(Lewiston, ID) Have you ever wanted to pan for gold? Perhaps you are thinking about getting into birdwatching? Starting in December, thanks to a grant from the Forest Service, patrons of the nearly 50 members of the Valnet library consortium will be able to borrow gear kits at the Lewiston City Library. These kits will have everything patrons will need to try out many different outdoor adventures.
This exciting new program was funded through a grant from the National Forest Community Recreation fund, a new pilot project aimed at supporting new or existing gear libraries in communities in or near National Forest System Lands. Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests partnership coordinator Angela Edwards explained, “We’re excited to partner with the Lewiston City Library to support new ways for people of all ages and backgrounds to connect with public lands, learn about conservation, and inspire them to take an active role in stewardship.”
Lynn Johnson, Lewiston City Library Director detailed how her library “has loaned out fishing poles for many years and libraries across the country are looking to expand what we loan. When we heard from Angela Edwards about this program, it seemed like a good way for us to offer things for the public that are a little out of the ordinary. This year we partnered with Idaho State Parks to offer a state parks pass and a backpack full of goodies to improve people’s day in the park. This serves as a step up.”
The library has put a lot of thought into how this gear bank can best enable its patrons desire to explore the wider world. Johnson explained that, “This is a great way for us to offer things that are outside of the normal library offerings. Many people are interested in eating well outdoors, so we are planning a dutch oven kit. We are also offering several birdwatching kits, gold panning kits, a day hike kits with poles and field glasses, and a tent camping kit.”
This new program fits with the library’s public service orientation. Johnson stated that: “Libraries are about opportunity. Whether you have limited means or lots of access and wealth, we want to help people of all means try something out. We’re close to a college so we hope college students might try new activities through this kit. We hope people of all means will use these kits as vehicles to find out what their forests have to offer.”
The gear kits are just the beginning of this partnership. The forests are planning to send personnel in the near future to provide programming at the library to increase public knowledge about the outdoors. Johnson also plans to build public knowledge about what patrons can do with the kits: “We’ll also have information so that people can learn about fun activities like say gold panning before they go out and try.” Johnson will track statistics on what the most popular kits are and it is highly likely that this program will continue to expand in the future!