield.
Both collection sites got an upgrade last week with new bins replacing the metal receptacles that were installed more than 20 years ago.
“They were a little rusted out and we don’t want weather to (damage) the library materials,” said Dave Gray, director of the Hancock County Public Library.
The library serves all of the county but Vernon Township through its two branches, the main branch in Greenfield and the Sugar Creek branch in New Palestine, yet those locations are a significant drive from some of the more remote corners of the county.
Fish said the rural collection bins are a godsend for people like her.
“I make several trips to school a day, so it is much more convenient to drop the books off in the drop box as we finish reading them than to wait for their due date and return them all together at the library,” said Fish, who expressed her thanks to the library for providing the bins.
Gray praised the participating schools for collaborating on installing the collection boxes, which get a lot of use.
The bin at Mt. Comfort averages about 50 items a day while the bin at Eastern Hancock averages about 75 items a week.
“I think they serve a very important purpose,” said Gray.
“It’s a lot easier to say ‘Hey, I need to return some materials but I don’t want to make the trip to New Pal or Greenfield,’ and just drop them off closer to home. There’s a big convenience factor,” he said.
Libby Manship, the library’s board president who lives in the Eastern Hancock school district, is also a big fan.
While she visits the library regularly, she appreciates the convenience of being able to drop materials off at the nearby collection site without making the 20-mile round trip to the nearest branch.
“Reading is just so critically important for youth,” said Manship, a mother of three, “but we don’t always have time to get to the library around our kids’ schedules and work schedules. We both work, the kids work, so having the opportunity to conveniently return things is really helpful,” she said.
Manship said the convenience factor likely attributes to the fact that library use has increased among patrons living on the east end of the county over the past couple of years.
Beyond the collection bins, the library offers a number of ways for patrons to receive and return materials.
Students in each school district the system serves – Greenfield-Central, Eastern Hancock and New Palestine – are automatically enrolled for a Hancock County Public Library card upon school enrollment.
Both students and teachers can request and receive library materials at school.
“That’s really cool because some students don’t live in this district, and some don’t even live in the county, but they can still get access to the public library,” said Manship.
The library also sends its Bookmobile loaded with books to various parts of the county each month, including schools and senior living communities, and offers a courier service which can deliver materials directly to patrons throughout the county.
“We started the courier service during COVID but it’s not hugely popular anymore,” said Gray.
What is popular is requesting materials to be sent back and forth between the library’s two branches in Greenfield and New Palestine each day, saving patrons the trip.
Manship said the library’s services are constantly evolving to meet the community’s needs.
“Libraries today play a different role than libraries of the past,” she said.
“They give access to WiFi, they can help with job searches, they can help with historical research. There are also great opportunities to participate in future planning efforts in the community through our library engagement,” said Manship.
“We have consistently relied on the library staff to help with special literacy needs our kids have had. Whether it’s finding a certain genre they’re required to read for school or supporting a kid who is struggling with reading from time to time, the library staff has been awesome to help us navigate through that with their expertise.”
