Square Market kicks off with added benefit

Wednesday’s opening of Batesville’s Square Market farmers market means summer is here. But along with fresh, locally grown squash and cucumbers, homemade jams and jellies, and handmade blankets and birdhouses, the weekly market has the added benefit this year of Batesville Public Library.
Head librarian Hanna Lee and her staff are happy to serve people inside the library, but they realize that not everyone has access to the facility, or transportation to get there during business hours. So the library is coming to a neighborhood near you.
Starting June 20, Lee and Justin Pope will be set up each week at the Square Market to allow folks to do almost any sort of library business they need to…make selections from the books and videos on hand, check out, renew, order, ask questions, obtain library cards.
It’s all part of an expanded outreach supported by funding from the City of Batesville to take the library where people are.
Justin Pope arrives in the library van each Monday morning at 10:30 at Skyview Apartments to be met by children anxious to see the books and materials he brings for them to check out. He leaves the complex and takes the library to Mr. Jiffy #2 for the convenience of the lunchtime crowd there.
Library outreach also extends to daycare centers, Providence Assisted Living, and the Boys and Girls Club of Northwest Mississippi.
Two Little Free Libraries have been installed by Batesville Public Library and students from the Career and Technical Education Department at South Panola High School, in high traffic areas in Pope and Patton Lane to allow readers of all ages to choose a book.
Rumor has it that children quickly raided one of the Little Free Libraries, took all the books, then brought them all back the following day, after they’d read them.

The Square Market is open Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through October in Downtown Batesville. It is sponsored by the Batesville Main Street program.