For many of us, connecting with friends and family has been especially challenging this year. If you’re unable to spend time with loved ones in person this holiday season, here are some tools to help you connect with them online! 

To access these resources you’ll need your library card number and password. If you’re not sure where to find that information, visit our eLibrary access guide to get started.

Ancestry.com Read more about Get to Know Your Family!

The Downtown Library is home to a community mask station provided by Bloomington Mask Drive! Located in the parking lot entryway, the self-serve station is stocked with free masks for adults and children and can be accessed during open Library hours.

Wearing a face mask is one of the simplest, most effective ways to slow the spread of COVID-19. The Library is delighted to partner with Bloomington Mask Drive to offer free masks to the community and further its goal to provide a self and welcoming place for all.

Bloomington Mask Drive was founded by Kelly Clark and Nola Hartman, a former MCPL Librarian, with the mission to slow the spread of COVID-19 by providing clean, high-quality, homemade fabric masks to residents of Bloomington and Monroe County free of charge. Read more about Free Masks at the Downtown Library

Welcome to the third issue of the Library's community Quaranzine!

There are two different versions––one is for reading on a screen, and the other has been imposed so it can be printed at home, folded, stapled, and read in that fashion. Select short-side binding on most printers to print correctly.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this zine. Please consider contributing to the next issue, coming September 1! Read more about Quaranzine, Vol. 3

Zines are for everyone! And that means everyone: adults, teens, and even kids! Included in that are zines written for teens, as well as zines written by teens.

Young people making zines isn’t by any means a new pastime, it's a passion many have enjoyed for years. When you were in elementary or middle school you probably knew some budding young comic artist, if you were not one yourself, who produced and sold mini comic books. Those were zines, even if you didn’t call them that at the time.

Local teens are also zinesters! Here are a few of the zines designed by local teens that we carry:

Do you have a favorite book you'd like to share with other Monroe County Public Library patrons?  Impressed by the idea of a review that you wrote showing up in the library's catalog for other patrons to find and read? If you are the kind of person who doesn't just want to read good books, but also write about good books then we've got something new for you.

It is now possible for patrons who want to write reviews of library materials to do so.  Visit the Create Local Review page and let us know what you think of your recently read book or ebook. Maybe you listened to an audiobook, a music cd or even watched a movie you'd like other patrons to know about.  Write as much or as little as you'd like, and give a rating of 1-5 stars.  Once the reviews are published, they will show up in the catalog under the record for the selected title.  The complete list of local reviews can be found together on our website as well. 

Library staff will continue to write reviews here on this blog, but now you can share your voice too.  Happy reviewing!