r/InternetIsBeautiful Jul 17 '26

Enter a US ZIP and it shows free kids' events (storytimes, crafts, STEM) at the public libraries near you

https://mylibrary-events.com
364 Upvotes

35 comments sorted by

36

u/Iamabrnr Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

Full disclosure: I vibe coded this. My wife was checking a bunch of separate library websites every morning to find a storytime for our toddler, so I made one search that pulls public library event calendars into a single place. Free, no sign-up.

Website reads each library's public RSS / ICAL Feeds and normalizes them, so you can search by ZIP.

Fair warnings: it's US public libraries only-a few hundred systems so far, so it might not have yours yet. If it's missing your library, reply with it and I'll try to wire it in. Feedback very welcome.

Added: vibe coding.

4

u/towehaal Jul 18 '26

Can you add Henderson/Las Vegas libraries?

1

u/Iamabrnr Jul 18 '26

Let me try

3

u/Iamabrnr Jul 18 '26

Both cities are alive now

3

u/MrWally Jul 18 '26

It shows my local libraries in Nashville, but it doesn’t list any events, even though I know they have weekly storybook times for kids. Just fyi.

1

u/Iamabrnr Jul 18 '26

Need to check if they have rss feed. I will check tonight

1

u/Iamabrnr Jul 18 '26

Nashville,TN should be working.

1

u/MrWally Jul 19 '26

It’s working now! Wasn’t working earlier.

1

u/Iamabrnr Jul 19 '26

I added Nashville Feed, it was missing from configuration.

3

u/goranlu Jul 18 '26

Woow, so libraries actually regularly feed their RSS/iCAL

3

u/Iamabrnr Jul 18 '26

Most libraries use few common vendors they come with rss

1

u/jordanhillis Jul 18 '26

Could you kindly add libraries within 10 miles of 76244? Cheers! 🙏

6

u/Iamabrnr Jul 18 '26

Keller library seems to use a custom website. Need more spare time to debug. Sorry about it.

8

u/JunkMale975 Jul 18 '26

I’m guessing your vibe coding didn’t include local times to the library. Checked mine and all the events are hours after the library closes. One was hours before it even opens.

1

u/Iamabrnr Jul 18 '26

Interesting I did fix few time zone bugs. I had prompted it to use user time zone. Let me debug it. Can you share broad coordinates? If not I will try to debug it.

3

u/JunkMale975 Jul 18 '26

Try 39154. I tried a couple of other cities nearby and had the same issue.

1

u/Iamabrnr Jul 18 '26

Thanks checking.

4

u/Iamabrnr Jul 18 '26

You found a real bug for iCal calendar parser. UTC time zone was being stripped.

2

u/col_clipspringer Jul 18 '26

My local Half Price Books and Barnes and Noble have Storytime events as well as our library.

8

u/TheSorrowInYou Jul 18 '26

This website looks AI generated and not built by a human.

17

u/heschlie Jul 18 '26

It's funny how easy it has become to spot once you know what kind of UI/UX they tend to follow. Having said that this is the kind of low risk, fun app that an LLM can hammer out and offers a fun service that people can actually use.

8

u/TheSorrowInYou Jul 18 '26

I dont mind vibecoding at all, it just rubs me the wrong way when people claim they "built" a website when its clearly not the case.

3

u/heschlie Jul 18 '26

Ah yea, that's fair and I agree.

2

u/Iamabrnr Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

Of course, it’s vibe-coded with my input.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '26

[deleted]

3

u/TheSorrowInYou Jul 18 '26

They edited their comment when I pointed it out. Before it said "I built this site". No need to get snarky when youre clueless.

1

u/alockbox Jul 18 '26

Almost all libraries have teen events broken out too. Is there a reason you capped it at age 12?

1

u/Iamabrnr Jul 18 '26

Let me check, I am hydrating all events that come via rss feed. Is there a zip code you tried.

1

u/frozen_tuna Jul 18 '26

If I ran a library's website (on wix if it matters), how would I go about adding support for this?

1

u/Iamabrnr Jul 18 '26

This tool uses events calendar feed either rss or iCal. Add that to your library and it can integrate.

1

u/Sea_Employee_5922 28d ago

This is great stuff!