June is Pride Month: Read the Rainbow at CKPL
Celebrate Pride Month by reading the Rainbow Collection at Chatham-Kent Public Library. The Rainbow Collection features CKPL's growing catalogue of 2SLGBTQIA+ items which includes DVDs, books, ebooks and eaudiobooks. Browse our book rivers featuring adult, young adult, and children's Rainbow Collection titles.
Visit our Rainbow Collection Showcases:
Adult Rainbow Collection
Young Adult Rainbow Reads
Children Rainbow Reads
Looking for more titles throughout the year? Check our our Rainbow Reads Newsletter. The Rainbow Reads Newsletter is curated every other month to a different theme and topics for the entire family. Sign up for more NextReads newsletters here.
Spring Seed Library
Chatham-Kent residents can “borrow” seeds from all 11 CKPL locations: Chatham, Blenheim, Bothwell, Dresden, Highgate, Merlin, Ridgetown, Thamesville, Tilbury, Wallaceburg and Wheatley branches.
CKPL Grows Seed Library will offer a variety of vegetable, herb, and flower seeds at each branch. Visit search.ckpl.ca and search 'seed library' to see available seeds.
CKPL Grows Seed Library provides an opportunity for residents of Chatham-Kent to grow healthy gardens, have access to affordable food, and create beautiful spaces in their own backyards and local communities. Chatham-Kent Public Library members can borrow seeds for free, save the seeds they grow, and return some of those seeds back to the library at the end of the growing season.
Chatham-Kent Public Library is currently accepting seed donations of any variety at all locations. Residents are asked to fill out a donation form of the seed name, variety, and information on how to grow.
Provincial Park Pass
Borrow a 2023 Ontario Parks Annual Vehicle Permit from any of our 11 branches. Passes are loaned for 7 days and provide day use access to all Ontario Provincial Parks. A limited number of passes will also be available as part of CKPL's Express Collection. Express Collection items are loaned on a "first come first served" basis. Items in this collection cannot be placed on hold, nor can they be set aside for pickup. Passes were provided by Ontario Parks as part of their library day-use vehicle lending program. The motivation behind this program is to help Ontarians spend more time in nature.
Park Canada Discovery Pass
Borrow a 2023 Park Canada Group Discovery Pass from any of our 11 branches. Passes are loaned for 7 days and provide day use access to all National Parks (Point Pelee National Park). A limited number of passes will also be available as part of CKPL's Express Collection. Express Collection items are loaned on a "first come first served" basis. Items in this collection cannot be placed on hold, nor can they be set aside for pickup.
All games are free to borrow with your Chatham-Kent Public Library card and are available from all 11 CKPL branch locations. Video games can be borrowed for 14 days and can be renewed up to 2 times (provided no holds have been placed on the item). You may borrow up to 3 games at a time.
Decodable Books
CKPL received a grant from the International Dyslexia Association of Ontario to purchase dyslexia friendly resources, called decodable books, for the library collection. Decoding means using knowledge of letter sounds and English spelling patterns to "sound out" a word. Decodable books are purposely written to help beginning and emerging readers master decoding.
CKPL's decodable books include phonics books, early readers, beginner chapter books, and advanced chapter books for kids and teens. CKPL also has audiobooks that you can access from home! The Tumblebooks database includes early reader, chapter book, and advanced reader read-alongs.