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Join us for a fun-filled event with family and friends and become a part of the Johnson County tabletop gaming community. Discover new games from our collection or bring your personal favorite to share – you might get creative with a round of Dixit, collaborate to escape the Forbidden Island or strategize your way to victory as King of Tokyo! Come and go as you please. Refreshments are provided.

See the schedule »

For nearly her entire life, Youth Information Specialist Cassidy Coles has had a wonderful relationship with Johnson County Library, first as a patron throughout her childhood, and then joining the staff when she was still in college.

As she approaches her 40th birthday and marks 20 years as a devoted Library employee, she counts her enduring connection to the Library as a true blessing.

“My overwhelming feeling about the whole time I’ve worked here is gratitude,” she said. “I feel so lucky, fortunate, to be able to watch these relationships build, change and grow.”

When she was just a toddler in Overland Park, her mother began taking her to the Antioch branch to check out stacks of children’s books. She was an early, enthusiastic reader and during elementary school she frequently went to the Oak Park branch, where the Librarian role captured her imagination. She would play library clerk at home, pretending to check out books to her mom.

During high school, the new Central headquarters branch was her go-to place for books and other resources to complete homework assignments. 

“I grew up in Johnson County Libraries, for sure,” she recalls.

While in college studying elementary education at Ottawa University, she took a part-time job at the Gardner branch as a page in February 2004. That blossomed into her promotion about 18 months later to the position of part-time youth information specialist, a job she has held ever since.

Serving patrons ages 0-18 and their families throughout the system has given Coles an amazingly rich range of experiences over the years.

Highlights include educating children and their parents at Storytimes at Gardner and Blue Valley; working on a team with Youth Librarian Kathy McLellan to develop the award-winning early literacy program “6 By 6 Ready to Read” in 2009; providing Library services and encouragement to youths involved in the county’s juvenile justice system; and mentoring teens since 2011 on the Library’s renowned elementia magazine.

“That’s just been one of the most meaningful experiences,” she said of working with incredibly creative and thoughtful teens. “Being able to listen more and more to the way they want their magazine to be, and the way they want to represent themselves. Seeing that evolve has been wonderful.”

She spends time each week answering questions and assisting people of all ages with book suggestions and other resources. With so many years based at Gardner, she’s watched a generation of kids grow up, to the point where some are now bringing their own children to the branch.

“It’s amazing to think about the ways families need Libraries over and over throughout their lives,” she says.

In her spare time, Coles plays the ukulele, at Storytimes and with friends. She discovered the instrument in 2012 when Johnson County Library bought several for staff to use. 

“That has been a source of comfort and joy and gratitude,” she said. “It occupies your whole mind and body.”

She also loves to cook and is an endlessly curious reader, tackling intimidating tomes like “Moby Dick” and “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” She’s currently making her way through “Ulysses,” and finding it magnificent.

She’s mom to Felix, 13, and Poppy, 11, and is very involved in their school, theater and sports activities. They, too, are big readers and have used the Gardner Library their entire young lives.

For Coles, Johnson County Library is so much more than her employer. It’s a cherished community hub, a place for education and enrichment, and the family’s home away from home.

With Toolkit Tuesday, we share Library tools you might not know about! This week's tool: Homeconnect

HomeConnect is a service for residents of the Johnson County Library service area who are unable to come to the Library in person. If you are permanently or temporarily homebound and unable to come to the Library, then you may want to enroll in HomeConnect service. We can mail all types of library materials directly to you.

February is Black History Month, an annual celebration of achievements by and recognition of African Americans in U.S. history. 

What we know today as Black History Month has its origins in "Negro History Week," created by historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans in 1915. That September, Woodson and minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which is known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. The group chose the second week of February to coincide with Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass's birthdays. 

Mayors of various cities across the country began issuing proclamations for "Negro History Week" in the years that followed and on some college campuses, the week-long event evolved into a month-long observance. 

In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month, calling up on all American citizens to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Each year the President endorses a specific theme for the month. This year's theme is "African Americans and the Arts," making the month an exploration and celebration of "visual and performing arts, literature, fashion, folklore, language, film, music, architecture, culinary and other forms of cultural expression."

Johnson County Library has so many resources it might be hard to choose which to read, listen to, or participate in, so it’s good we get to celebrate all month long. Black History Month began on Feb. 1 and ends March 1.   

Source: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-month

Johnson County Library has a variety of resources to read, listen to, or participate in, so it’s good we get to celebrate all month long. 

Get Started with Primary Sources 

• Associated Press Collections Online – Includes news coverage on Martin Luther King, Jr., Freedom Riders, desegregation, voting rights and more. 
• American Civil Liberties Union Papers – 20th century ACLU records focusing on race, civil rights and more. 
• Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive – Documents and research guides related to the history of slavery, abolition and emancipation. 

Local History 

• The Legacy of Corinthian Nutter – Learn about the major contributions Ms. Nutter made in Webb v. School District 90 (located in Merriam, KS), which ended segregation five years before Brown v. the Board of Education. 
• JoCo History Collections - Historical photographs and maps documenting the people, places and organizations of Johnson County. 
• Olathe’s early African-American community –Kansas’ anti-slavery legacy offered a fresh start for many former slaves and their families after the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Watch 

• African-American Stories on Kanopy – Hundreds of films, documentaries, and series exploring everything from current events to the history and cultural legacy of African Americans. 
• The Past is Prologue - A series of programs featuring topics that were often left out, glossed over or misrepresented in our history books, such as The Past is Prologue: Black Oscars. Other programs include: Meet the Authors: Dr. Fredrick Gooding Jr. with Dr. Sylviane Greensword and Mr. Marcellis Perkins and How to Rightly Write About Race When Afraid to Say the Wrong Thing

Read

• Celebrate 100 Years of the Negro Leagues - 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues – learn about its development, players, and legacy. 
• Read More Black Authors: Kids and Teens – Celebrate Black voices with this collection of both fiction and non-fiction titles for younger readers. 
• Upbeat Black History Month – A collection of uplifting African American stories from throughout our country's history, with an emphasis on the underknown.   
• Black History Month-A selection of new non-fiction titles about the history of Americans of African descent in the USA.     
• Black History Month: Biographies for Younger Readers: A selection of biographies about African Americans for younger readers.