Library gets new “room”

White County Public Library has a new addition in the form of a soundproof booth for their patrons to use to participate in virtual meetings.

“It’s like a phone booth,” Cathy Farley, library director, joked. “A super nice phone booth that has built in ventilation, lights and Wi-Fi that you can use to do video chats with doctors, virtual job interviews, remote learning exams, among other electronic meeting events.”

Farley said the new room was funded by a grant the library received for new equipment furniture and books.

“We received $27,777 in ARPA [American Rescue Plan Act] funds,” she explained.

The new booth was completely funded through the grant, but the library has some other new additions as well.

“We have new computers in the children’s section, upgrades for all the existing computers, and we just added tons of titles to the shelves and to our online collection though Tennessee R.E.A.D.S [Regional e-Book and Audio Download System],” Farley said.

Farley said patrons who wish to use the new booth for a meeting can either bring their own laptop, phone, or tablet or borrow an iPad from the library for the duration of their meeting, adding that library staff will be happy to help connect devices to the library's network.

“Many thanks to library board members John Myers and David Vaughn plus Michael [Hale] from the library and Darryl from County Maintenance for their construction expertise,” Farley said. “We are happy to have one more service that we can provide for the people of our community.”