An in-ground piano will be installed on the Hebron Public Library lawn this year, a gift from the town Redevelopment Commission.
The commission donated $28,000 to the project, part of a truncated library garden to be developed on the library’s small lawn, Porter County Public Library System Director Jesse Butz said.
Hebron’s library is one of the last built with a donation by Andrew Carnegie, the steelmaker who wanted his legacy to include developing libraries. Of the 2,509 Carnegie libraries built worldwide, 164 were in Indiana. For Hebron’s library, the 1917 grant was $10,000.
“Our neighbor here used to be a music teacher and taught piano, and she inspired me when I was looking for what we’re going to be putting in here,” Butz said.
The in-ground baby grand piano will be like the one in the movie “Big,” where kids can jump on the keys and play notes.
“I’m really excited about it,” Butz said. “It’s even going to be wheelchair accessible so kids can wheel over it.”
Talking tubes will also be included, so kids on one side can talk with kids on the far side using the underground tubes.
“We’re going to try to sprinkle in some other little features along the way just to kind of make it as engaging as we can,” Butz said. “We don’t want to pack too much in there because if you put too much in that space it can be overwhelming. We still want this big programming space.”
Butz is hoping to put in a stage, but that hasn’t been determined yet. “We’ve got a little bit of investigating to do come spring,” he said.
“Hebron is lucky enough to have an outstanding children’s librarian who needs space, and Hebron is a very growing community,” Butz said.
The library garden in Hebron is the last of the library’s branches to receive one. It’s part of a rethinking of the way libraries operate.
“We’re getting some new shelving units that are going to be modular on wheels so we can reconfigure the spaces in, bringing in some space-saving opportunities,” Butz said.
And libraries loan more than books. Hebron’s library even advertises the use of sewing machines.
“Audio and e-books are spiking like crazy,” Butz said. “It’s actually been amazing.”
When Butz arrived at the county library system – it covers every Porter County township except Westchester, which has its own library system – he realized the need for a large library consortium to help with lending books and movies electronically.
So Butz helped create the Indiana Digital Library consortium, working with St. Joseph County Library Director Stephanie Murphy and the state librarian.
“I was the one who did the negotiating on the prices and whatnot, and Stephanie worked on the kind of the bylaws and rules of the consortium,” he said. “I was able to get Overdrive to waive all fees for public libraries to get into this consortium. They would accept any library into it, and the state library has to contribute a certain percentage of their funds to it to support its ongoing maintenance. So we went from a collection of eight or nine small consortiums to one giant consortium in the state of Indiana.”
That brought Porter County from a small consortium of about 40 libraries to one with over 200 libraries.
“Indiana actually has one of the largest e-book consortiums in the world,” Butz said. “I’m excited to see how we’ve grown. We’re like No. 8 or No. 9 in the world, which is crazy, as far as e-book usage goes.”
Now Porter County library patrons have access to over 1 million titles instead of 10,000 to 12,000 previously. Physical books remain supreme, with 347,000 checkouts to 160,000 on the digital side, but the digital portfolio is growing rapidly.
“We just keep investing more funds into it because that’s where our patrons want to be,” Butz said. “So when we look at how library services evolve, it’s making sure that those materials that they expect are there and then making sure that your spaces are available for what they need.”
“What they need are book clubs. They need story times. They need places to gather to have meetings and conversations,” he said. “The space utilization is off the charts in our library. Our meeting room attendance was up 20% that’s just people stopping and using them.”
Over 400,000 people visited the Porter County library system in 2024.
“It’s just that they’re using it in a slightly different way, and that’s where these gardens can really dovetail nicely with the way that modern library services are evolving,” he said.
“You’ve got spaces that allow us to engage in an outdoor area, open air, fresh air, engaging in nature. You’ve got access to wireless that’s going to be available 24/7, so you’re talking about helping to bridge the digital divide. You’re talking about safe spaces, community gathering, so I think it dovetails with a bunch of different really important initiatives,” Butz said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
