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Billings Public Library honored as state’s top library in 2025

Billings Heights Clinic Book Return
Billings Public Library
/
Billings Public Library
Billings Heights Clinic Book Return

The Montana Library Association recognized the Billings library for an innovative program expanding access to library materials.

 

The Montana Library Association on April 22 named the Billings Public Library the 2025 Library of the Year for its Library Express Locker Program.

Through the express locker program, users can request items through the library website, select one of four locker pickup sites around the city and retrieve the materials 24/7 using their library card and a PIN number. Each one of these lockers includes a book return, allowing for easy returns.

There are four locker sites: outside the Billings Public Library (510 N. Broadway); the Children’s Clinic on the city’s west end (3401 Ave. E); and at two Intermountain Health Clinic locations-- in the Heights (32 Wicks Lane) and in Lockwood (2504 US Highway 87 E).

Library officials report the lockers are popular, with locations on the west end and in the Heights consistently operating at over 75 % capacity the past several months, which they say reflect high demand and strong community engagement.

Billings Public Library staff is planning a celebration of the statewide recognition this summer, with an outdoor story time at the Children’s Clinic Locker on June 20, 10:30am., 3401 Ave. E, with ice cream and a story time of “Stethoscopes and Stories.”

Kay Erickson has been working in broadcasting in Billings for more than 20 years. She spent well over a decade as news assignment editor at KTVQ-TV before joining the staff at YPR. She is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, with a degree in broadcast journalism. Shortly after graduation she worked in Great Falls where she was one of the first female sports anchor and reporter in Montana.