3D Printing in the CoLab Book Clubs and Community Explore the Lincoln Library with Lana Shovlin

Jeff Williams:
Welcome to Community Voices, a production of NPR Illinois. I'm your co-host Jeff Williams. in the studio with me today, Lana Shovlin, is that right? Lana, right on, I got it. We practiced a couple times beforehand! So, we got it! (laughter) So you are with the Lincoln Library?
Lana Shovlin:
Yes, I am. I'm the public relations manager at Lincoln Library. I've been there almost a year. Cinco de Mayo is my anniversary.
Jeff Williams:
If you're ever up by the CoLab creative lab on the third floor… the mural that's right next to it, I made that! I haven’t signed it yet! I will get back up there; I just have to get it signed!
Lana Shovlin:
This is a good week for you to come in and finish!
Jeff Williams:
That's right. This is a good incentive to get that thing signed.
Lana Shovlin:
So, I think that this is something that is very important that we talk about how libraries are structured to be joyful places. And the thing is, that I've read a quote today from the American Library Association president, Sam Helmick, and he said, library joy is built intentionally, collectively, and often against the odds. And I think that the thing about libraries is you walk in and you feel that joy, no matter what you're there for. If you're there to get a book or go paint a mural on the road, to use our collab or people come in and they immediately feel welcome and at home in a library. And that is intentional. It feels unintentional, but that's the best part. It's sort of, you know, how when you go to someone's home, that's a really good host and everything seems like it's just come together in this effortless way. There's a lot of effort behind it that you don't see.
Jeff Williams:
Right, yeah, definitely. It was kind of cool when I first started working on that. Some friend of mine would be like, oh, cool, I'll see you up there because I was going to go up there and I might just go chill on the 2nd floor or on the third, you know, they just want to come up and it might not be that they have a specific thing to be there, but they like to go there. That's a beautiful thing about a library. So, thank you for providing that sort of a thing.
Lana Shovlin:
Yeah, absolutely! I was talking to Elizabeth (Wake) right before I came in here, your coworker, and we were saying that, how her son will talk to her and say, like, oh, are we going to go look this up at the library, right? She said he's four. And I was like, oh, that brings me so much joy because here he is, this little four-year-old person, and he knows to go to the library when you need to find something, right? Because he has a parent that has introduced that to him. And I was telling her that libraries have been an important part of my life from the time that I was little. And I remember my grandma taking us to our local library to get a library card.
Jeff Williams:
It was exciting. It was so cool. Yeah.
Lana Shovlin:
You felt like, you know, important, a grown-up.
Jeff Williams:
Right, it was. It was like, oh my gosh, this place, it's so, you know, it's like big and love being there and it's exciting and it's a core memory for me, you know.
Lana Shovlin:
And you get a card, a library card and you can get things for free with that card, you know. And I just remember that, you know, that being my foundation but then really the shift that happened for me was, of course, I utilized the library during high school and college for studying, quiet places to go, when I needed to really buckle down and concentrate on something. But the pivotal point for me was my husband and I moved away from our hometown, which is O'Fallon, Illinois, where all of our family is. And we had a brand-new baby. And I remember not having any friends because I was new to town and just going to the library story time with this baby who couldn't even do anything, right? She was just sitting in my arms. And I found a core group of people that were bringing their children to story time. And I still am friends with those women 15 years later. We are lifelong friends that we met on the ground of a library singing songs and reading books and letting our local children's librarian take our children away to these magical worlds. And so I feel like a library has always been my happy place. But really in those moments is when I needed it. And we all go through moments when we need the library for something.
Jeff Williams:
Right!
Lana Shovlin:
We have… people that come in that are moms, parents, like I was who are looking for connection with people. We have teens that come in after school because they're just looking for a place where they belong and no one is questioning why they're there or what they're doing. Are you buying anything? Why are you just hanging around doing nothing? We want them to hang around and do nothing, right? We want to provide that for them. We have people that come in that have questions about using technology. They aren't familiar with how to set up something on their cell phone or laptop, and we have classes for that. We have people that need to get a resume together and don't have access to a computer at home. There's just so much. And we are not just a house full of books. We have, The CoLab (Collaboratory).
Jeff Williams:
The CoLab Makers Space, like you mentioned earlier, yeah, for sure.
Lana Shovlin:
Our incredible maker space where you can come in and work on projects. We have, I mean, it's just fantastic. We have a podcast studio in there, so people can come in and record a podcast.
Jeff Williams:
3D printer.
Lana Shovlin:
3D printer. Yeah. And let me tell you, I work with some really ingenious people who will 3D print anything your heart desires. I am not an artistic person like that. And I am blown away by, they'll come out and say, I made this on the 3D printer. And I'm just like, what? Yeah, how? I just, it's so cool. So we have all of these very important things and people that work in the library that make it all happen. There's so many people. I remember walking in my first day and it's kind of like being in the Wizard of Oz where they pull the curtains back and you see how the books come in and how the books are, labeled to go on the shelves and who picks the books that come into the library. Like just, it's so fascinating. I want to share that joy, right? It's like you want to find your joy. I want to share it with everybody in the community. I want them to come into the library and see, get that feeling.
Jeff Williams:
Right. As I was working on that, which was kind of a cool thing too, because I didn't go in there and knock it out right away. Well, just because I had other projects, but to see each day that I was in there, the different people, first everybody who worked there, it was like a family kind of, they'd see each other as they were passing and stuff. And then also the people who... would be there on kind of maybe more regular basis, or even if not, everybody was just kind of like saying hi to each other and connecting in some sort of way, or people are walking around doing their own thing. It's just a neat thing where it shouldn't be overlooked how much libraries bring to communities, you know, that it really is like a core. It was kind of cool to be there at those times and just see it happening and see it just kind of revolve, because I'd be there for a while, you know, working on it and just to see things and everybody going around to different floors here and there and it seemed different times. People kind of come up and be like, that's cool that you're working on it. keep going. And it just kind of has this family sort of a feel.
Lana Shovlin:
It really does. And there's a lot of people that work at the library that make it all come together. And I think that like what you're saying is We joke often at work, there's no such thing as a library emergency, right? I mean, it's a very chill place. And I think people come in with the intent that they want to be there. And so you're not rushing in and being like, oh, I've got to grab this book really fast. You want to browse. You're already, like your nervous system kind of decompresses as you walk in the door. And so I think that that's what you feel. You feel the calmness that people that are there are intentional about going there and they're, happy to be in that space. I really do feel like my coworkers are happy to be there every day. We're incredible people. How many places can you go anymore where you don't have to buy something? You can come in and get anything at the library for free. You can check out any book. We have our library of things, which is something that a lot of people don't realize we have stuff that you can check out of there. Power washer is a big one that people want to use. You know, especially spring cleaning is coming up. You know, people are wanting to clean off their sidewalks and their siding. So, you know, that's one that's put on hold a lot where people are like, I need the power washer. But we have things like yoga equipment that you can rent or weights that you can borrow off in the library, just like all of these little things, blood pressure cuffs, giant games for your backyard. You know, let's say you're having a birthday party and you're like, what am I going to do with all these people that are coming to my house? Like, come and get a giant tic-tac-toe game from the library for free. You know, or, you know, one of the things that was really endearing to me too is people that maybe have a relative or someone they love that has dementia. We have a cat that is a dementia cat and it sits on your lap and it is battery operated and it kind of acts like a real cat. It purrs and makes all these noises when you pet it and it just is a really calming thing for them to hold. We have people that will check it out for that reason but we also have little children that come in and they want to check out the cat because you know they don't have a pet at home and they just want to experience like what is it like when I hold something and it purrs my arms. And it's just so sweet seeing these kids benefit from that too.
Jeff Williams:
Right.
Lana Shovlin:
As you know, we have a real issue with books being banned and we want people to celebrate their freedom to read.
Jeff Williams:
Absolutely.
Lana Shovlin:
The American Library Association just put out the top 10 most challenged books of 2025 and we shared that list on our social media and it's just really fascinating. You know, some of the books that people want banned, you would look at it and you would think, why? At one point in time, Charlotte's Web was a book that was on the banned book list. When you think,… this is a story of this beautiful friendship, and people look beyond that and try to find something wrong with the story. Now … this (an) endearing classic that most of our kids have read. But there was a time when people didn't want it around.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, could you mention how people online could see some of the resources at the library?
Lana Shovlin:
Yeah, absolutely. You can find all of the information on our website, which is LincolnLibrary.info. But I also encourage everybody to follow us on social media. We have a lot of posts that we put on Instagram and Facebook that will lead you through, every single day there's something new. That would be the place that you would want to check to see. Like I said, we've listed the top 10 most challenged books of 2025. And we are actually dedicating National Library Workers Day to a co-worker that meant a lot to us who recently passed away. And I think that we need to do this for this one individual because we are, we feel like a family and this is just a good way to honor this person. Our outreach team is so awesome. I can't say enough about them. They go out into the community and find ways to reach individuals that can't make it to the library. So we go to different assisted living centers, people can write in or call in and say, hey, these are the books that I want. Our outreach team collects those books and then takes them and delivers them to homes, to assisted living centers. We're meeting these people in a way that the library services wouldn't be available to them if it wasn't for our outreach team. And now we have this incredible bookmobile, our mobile branch that is out on the town. And We're really, really just loving having that. It's bumped up our outreach program considerably. You can also get online and see, like if you're wondering where the mobile branch will be, we have the whole schedule posted online. It's under the services tab on our Lincoln Library website. So, you can check and see where they're going to be. We are asking people to reach out to Congress and just let them know, this is why my library is important to me. Because I think that it's easy when you're able just to kind of go through life and you don't maybe necessarily need the services that we provide, and you're just using the library for a place to go and pick up a book or whatever. But a lot of people need the library.
Jeff Williams:
Absolutely.
Lana Shovlin:
And I think that you see that more now than we probably have in a really long time. And so, we want to make sure that Congress knows that we want libraries to stick around.
Jeff Williams:
Absolutely.
Lana Shovlin:
But then just as a fun little side gig that we're doing at Lincoln Library is we were trying to think of ways to kind of help our customers know that we appreciate them. Because if it wasn't for the people that were coming into the library, we wouldn't be there. We wouldn't be able to do what we do. Visit the CoLab. A lot of people have not been there (yet). And like you were talking about, it's a cool spot, right? So, we want people just to go and check it out and see. what we've got in there. Attend a library program. We have so many cool things going on. We have book clubs that happen once a month! Book clubs (can be), let me tell you (from past experience), (can be) really hard to get together. I have a couple of friends that have had book clubs that have lasted for years, and I've been in book clubs that have tried to happen. It's really hard to get a book club to stick, (but) the library has good ones! So, if you're looking for a book club, just come to the library. We've got it taken care of. So we've got yoga at the library. We've got civil civics programs right now, where we have some really great speakers coming in and just talking about different parts of the Constitution and what that means. And all our programs are free, and you don't have to be a cardholder to come and participate in the programs. So that's the other thing, too. I mean, you can come from wherever and just sit down and be heart of things.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah.
Lana Shovlin:
And then we would also really like you to check out a band book. That is one of the things.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah. Well, I was in a band. I say this a lot on here, so I'm sure people get sick of it, (laughter) but when we toured a lot… during this big chunk of time. Touring around North America, we'd get to town early. We'd try to find the library. And I was talking to this band from St. Louis that was in here, and we both were like, yes, that was one of the things that you'd go, you get to a town. It's just like a nice way to connect with something. I mean, it's a different library, but it's still, it's a nice feeling. I'll drive my car someplace and then go on a bike ride, like a library of like… little towns … like Ashland, Illinois. I remember going there one time a couple of years ago, the two ladies working and they were so fired up. They were like, yes, thank you for coming in. This is awesome, you know? And so I was just, I was like, I'm just going to chill and read for a while, you know? And it's just great to see.
Lana Shovlin:
It's so cool because I think that the same kind of people tend to flock to libraries too. And so, the community is there no matter where you are. And it is like, you're right, the vibe is kind of the same no matter where you go. Wherever I've lived, obviously I've gone into libraries and made it part of my routine.
Jeff Williams:
People out there, if you've been in Springfield for a long time, you've lived here your whole life, or especially if you're new to the community, you know, and maybe you haven't, like you were saying earlier, you haven't connected with too many people yet. You never know who might build a lifelong relationship out of it.
Lana Shovlin:
100%. And we even, like being downtown where we are, we have a lot of people that come in and they do ask, like, hey, where's a good place to eat? Or, you know, hey, can you tell me a little more about, you know, X, Y, or Z, whatever it is, a lot of tourists downtown stopping in. We're really blessed here that we have a pretty big library.
Jeff Williams:
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Lana Shovlin:
The Find Your Joy slogan that they've come up with this year is just perfect for the whole year. You know, we've got like just endless things going on.
Jeff Williams:
Right on. Love it. Well, once again, we're in the studio with Lana Shovlin. She is the Public Relations Manager for the Lincoln Library. Once again, Lana, thanks so much for coming in. It was great talking to you.
Lana Shovlin:
I love talking about the library. So, this was just such a joy for me. I found my joy here with you.
Jeff Williams:
I know, right. We'll have to have you back sometime soon.
Lana Shovlin:
Yeah, absolutely. I would love that.
Jeff Williams:
Okay, thanks a lot.
Lana Shovlin:
All right, thank you.