Here’s how you can help the Jones County Public Library move back home

The Jones County Public Library is returning to its renovated home, and the librarians are asking for the public’s help with moving some of the books. The library has more than 3,300 items.

“We are soon to be moving home to our original spot,” said Leisl Hammond, the branch manager for Jones County Public Library. “You can check out up to 50 books. Take them home, watch over them for us for about a month and bring them back to us when we reopen.”

The last day to check out books from the library’s location at Jones County Pre-K is Friday. The library will be closed for three weeks while it moves back to 146 Railroad St., and it will reopen April 1, Hammond said.

“The children especially, I think, have gotten a kick out of it because when they do check out their 50 books or however many books actually they check out, we give them a button that says, ‘I helped move the Jones County Library,’” Hammond said.

Hammond said the renovations for the library were a team effort that has been sought after for years.

“We’re very excited that this project’s almost completed, and we sure want to invite everybody to come and enjoy it with us when we get reopened,” she said.

The project cost more than $1.7 million to complete. A state capital outlay grant covered $1.3 million while $450,000 of funds came from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funds, and $17,000 came from impact fees, according to The Jones County News.

Jeanne Peloquin, the marketing coordinator for Middle Georgia Regional Library, said the library will have an area dedicated to senior citizens. It will include comfortable seating, computers with adaptive technology and large print materials.

“It’s going to be kind of a one-stop-accessibility shop, and again another way for the library to be accessible and responsive to the community,” she said.

Peloquin also said the library will now have around 21 computers, which is triple the amount they had.

Hammond said the renovated library will have larger meeting areas for the community, tables with outlets and updated technology. She said they will also host computer classes using the additional computers.

“We wanted to have the library renovated because our county’s growing, and so we wanted to grow with the county,” Hammond said. “We just wanted to be able to offer the best to the county.”