Pennsylvania Libraries to Lend Out Ukes

Librarians across Pennsylvania will start encouraging patrons to make noise rather than quiet down thanks to the Allegheny Ukulele Kollective’s Lending Library Program, an initiative that will allow library members to borrow ukuleles.

The Kollective, an Altoona-based ukulele club, plans to expand instrument lending across 32 regional libraries in four counties, and will train one staff member at each location the basics of the four-stringed instrument.

“They’re free to libraries,” Mike Holzer, the Kollective’s co-director, told the Centre Daily. “All we’re asking is that one of the librarians come to be trained on the instrument so they know enough to show one of their patrons what to do to get started.”

The uke will come complete with a bag, tuner, and an instruction book. “There are so many people who said, ‘I never would have picked this thing up if you hadn’t had it at the library to take home,’” Melanie Ramsey, Hollidaysburg Area Public Library youth and children services director, told the Centre Daily.

Last year a similar program went into effect in Omaha, Nebraska, at the Gretna Public Library. Is your local library lending out ukes?