![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/REG-L-BC-SeedLibrary2152.jpg\")
An old card catalog has been repurposed for the Seed Library at the Reading Public Library. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\nThe scene recently in the main branch of the Reading Public Library could have been taken from an old yearbook from the 1960s or \u201970s.<\/p>\n
Young people sit on the floor clutching notebooks near a ponderous wooden card catalog, gleaning seeds of knowledge from its contents.<\/p>\n
Only the updated version is that the card catalog doesn\u2019t contain entries for finding books in the library but actual seeds for planting in city gardens.<\/p>\n
Yamileishka Rodriguez and Yahaira Ortiz are the gardeners who visited, hoping to sow and reap a crop of flowers and vegetables from the new Seed Library.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love growing stuff, but usually it\u2019s hard to find seeds, and it\u2019s so expensive,\u201d Rodriguez said while paging through a notebook with photographs of the plants that the seeds will yield. \u201cAnd then when we see this, it\u2019s like, \u2018Wow.\u2019 And it\u2019s all categorized, so I can see the pictures and then see what I can try to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Ortiz, it\u2019s keeping the family gardening traditions alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom and grandmom always had plants,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
An old card catalog has been repurposed for the Seed Library at the Reading Public Library. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
The Seed Library is a project spearheaded by Jennifer Bressler, assistant library director and Penn State Master Gardener .<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had been thinking about doing a seed library for a while,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Other county libraries have been offering seeds, she said, and the Sinking Spring library has an indigenous seed library.<\/p>\n
The libraries have been working in cooperation with Berks Nature, which had its annual Seed Swap in February.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a seed-saving workshop,\u201d Bressler said, \u201cand during those, we learn how to collect seeds and store them, save them, and then germinate them and plant them for the following season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other master gardeners save their seeds and donate them, plus others are donated by area businesses, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gaining in popularity,\u201d Bressler said, \u201cand is really taking off.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/REG-L-BC-SeedLibrary2153.jpg\")
The Seed Library at the Reading Public is stocked by master gardeners who have saved their seeds and donated them, plus others are donated by area businesses. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
Melissa Adams, library director, sees plenty of benefits in the Seed Library program.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really important because in the city of Reading, we often have a lack of being able to cultivate our own growing crops, and there\u2019s also a sort of a food desert scenario in many different communities and this is a way to be able to help fill that gap,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so we\u2019re hoping that people can come and \u2018check out\u2019 the seeds, and take them home and be able to make use of them for their home gardens.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Seed Library also plays into a nostalgic feeling for the older libraries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe, of course, had this lovely card catalog that we wanted to repurpose, and we were so glad to be able to do it in this way,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez and Ortiz made their selections from the catalog after researching the seeds available.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez would like to grow more vegetables this year rather than flowers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to do vegetables, too, now, because that\u2019d be so cool to actually grow something that you can eat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Yamileishka](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/REG-L-BC-SeedLibrary2151.jpg\")
Yamileishka Rodriguez browses through the selection of seeds available at the Reading Public Library’s Seed Library. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
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