Las Vegas, Julia Whelan, club music & more—The “Check Out Your Library Fiction and Film Tour” kicks off

I need to set the stage for this kick-off event. First, my travel was chaotic getting to the event due to the global IT outage on July 19th. Second, oh wow, was it HOT in Las Vegas! And don’t tell me that at least it’s a “dry heat.” Nope. A sweltering 112 degrees is still tough to take. Amid canceled flights and heat waves, the team and I did get to the inaugural event with time to spare.

How was it, and why are you reading about club music? Let's dive in.

Check Out Your Library is a campaign to ignite conversation, engagement, and love for public libraries. As part of that effort, we reimagined our Digital Bookmobile and rebranded and refurbished it as “The LV” (Library Vehicle).

We’re hitting the road this summer, visiting 20+ stops across the U.S. as part of the campaign’s Fiction and Film tour. We partnered with the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District for our first tour stop. This included visits to two terrific library branches, along with a first-of-its-kind event at AREA15 in Las Vegas.

This, dear reader, is where the club music comes in.

We wanted to reach as many people as we could with the important Check Out Your Library message. Ebooks, audiobooks, films, TV series, and so much more are all available at your library.

We met people where they were, and in 112 degree heat, they were inside a large air-conditioned immersive entertainment complex, with nonstop, fun club music pumping through the space.

Libraries also offer so much entertainment for free, did these people have library cards? Did they know to check out their library.

With a psychedelic soundtrack thumping, hundreds of happy people poured through our colorful, book-and-movie-filled space. They also checked out the air-conditioned LV, interacted with Libby, Kanopy, and Sora (where students read) and shared their love for libraries, books, and movies.

Attendees of all ages were able to see what the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District has to offer and learned more about reading on the Libby app as well as streaming films, kids programming, and more on Kanopy.

Most attendees were local, but this being Vegas, we did meet people on vacation. For those folks, we were able to point them to their local library and share the benefits of a library card.

Top highlights

Author and narrator Julie Whelan lent her fabulous voice to our Silent Stories sessions. People used “Check out Your Library” headphones to hear Julia read from her books and the audiobooks she’s voiced.

Professional Book Nerds podcast host Joe Skelly did a live Q&A with Julia and invited guests up for a book signing.

A wonderful librarian from the The Library District dazzled kids with a Silent Story Time. There’s nothing cuter than dozens of children wearing headphones, completely captivated by a book.

Attendees were able to insert themselves into their favorite genre with an AI photo booth experience.

The Library District educated people on their services, gave out fans (did I mention the HEAT?), sunglasses, and of course, signed people up for library cards.

Watch this space for our interview with Julia Whelan and be sure to visit CheckOutYourLibrary.com to see where the LV is headed next. We hope to see you there.

RELATED READ: Check out your library in our first-ever nationwide “Fiction & Film Festival” tour