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By EMILY SPARACINO | Staff Writer

WILSONVILLE – The Vernice Stoudenmire Library in Wilsonville now offers an updated selection of resource books thanks to an infusion of federal grant funds.

The library received a $10,000 Library Services and Technology Act grant to update its juvenile resource section, where many of the books were 25 years old or older.

“When COVID hit and people were trying to come to the library to check out books for their kids, we realized the average age of our resource books was for 25 years ago,” Library Director Robin Griffin said. “We can only buy a few books a month, and that makes it difficult to maintain this section. Every few years, we need an input of money so we can go through and update stuff.”

The LSTA grant, coupled with a $2,500 match from the town, allowed the library to purchase more than 700 books to replace the outdated books.

“We have been able to purge a lot of these 1990s books out and replace them with books that address things like coding and new technology of drones and computers,” Griffin said. “A lot has been discovered in the past 30 years.”

The purged books will be either recycled or given to residents for personal use, such as homeschool craft projects, Griffin said.

When choosing new books to purchase, Griffin and librarian Amanda Killingsworth considered which ones might appeal to patrons not only in Wilsonville, but also the rest of the county.

“In the Shelby County library system, we can share them, so that’s one of the things we look for—finding books the whole county might benefit from,” Griffin said. “We have updated our resource section. It has more new books than it did before.”

In addition to a more modern resource section, the library is in the process of updating its juvenile fiction collection.

The library currently has a shelf of graphic novels, mostly for kids age 12 and under, along with a few young adult graphic novels.

The library will mark the end of another successful summer reading program with a Harry Potter Party on Friday, July 29 at 9 a.m. at Oak Meadow Park in Wilsonville.

The Vernice Stoudenmire Public Library is located at 9905 N. Main St., behind Wilsonville Town Hall.

The hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.