Posts by Cari

Things are getting exciting here at your Pryor Library! Every day, we watch big machines do their jobs preparing for the foundations of our new additions. This process will take about a year to complete. It will look messy and chaotic, but we plan to be open to the public during construction.

By the time the dust has cleared and construction is complete, the building will look vastly different than it does right now. We’ll have five new areas, one remodel, and a new roofline.

Staff are getting a new kitchen and break area, two new offices, and a remodel to make the current office area functional. We are probably the only ones excited about this piece of the project.

Slightly more exciting for everyone else will be two new meeting rooms on the east end of the building. The meeting rooms can combine into a mega meeting room for all our mega meeting needs! We’ll also have three single-occupancy bathrooms in this area.

Rounding the southeast corner of the building onto the Graham Ave. side, we’ll have a makerspace. If you’re unfamiliar with makerspaces, think “industrial craft room” – a space dedicated to making things. Our Legacy Lab that converts older media into newer, digital media and our podcasting equipment will be housed in this area too.

Just west of the makerspace is the much anticipated museum room that will feature Bill Rabbit’s painted pony. In addition to the horse, we’ll display some of the art we currently have as well as rotating exhibits.

Lastly, on the west side of our Graham Ave. entrance we’ll have four study rooms equipped to handle small meetings and individuals.

If you’re more of a visual person, come to the Library and check out the rough floor plan at any public service desk. We’re sure our community will be proud of the work that’s being done here.

While the library was closed to the public for Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the library staff gathered for our annual Staff Training Day. It’s a day we fill with sessions to sharpen our library skills and activities to strengthen our team bond. It’s always a really fun and valuable day.

This year, we explored our online resources (Learning Express and Mango in particular), reviewed some procedures we haven’t had to do much lately, and practiced our reference interview skills. (A “reference interview” is the conversation process we use to make sure staff understand what patrons are really asking us for.) Autumn also taught us how to efficiently cover both hardback and paperback books.

Good food is an essential part of any training day, as everyone knows. This year’s enchilada lunch (catered by Little Cabin Catering) was delicious! The only bad thing was that the portions were perfect and we didn’t have any leftovers.

For team building, we played “Human Bingo” and learned which of us cannot whistle (spoiler: it’s Elise and me). Next, Jacinda had us partner up and guide our blindfolded teammate through a duct tape minefield. The winning time was just under five minutes, but I’m happy to report no one stepped on a bomb. Finally, Mac asserted his athletic prowess by winning our first ever Library Staff cornhole tournament. Be sure to congratulate him when you see him!

I am always happy to work with the staff at your library. They are a group of professionals who work hard to make sure your library is serving our community to the best of our ability. Staff Training Day is a wonderful reminder to me that the Library’s staff is also filled with kind and considerate people who are so much fun to be around. I am so grateful for the staff we have and the community we serve!

I got to attend October’s Books & Brews Club meeting at the new Fat Toad location. It was my first Books & Brews Club meeting in quite some time thanks to my life imploding in various ways and a pause in meetings due to COVID. Despite the length of time away and the new location for the meeting, going back was easy and comfortable and warm like an old sweater.

Book clubs are many things for their members: an excuse to get out of the house, a reason to read outside normal genres/comfort zones, and/or a way to exercise critical thinking and discussion skills. For me, book clubs are more about fellowship and friendship than reading and discussing. Books & Brews is no exception. Our members are a mix of ages, genders, religious backgrounds, political beliefs, and Oklahoma college loyalties. Such a variety doesn’t often help a group of people mesh, but at the Fat Toad table sharing a meal (that’s pretty delicious, by the way) and a drink (either alcoholic and not), we’re family.

The Library started Books & Brews Book Club three years ago with a very strict two-hour format: we talk about anything BUT the month’s book in the first hour, then in the second hour we talk about the book for as long as we want before getting back to other conversations. This format allows us to catch up and break the ice before we get into the book discussion and it ensures anyone who didn’t read the book for whatever reason feels comfortable coming to our meetings anyway.

Our next meeting is Saturday, November 6th from 1 – 3 pm at the new Fat Toad (3882 W. 530 Rd.). If you want to read the book we’re discussing, check out “The House in the Cerulean Sea” by TJ Klune. We’ve got a copy in the Library, on Overdrive, and Chris has some at the Book Exchange. If you don’t want to read it, stop by anyway.

Six years ago, I took a major step outside my comfort zone to become the Director of the Thomas J. Harrison Pryor Public Library. I left a 10-year career (and my first library job) at the Joplin Public Library in Joplin, MO to come back home to NE Oklahoma.

In Joplin, I started at the entry-est of entry-level positions while I went to school for my Master’s degree in Library and Information Science. I was promoted to my first official Librarian position serving Joplin’s teens. It was an amazing job in an outstanding library that taught me so much about myself, public service, and librarianship. After 10 years as the Teen Services Librarian in Joplin, I realized my energies and priorities had changed. It was time to move on.

Despite once vowing never to go into library administration, I began applying for management positions in the areas around Joplin. I applied in Pryor because I grew up in the area, Pryor was closer to my husband’s job, and the interview would be “good practice” if and when I interviewed at bigger libraries.

My intention was to practice with Pryor, but I was sure this was a good library for me when I went into the meeting room for my interview. The Library Board was relaxed and friendly, they gave me a copy of the questions they were going to ask, and they seemed to get my humor. By the time my interview was over, I was pretty well smitten with the Pryor Public Library.

Now, six years later, Pryor continues to feel like Home. Things are very different at the Library than they were when I first started – we have a bigger staff, interact with our community more often and in new ways, and have begun a major construction project. Being the Director of the Pryor Public Library continues to push me out of my comfort zone, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.