At 1 p.m. on a recent afternoon, the doors open and five regulars trickle in, taking their places at the computers, in the rocking chair and at the table with the ipad. Most of them are children living in the Enos Park neighborhood and students at McClernand Elementary School. The oldest of the bunch proudly shows me the process of cataloguing the new books that come in. He reports he is a volunteer and reads to the younger kids. Where is this kid’s oasis? It’s the basement of Third Presbyterian Church, which is home to the lively Northside Children’s Community Library.
NCCL, or“nickel,” as it’s known, is a safe space for children as well as a resource center. “It’s more of a community center than a library,” says Enos Park resident and volunteer Tiffany Lapp. At NCCL, kids can enter on their own and read books, but also use resources they may not have at home such as computers, board games and help with homework.
A group from Third Presbyterian Church founded the Northside Children’s Community Library in 2011 in response to the closing of the north and west branches of Springfield’s Lincoln Library. They received $20,000 in grant money from the Presbytery of Great Rivers to get started and are now their own nonprofit organization that subsists through a variety of fundraisers and donors. Today, NCCL has close to 17,000 books that are available for checkout as well as four computers and two ipads.
Barbara Keinzler, the coordinator of the library for the past two years, is there during the hours of operation with another staff person, providing a safe space for children, help with writing papers and a little discipline. She has instituted a “15-minute reading candy bribe system” that seems to be working, according to the reading chart.
Activity planning is one of the challenges Keinzler faces, as she never knows how many children will be there on any given day. “Parents rarely check the Facebook page, so word of mouth and flyers work the best,” she says. The next planned activity is slime making, which follows last week’s volcano eruption. “The therapy dogs were a big hit.”
Dequan, who has been coming to the library since he was eight, is now a volunteer and ambassador for the library. “The kids make it fun,” he says at 16 years of age. Dequan is a former summer reading program winner. “I had so many tallies we had to add paper to the chart and wrap it around the bookshelf,” he explains. The Bike Doctor, an Enos Park bicycle business, donates two bikes a year to NCCL. At this point, Dequan has won two bikes. Other prizes include gift cards to McDonalds and Subway.
“NCCL is a safe space that is fun,” says volunteer Deborah Cavanagh as she shelves books.
Piles of recently donated books from Parkway Christian Church have not yet been tagged or catalogued. “We are always looking for donations. We’d love to get some yoga mats,” says Keinzler.
The libary is open three days a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 1-4 p.m. during the summer. However, the hours will soon change to 3-6 p.m. once school starts. NCCL is always looking for volunteers to lead activities or greet kids and catalogue books. You can find more information at northsdiechildrenslibrary.org or call 217-528-9277.
This article appears in Capital City Parent August 2018.
