Library
Read On! Books and Brews New List
The Books & Brews Club picked our next round of books at our last meeting. Here’s what we’ve got lined up: (You can also find this list on our website, pryorlibrary.org).
February: “Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford” by Clint Hill
March: “The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Flight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear” by Kate Moore
April: “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
May: “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula Le Guin
June: “The Guncle” by Steven Rowley
July: “The Lincoln Highway” by Amor Towles
August: “Tales From the Ant World” by Edward Wilson
September: “The Flight Attendant” by Chris Bohjalian
October: “Facing the Mountain” by Daniel James Brown
November: “The Book of Lost Names” by Kristin Harmel
December: No book, but we will meet to discuss our favorite books from 2022
January, 2023: “Neverwhere” by Neil Gaiman
February, 2023: “Dead Wake” by Erik Larson
All the books are available at the library, via Libby/Overdrive, or for purchase at the Book Exchange.
If you’ve never been to a Books & Brews Club meeting, I encourage you to try it out. We’re a relaxed book club that’s more about community and fellowship than serious literary discussions. Our meetings are from 1 – 3 on the first Saturday of each month. The first hour is reserved for chatting and eating. We do not discuss the book until 2, so feel free to come whether you’ve read the book or not. At the very least, you should try Fat Toad’s food menu. My standard order is a side salad and a pretzel with double the cheese. It’s amazing! (The pizza isn’t bad either!)
In other news, this is volume 200 of “Read On!” That’s almost four years! I hope you’re having as much fun reading as I am writing.
Read On! Cultural Conversations
One thing Libraries do for our patrons is offer materials and experiences that grant everyone entry into cultural conversations. I think mostly of school-aged kids and the necessity of being “in the know” about popular culture, but it applies to everyone.
If your friend group is constantly discussing the “Spiderman” movies, but you haven’t seen any of them, you can’t truly participate in that cultural conversation. Luckily, the Library can help you get caught up pretty easily. We may not own every Spiderman movie (right now, we only have the Andrew Garfield ones), but through our inter-library loan service (that costs $3), we have access to other library collections that do.
The Library also helps me keep up with my kids’ cultural references. I find myself looking up various terms they use, reading articles about the storyline and chapters in Fortnite, and trying to find all the Minecraft books possible just to keep up.
We don’t have the space or budget to collect every popular book, movie, or video game, but if you feel like you’re missing out on part of our cultural conversation, let us know and we’ll see what we can do to help.
*In “The Hitchhiker’s Guide,” it’s revealed that the answer to “the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything” is 42.
Read On! 2021 and ROI
Looking back on the year’s statistics is always fun. This year is especially enjoyable because our statistics show we are creeping back toward our 2019 numbers. I’m hopeful this means good things for 2022!
One of the buzz phrases in the business world is “Return on Investment” which is the benefit (usually monetary) you get from investing in a business, service, etc. Looking at our 2021 statistics, I decided to calculate Pryor’s return on investment (ROI) for the Library. Our total budget this fiscal year is $519,535.
In 2021, we had 8,400 active patron accounts (662 were new accounts). Those accounts checked out about 31,500 physical items and 25,000 digital items. Using an average price of $16.80 per item, our community saved $952,000 by using the Library’s collection instead of buying the same materials.
Pryor Library staff answered about 27,700 questions in 2021. I’m going to assume we averaged about 3 minutes of staff time per question or 1,385 hours in total. Using our budgeted salaries divided by the number of employees included in that budget item, we average about $11.17 per hour of paid staff time (that doesn’t include any benefits). By asking Library staff instead of finding and paying for another service for those answers the community saved about $15,500 in 2021.
With only those two services (material checkout and research help), the ROI is almost $2 for every dollar spent by the City to support your Pryor Library. These back of the napkin calculations don’t account for our internet and wifi services, our online resources beyond Overdrive, or our events and programming. Nor do they take into account savings from our four sister libraries in Mayes County. It’s safe to say that Libraries are a good deal.
Thank you for investing in your Mayes County Libraries.
Read On! New Years Goals
We’ve made it to the last week of 2021! Hooray! I am cautiously optimistic about the new year. The Library will see a lot of positive changes (mostly with the building) in the coming year that we’re all very excited about.
A new year often brings new goals and 2022 is no different. The Library will publish its next strategic plan in July. This will set down our goals for the next three years as well as the path we anticipate taking to accomplish those goals. (We’ll be asking for community input on these goals soon)
For personal goal-setting, I’ve decided to try some reading goals for the first time. I am a slow reader, an inconsistent reader, and a busy human, so reading goals have been intimidating for me. This year, I’m setting goals while keeping in mind that they’re something to aim for and there are only things to gain from trying to accomplish them.
My biggest reading goal for 2022 is simply to keep track of what I read. I will use two tools to help me do this: my Library accounts and an app called TheStorygraph. (Lots of people use journals instead of apps. I admire their dedication.)
Both our Library system and Overdrive keep a history of what patrons check out. I have mine set to remember everything forever, but you can tweak your settings to have the system forget after a certain period of time or not to keep track at all. If you need help finding these settings, let us know.
TheStorygraph is similar to GoodReads (you can even import your GoodReads info). It was founded by Nadia Odunayo and her team who have nothing to do with Amazon. I like that about them. It is a new site/app so there are some kinks to work out, but overall I am very pleased with it.
Be sure to let us know if you have any reading (or other) goals for 2022 and if we can help you accomplish them!