The St. Joseph Public Library was recently awarded grant funding to support this year’s summer reading program.

The Offices of Secretary of State John R. Ashcroft awarded a $15,432 grant to the library.

East Hills Library Youth Services Manager Jess Gould said the grant allows the library to offer programs that provide free books or expand on reading-related educational themes.

“It’s providing resources that otherwise we would not have available,” Gould said. “We have a very limited budget and a lot of the things that we spend money on are already critical to the implementation of the program, so this is just icing on the cake of adding cooler resources, some more exciting things that we can offer and definitely use throughout the years to come.”

This is the second year the St. Joseph Public Library has received funding through the grant. It is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) as administered by the Missouri State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.

This year’s summer reading program theme is “Libraries Rock” and will run June 1st to August 1st.