With Naperville School District 203 already back in school and Indian Prairie School District 204 starting next week, the Naperville Public Library is excited to welcome back students.
How students can utilize the Naperville Public Library
The 95th Street Library, located at 3015 Cedar Glade Drive, sits right next to Neuqua Valley High School. Once the bell rings and class is out of session, a wave of students flock over to the 95th Street library.
“They like to take a pitstop at Dunkin Donuts before they come here, but, you know, come the school year, these tables are full,” said Naperville 95th Street Public Library Teen Services Librarian Brianna Wyss. “There are kids working on stuff for school, you know, different fun projects, group projects. It’s really cool to see all the Naperville kids here using their library.”
Students can also utilize the library’s study rooms, which are open on a first-come, first-serve basis. If needing a study break, teens can enjoy many other activities.
“The teen services area (is) a place just for teens in our library,” said Wyss. “We have computers, and we have a lot of gamers here in the summer, but come school time, it’s a great place to do homework. We also have an area where we have a Wii and a (Nintendo) Switch that teens can check out while they’re at the library and play it here.
Library activities and programs
There are plenty of activities and programs for all ages, offered by the Naperville Public Library. This fall, the library revamped its 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program, which recently launched online.
“It’s gauged for kids that are just born, all the way up to kindergarten,” said Naperville 95th Street Public Library Children Services Librarian Ian Reed. “The whole point of the program is to get kids to read every day as often as they can because we find that reading to your child every day promotes literacy. It helps with language, it helps with vocabulary, it helps promote their imaginations, and it instills a love of reading.”
Many of the library’s programs aren’t focused on reading.
“Libraries these days are a lot more about sharing resources with your communities beyond books,” said Wyss.
Programs such as Google Docs for Kids, Pokemon Club, and more can be found at the 95th Street Library.
“Our computer classroom is really great because we can have up to ten people in a room,” Wyss said. “We close it off and we teach people a whole host of different skills. We’ve taught Photoshop classes in the past, a lot of different Microsoft (classes), and we teach genealogy courses in there.”
Naperville Public Library staff reflect on their job
When it comes to working at the 95th Street Library, Wyss says her favorite part of the job is giving readers book recommendations. Clark explained it’s the young bookworms who bring a smile to his face.
“I get to work with kids every day, and I get to be paid for having fun, which is, you know, a dream job,” said Reed.
It turns out that Reed’s name is perfect for a librarian.
“Well, my name is Ian, which means I put the Ian in librar-ian,” Reed said. “So of course, my wife had to get me a lanyard that says something similar. It says Master Librar-Ian on it. So I couldn’t pass up that opportunity.
Naperville Public Library also has many activities for adults, including some tech classes to help seniors. There are dozens of programs for every age group, all of which can be found on the Naperville Public Library website.
Have a story idea? Send us a tip!
