Read On! Busy Library

In my Library Life, nothing makes my heart swell quite like a busy library. I came to work late the other morning and had a really difficult time finding a parking space. It was glorious! Inside, we had families playing and reading in the Youth Services Department, tutors and students in our study rooms, a civic group meeting in the meeting room, and our regulars for Coffee & Coloring in the makerspace. 

Our door count numbers show that what has felt like an uptick in Library use and traffic has, indeed, been an uptick. In February, we had 4,206 visitors in the building. That averages to about 180 people through our doors each day. For context, we averaged about 140 people every day in January.

We answered more questions in February, by over 1,000 questions! We answered 6,297 questions in February and only 5,159 in January. (When we first started keeping track of the number of questions we answered each month, we were giddy when we answered more than 2,000 in a month!)

Another astounding number for our February statistics is how many times patrons used our study rooms and meeting rooms – 398 times! Seven of those uses were in our meeting rooms and 391 were in our study rooms. When we were planning the Library’s additions, we knew the study rooms would be popular, but we had no idea how popular! 

Attendance at our programs and activities was up in February, too. We had 17 programs/activities total in January and in February, but in January, we had 157 people attending the programs compared to the 249 people attending in February. 

All of this is to say, we’re getting busier at your Pryor Library and we absolutely love it. Thank you for using your library!

Read On! Life-Long Learning Resources

While I didn’t hate school growing up, I didn’t see it as much more than a means to an end. If I had it to do over again, I’d like to think I’d pay better attention to what we learned in History classes and I might actually read all the books assigned to us in English. Maybe. 

Luckily for me and anyone else who might want to revisit what we learned in school (or dive deeper into a particular subject), the public library has resources to help! Many of these resources can be found online through our website (pryorlibrary.org). They’re listed on the “Research and Resources” page. 

My favorites are BrainFuse and Mango with EBSCO Host getting an honorable mention. They are all user friendly and offer helpful resources for current students as well as life-long learners. 

BrainFuse comes in three varieties: HelpNow, a resource for students full of study guides, practice tests for most standardized tests, and the option to connect with a human tutor; JobNow, a resource for job seekers that helps with resumes, interview skills, and more; and VetNow, a resource that helps military veterans navigate the VA’s complicated systems. 

Mango is our language learning resource that features 70+ languages in easily accessible lessons. It even has some English lessons for non-native speakers. There’s even an app!

EBSCO Host is a true database full of articles from magazines, newspapers, and journals that cover almost any subject you might want to research. For those still in school, EBSCO will even help you get your citations correct! 

Of course, we also have our collection on the Libby app, in the building, and from just about any library in the world through our Inter-Library Loan (ILL) service. If there’s something you want to learn or know more about, let us know. We’ll get you connected! 

Read On!

Who we serve

I love that people think of libraries as being a safe place for children and teenagers. When they think of libraries, they envision babies and toddlers at storytime, middle school kids hanging out after school, and teenagers meeting up to work on school projects. They’re not wrong, of course. We are a great place for kids and teens! But they’re not seeing the full picture. We’re a great place for everyone. 

Our services and resources are tailored to meet the needs of as many community members as possible. We have online resources, books, movies, audiobooks, and activities throughout the library that we have chosen because they serve individuals in our community well. 

When we interact with our patrons, our staff try to do so without judgment and without the assumption that we know what’s best. Overall, we do a good job of this, which helps make us a welcoming place where everyone, of all ages and backgrounds, can feel comfortable asking for what they need. Once we know what someone needs, we work really hard to make sure we connect them to resources that are reputable and useful. Then, ask follow-up questions to make sure we’ve answered their questions fully. 

Your Pryor Library’s mission is to “enrich lives by being a vibrant community hub.” To do so, curate our collections and services to best meet the community’s needs. But more importantly, we accomplish our mission by gladly serving the entire community to the best of our ability. That means we’re happy to see you whether you’re sleeping on a king size Sleep Number bed or on a bench at the park.

When you come to the Pryor Library, our hope is that you feel like you belong. When you leave the library, our goal is that you feel confident in the resources you’ve found and the interactions you’ve had with staff members. 

Read On! Books & Brews – 5 Years

Your Pryor Library started our Books & Brews book club at The Fat Toad Brewing Company in March of 2018. Our first meeting was an informational meeting where we let everyone know what our first discussion book would be (“The Reader” by Traci Chee), and how each book club meeting would be structured. We would love for you to join us this Saturday March 4, 2023 from 1 – 3 to help us celebrate our anniversary!

This month, we’ll be discussing “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt. This is a gentle book that explores friendship and family through the eyes of Tova, a 70-year-old widow, and Marcellus, an aging giant Pacific octopus who is, as the title suggests, remarkably bright. 

At this writing, I’m just over halfway finished with “Remarkably Bright Creatures” and am enjoying it very much. It’s a slower read than I usually choose, but the pace gives us time to get to know the characters and watch their relationships unfold. I get a feeling that sadness is in my future with this book, but I think it will be okay. At least, I hope I don’t sob.

While I plan to finish the book before we discuss it at our next Books & Brews Club meeting, even if I don’t, I’ll be welcome to attend. We visit, eat lunch, and hang out for the first hour with absolutely zero talk about the book. Then, in the second hour, we begin our book discussion. Some months the book discussion hour is as lively and fun as the visiting hour and other months, the book discussion lasts 10-15 minutes so we can get back to our visiting. 

This format, which is the one we started with, has been a good one for us. We have a nice mix of men and women who come to Books & Brews. We range in age from late 20s/early 30s to early 80s. Sometimes, our kids join us too. It’s a good group and we’d love to see you there!