Collection
Read On! Social Distancing
We have a new phrase in our national lexicon: “social distancing,” the act of intentionally distancing yourself from others in an effort to “flatten the curve” (another new phrase) of how rapidly COVID-19 (coronavirus) is transmitted.
As much as we love face-to-face service for our community, your Library has a wealth of options for you as you socially distance!
We are a member of the OK Virtual Library consortium that subscribes to Overdrive, providing downloadable books, audiobooks, and videos. You can have six Overdrive items at a time for two weeks. Everything automatically returns when due.
If you’re trying to entertain children at home, be sure to check out Tumblebooks for storybooks, chapter books, games, puzzles, and videos. Tumblebooks even has some books in Spanish and French.
If you want to use your time learning, we highly recommend our Mango app for language learning. For more traditional learning and practice on almost any standardized test, check out our Learning Express and Job & Career Accelerator resource.
Our Ancestry.com service isn’t available to anyone outside the Library’s building, but we do have a subscription to Fold3, which can get you started on some genealogical or historical research. It is especially rich in military service information.
If you don’t want to wade through YouTube ads while learning a new hobby, you should use our Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center. It has written and illustrated instructions on all sorts of creative endeavors.
To access these resources, grab your library card number and head to our website (pryorlibrary.org). Select the “Use the Library” tab then choose “Research and Resources” to explore. If you have trouble, give us a call or shoot us a message through email (admin@pryorlibrary.org) or Facebook (@thjppl).
Read On! Donations
Different libraries have different views on receiving donated materials (everyone loves cash donations). Here at your Pryor Public Library, we are excited about them! They save us money and help supply our sales and free carts.
Generally speaking, when you donate an item (book, DVD, etc), one of three things happens:
- If it meets our selection criteria, we’ll add it to the collection. If it’s a title we already own, we’ll compare the two and keep the one in better condition.
- If we aren’t adding it to the collection, but we think someone might spend a few cents on it, we’ll put it on our sale shelves. Paperbacks are $0.10, everything else is $0.25. (We make about $1,500 from our sale shelves each year, which is awesome!)
- If it’s not something we think someone will spend money on (it’s older, a textbook, a VHS tape, a Reader’s Digest Condensed book, etc.), we’ll put it on our free cart. Those items are for anyone who wants them.
Occasionally, we’ll have to recycle or throw away donations. That usually happens if the items are dirty/moldy, have been outside long enough to attract insects, or are falling apart. (A good rule to follow about donating items: If you don’t want to touch it, we don’t want to touch it.)
We add just under 1,000 donated items every year, which saves us a considerable amount of money (I’d estimate $5,000 to $10,000 a year). We still have to process donations, which takes time and resources (and is the main reason some libraries decide to decline donated items), but we think it’s worth it.
Sometimes, donations help us add entirely new services. Thanks to the generosity of Pryor’s FTW, we are able to loan video games for the first time ever! We only have Xbox 360 games right now, but should get more soon.
Your donations help a lot. Thank you for thinking of us!
Read On! Libraries are growing organisms
I have been a library user my whole life. My first library was the Vinita Public Library, then Claremore, then the massive Tulsa City-County system, not to mention various school and university libraries. As a library user, I understood how libraries work – I want or need a resource, the library either has it or the staff helps me get it. Pretty simple.
Once I started Library School and began working in libraries, I discovered the simple experiences I had as a library patron are not quite as simple for the staff to deliver. At its core, every library and every job inside the library is focused on customer/patron service. The entire institution exists to provide our patrons with the simple experience of getting information and resources they need.
This requires a whole host of decisions behind the scenes. Beginning with the materials and resources we purchase – what will our community want? What will benefit the community most? Then, we have to decide how to catalog and promote what we purchase – what subject headings make the most sense? Where will people be most likely to find the item on the shelf? Where should we put the labels and barcode stickers?
In order to make these decisions well, we have to know our community and keep learning our community as it changes. I feel thankful that the staff at the library takes this responsibility seriously. I am even more thankful that our patrons are not shy about communicating with us what you want and need.
If you’re ever curious about a decision we’ve made, please ask! (you might want to do so when you’ve got a few minutes. I tend to get passionate about this stuff) Also, if you have a suggestion for how we can do something better, please let us know. We are not afraid to examine our practices and try new things if it makes sense to do so.
Read On! What do you do for a reading slump?
I am officially in a book-reading slump. For whatever reason, I can’t seem to read traditional print books right now. I get distracted by Life or daydreams and the books continue to go unread. I have a long list of things I want to read – some have been on there for a significant period of time – but no matter the book or author, I seem to not be in the reading mood. Not even audiobooks hold my attention.
I still read, but what I read right now tends to be news articles, comic books, bedtime books with my kids, and a lot of material for work. This doesn’t make me (or anyone) any less of a reader than when I was reading a book each week. It just makes me a different reader.
Even though I’m not reading fiction books, I’m still able to find plenty of material at the library. We subscribe to newspapers, magazines, and comic books (both monthly issues and volumes). Plus, the library keeps me inspired with ideas and patterns for my knitting habit that seems to have taken the place of my reading habit. Not to mention the selection of movies and TV shows we have to checkout so I can knit and watch something at the same time.
If you’re headed to the Pryor Creek Comic Convention this Saturday (Jan. 18), come by the Mayes County Libraries table and get your official comic convention BINGO sheet. Or just say “hi.” We’ll be happy to tell you about our services and/or fan-girl over the special guests with you. Muriel Fahrion, creator of Strawberry Shortcake, is on the top of my personal list.
If you haven’t gotten your tickets for the Friends of the Pryor Library fundraiser mystery party, “Homicide at the Harrison House,” you’d better act fast! You can get them through the Friends’ Facebook page at facebook.com/pryorpubliclibraryfriends. $35 for a single ticket, $60 for two.