Slash Subscriptions in 2026

With so many entertainment platforms, it’s easy to stack subscriptions and blow your budget. We’re here to help you save your hard earned cash! Put away your credit card, pull out your library card, and try some of our Library services.

Instead of Netflix, plan your movie nights with Kanopy, a high-quality video streaming service with over 30,000 films. Don’t miss Kanopy’s monthly themed collections as well!

An Open Letter to the Monroe County Community from Library Director Grier Carson

To our patrons, neighbors, and friends throughout Monroe County:

On behalf of the Monroe County Public Library, its staff, and its Board of Trustees, I want to draw your attention to a development of great significance to MCPL and to libraries across the country.

Add Library Programs to Your Calendar Automatically

Add Library Programs to Your Calendar Automatically

Did you know that you can add Library programs to any calendar app that uses iCal format, such as Google or Apple Calendar? There are just a few steps you need to follow. Additionally, when the Library adds new programs, your calendar will automatically update, so you'll never miss a program!

Celebrate Intellectual Freedom and the Right to Read

Read For Your Rights Banned Books Week 2025

Banned Books Week
October 5–11, 2025

Banned Books Week, launched in 1982 by the American Library Association, highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community—librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types—in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas. Right now, intellectual freedom and the right to read are in jeopardy due to organized attempts of censorship across the country.

2023 Be More Awards Recognize Library Volunteers

2023 Be More Awards Library Volunteers Ann Bunger and Sylvia McNair

We are so fortunate to have volunteers who contribute their time, talent, and energy to the Library! Today, we celebrate two volunteers who go above and beyond—Ann Bunger and Sylvia McNair, 2023 recipients of the City of Bloomington Volunteer Network Be More Awards! 

Indiana Room Helps Rediscover Lost Treasures

Black and white scan of an illustration of an open book with stars, a butterfly, balloons, and a rainbow. Illustrated text reads "Discover a great book at the MCPL!" by Amy Heeter, Binford 5th

After rediscovering pieces of writing from her daughter, Ariel, during her time as a student at University Elementary School in Bloomington, Amanda Ray shipped a box of various childhood gems—including an award winning piece that had been published locally in the The Herald-Times in 1995—all the way to Ariel’s new home in Maryland. She was hoping that Ariel would be able to share the pieces with her young children to inspire them to write stories of their own, “because readers inspire reading and writers inspire writing,” said Amanda.

Great MCPL Kid’s Bake Off

A cake decorated with blue candy waves, a lightning bolt, a trident, and icing writing Percy Jackson.

The first Great MCPL Kid’s Bake Off is a wrap! We challenged 17 children to make their best book-inspired dessert. The catch? They had to include a mystery ingredient–beet root powder!

Each participant received a kit that included measuring spoons, beet root powder, some suggestions for baking books, and a copy of The Complete Cookbook for Young Scientists: Good Science Makes Great Food: 70+ Recipes, Experiments, & Activities to keep.

MCPL Digital Collection Launches

MCPL Digital is a growing repository of high-resolution digital photograph collections of Monroe County Yearbooks and other local historical records. Our mission is to bring digital versions of the community's historical records to a broader audience!

Library Director, Grier Carson, says the digitization program has been in full force since early 2020. The first items to be digitized were the Library’s collection of area school yearbooks.

Ellettsville Branch Awarded Gardening Grant

A photo of four raised garden beds outside of the Ellettsville Branch.

The Ellettsville Branch was recently awarded a Growing Together mini grant of $1,500 in association with Purdue Extension–Monroe County!

 

Ellettsville Branch Garden

The garden was created as part of the Branch’s 2019 renovation. The garden was funded in part by a grant from the Smithville Charitable Foundation to install raised garden beds and a bench and provide resources to begin gardening programming.

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