Staff photo / J.T. Whitehouse Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County’s strategic communications officer Maggie Henderson shows off the new “maneuverability kits” the library is offering as a new check-out item to help young people prepare for their driving test.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County has added a new kit to its growing “Library of Things” box.

It’s a kit featuring everything a person needs to learn how to drive and prepare for a driver’s license test.

This “maneuverability kit” features five orange cones and guide poles, like the ones the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles uses in its maneuverability test; and a measuring tape to properly place the cones.

“We saw a need for something like this,” Jillean Gerthung, assistant supervisor and head cataloger for the library’s technical service department said. “We’ve spoken with other libraries that have similar kits and found they are very popular with patrons.”

She also found out the BMV has stopped publishing a hard copy of the Digest of Ohio Motor Vehicle Laws.

“The BMV no longer gives out the books to study. They only offer it online,” Gerthung said. “So we printed it out, all 55 pages, and include it in the kits.”

Also included in the kits are stress balls for parents to use while helping to teach their teens to drive.

The new “maneuverability kits” are part of the PLYMC’s Library of Things.

“This is our first big item available for checking out,” said Maggie Henderson, strategic communications officer. “We just introduced it last month and already have a waiting list.”

She said the kits can be checked out for one week to anyone who has an active library card. They can be picked up at any branch. She said the kits could be used in school parking lots, or at the library branches when they are closed.

“These orange cones and guide poles are items most people would not go out and buy just for their child to get a driver’s license,” Henderson said. “We are offering a short-term, one-time item to fill a need. The whole idea is to become a source for the community. Many think a library is just books, but we are so much more than that.”

Gerthung said the Library of Things also has adaptive toys for people with disabilities, a Toniebox with characters and music, and memory kits for adults experiencing memory loss. A Toniebox is an imagination-building, screen-free digital listening experience that plays stories, songs, and more.

“We have a lot more coming down the pike,” she said. “We are planning more outdoor kits.”

For more information on, or to be put on the waiting list for the maneuverability and other library kits, visit www.libraryvisit.org.

jtwhitehouse@vindy.com