This March, the Mars Area Public Library was awarded a $10,000 grant as part of the American Library Association’s “Libraries Transforming Communities” program.

At a Community Conversation at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 28, the library will showcase new resources funded by the grant, which are aimed at aiding vision-impaired and disabled patrons.

“Our focus is to help community members with low vision or vision impairment,” said library director Janae Callihan. “We’re going to showcase our large-print books and the assistive technology we’re going to be purchasing, so patrons can get hands-on experience with what resources will be coming their way.”

The library will also tout their partnership with LAMP — the Library of Accessible Media for Pennsylvanians — which lends out materials in accessible formats such as large print, Braille and with audio description for the vision- and hearing-impaired.

The Libraries Transforming Communities grant offers more than $14 million in grants over a four-year period to small and rural libraries who are looking to upgrade their accessibility services.

The $10,000 awarded to Mars was a small portion of the $3.5 million awarded by the American Library Association to 300 libraries across the country during its third round of LTC funding. North Trails Public Library in Clay Township, another part of the Butler Federated Library System, also received grant funding during the third round of the program.