Library
Read On! What the Rerats are reading
We’re doing a lot of reading in my house right now. With two adults and two children at home all the time, we’re finding it more and more necessary to have some quiet, alone time.
I just finished “Fear Nothing” by Dean Koontz, a well-written mystery set in a small California town. Christopher Snow, moments after his father’s death at the local hospital, accidentally witnesses two men and the town’s mortician switching his father’s body for a stranger’s. As he follows the trail to figure out the whos and whys, he discovers that his small town is not the sleepy coastal town he has always known.
“Fear Nothing” is a good pick for anyone who likes some science fiction with their mysteries.
My son is listening to “Minecraft: The Island” by Max Brooks. He is having a good time with it. We’ve played the Minecraft game for a few years, so I think he enjoys being plunged into a world he is so familiar with. Plus, he knows some of the answers to the questions and problems the main character encounters, which always “makes a reader feel smart,” he says.
My daughter is listening to the first “Captain Underpants” book by Dav Pilkey. A connoisseur of the show, she too is delighting in reading a book that’s familiar to her. She thinks George and Harold, the main characters, are hilarious and wishes they were in her class.
All of these titles are available through Overdrive, our digital library. If you need help using it, give us a call or send us an email. We’re still available to help!
Read On! Teaching at home
I come from a long line of teachers. Well, a line of two – my mother was a middle school English teacher and my grandfather taught various subjects in the area of vocational agriculture. For a long time, I thought I also wanted to be a teacher, following in my mom’s footsteps to teach English/Language Arts.
Shortly after college, I took a long-term substitute teaching gig in a middle school English class and realized a few things: Teaching is rewarding, amazing, and just plain hard in all the good ways. Teaching is also a round-the-clock job that is challenging in all the ways I am not cut out for.
I now find myself in a more formal teaching role with my own children (and appreciating the hard work of homeschooling families on a whole new level). I’m lucky to have technology and the support of the school system, but this is still a difficult role to adjust to. (My kids are a lot sassier than the students I had all those years ago!)
We’re trying to find a balance between goofing off, learning, and me working from home. The library’s resources have come in handy! My kids are too young to get much out of our LearningExpress resource (it covers 4th grade through college), but I highly recommend it to older learners. We are enjoying the Tumblebooks and Overdrive collections, though, and are watching Autumn’s Facebook storytimes on repeat.
We do physics experiments to see how sturdy pillows and blankets are as building materials and go on excursions to discover (and name) the wildlife outside. “Football,” the assassin bug, and “Rarous,” the barred owl, are our favorites.
Your library staff is still available to answer phones, emails, and messages, so if you need help navigating our online resources or figuring out what wildlife you’ve found in your backyard, let us know.
Read On! New Normal
I’m writing this article while sitting in my living room with my kids. My son is playing a video game and is only slightly annoyed every time I tell him to back away from the TV screen. My daughter is playing a farm/math game on her tablet and is so excited every time the game gives her a star.
I’ve got 9 tabs open in my internet browser and am messaging with my staff through our email’s chat feature. This seems to be our new normal, at least for a while, and it’s working, but it’s hard to get used to. I’m an introvert most of the time, but I definitely prefer being face-to-face to collaborate with the library’s staff and community.
While the library is closed to the public, we’re still working hard to provide as many services to our community as possible. We’re posting resources and fun stuff on our Facebook page and are working on a resource page on our website. The Youth Services staff is working on storytimes that can be broadcast online (so many authors and publishers have released their copyrights to let that happen). We’ve started signing people up for digital cards so they can access ebooks, downloadable audiobooks, digital magazines, and streaming videos through Overdrive/Libby. And we’re brainstorming ways to have online crafting workshops.
We’re still answering phones, emails, and messages via social media, so if you need some one-on-one help with a resource, we’re still available! Our phone-answering hours are our normal library hours Mon & Thurs 1 – 9 PM; Tues, Wed, Fri 9 – 5 PM; Sat 9 – noon.
We definitely miss having everyone in the building! We miss your faces and your stories. We miss talking about what we’re all reading and enjoying. We miss being with our community!
Please take care of yourselves so that when this is all over we can get caught up!
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).