Center for Black Literature & Culture debuts new website, interactive kiosks

INDIANAPOLIS — The Central Library in Downtown Indianapolis is home to the Center for Black Literature & Culture (CBLC), but you don't have to even be in the State of Indiana to access one of its newest community resources.

On Tuesday, the CBLC debuted interactive kiosks that allow uses to see videos, 3-D images and more relating to Black history, Black literature, Black culture, the Black diaspora and Black librarianship.

The CBLC also has a new website, bringing users artifacts, videos, photo galleries and more. Users can learn about local Black leaders such as Amos Brown and Tamika Catchings, literary figures like Mari Evans and Etheridge Knight and more.

"One thing I'm particularly excited about is the aspects that we've been able to 3-D scan ... those are able to be turned around in 3-D space," Amira Malcom, project manager, said.

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The CBLC is home to more than 10,000 books, CDs and other items that showcase Black history. Materials are available for kids and adults.

"I think that the myth about a library is that it's just about books and a library is about information. For hundreds of thousands of years, books or papyrus has been the way we've kind of communicated that information. But now we have databases, we have programs, we just have a million things that we can do to share that information," Nichelle M. Hayes, CBLC founding director, said. "This is a hub that can share that."

The library and CBLC are located at 40 East Saint Clair Street.