Library
Read On! Tough Topics
Life is full of tough topics. At the library, we specialize in finding the resources you need and we are non-judgemental about what those resources are. That said, we also understand that asking a stranger or (sometimes worse) someone you know for help with a very personal topic is uncomfortable. We’re working on several Tough Topics Finders in the building, but I’d like to give a preview now.
Our official finders will include more topics and the dewey decimal numbers in this list are not exhaustive, but this will get you started. If you would rather use the catalog to find your own materials, the labels for each topic are also good search terms.
Abuse: 362.7
Abusive Relationships: 616.85
Death and/or Grief: 155.9; 248.8
Depression: 616.85
Grief and/or Death: 155.9; 248.8
LGBT and/or LGBTQ+: 306.76
Relationships: 306.7
Suicide: 362.28
Trauma: 616.85
Using our catalog will also yield fiction books, which can be a lot to slog through. One way to narrow down your search results is to use the menu on the left-hand side of your results. If you can’t find it, look for a “Refine Search” tab on the left side of your screen.
There you can choose whether you want downloadable materials, what collection or dewey range you’d like (“material type”), and whether to show only checked in (“availability”) items. You can also limit by subject.
When one of our staff experienced the loss of her husband, she found good books on grief that we don’t own. Like we did with her, we will track down books in other libraries if you need us to. This is our Inter-Library Loan or ILL (pronounced “eye-ell-ell”) service.
Our goal is to help you find resources. We are bound by professional ethics and state law to keep your library use private, so if you feel comfortable asking, we’ll do all we can and it will stay between us.
Read On! Cooking
I don’t cook. It’s not that I can’t cook, I just don’t. A busy life, kids who could survive on chicken nuggets and spaghetti, plus a lack of knowledge/experience/confidence serve as my no-cooking trifecta. One of my goals for 2019 is to cook and eat at home more, so I’d like to change that.
The cool thing is that the library has quite a few of the solutions to my no-cooking trifecta. With more than 150 cookbooks in the building and even more downloadable from Overdrive, there is no wanting for inspiration or instruction. We even have a book in our Youth Services Department called “How to cook in 10 easy lessons!”
We have cookbooks for just about every style of cooking or diet you might want to explore. We also have equipment-specific cookbooks for your Instant Pot, your slow cooker, and your outdoor grill in our collection. And if you want famous people’s cookbooks, we’ve got your famous cooks, too!
After spending a lot of time in our cookbook aisle, I finally selected three to try. I’m trying to hit my doctor’s recommended number of carbs (which I don’t mind telling you is not enough), so I chose books that include nutritional information with each recipe. They are “Turn up the Flavor: 200 delicious recipes that pack a punch,” “The New Atkins For a New You,” and “The 4-Ingredient Diabetes Cookbook.” Not surprisingly, these books are from the good folks at Weight Watchers, Atkins, and the American Diabetes Association respectively. They all promise good recipes in a short amount of time.
If I’m lucky, the Locust Grove Public Library will have another Instant Pot cooking class that I can attend. Until then, I’ll download an Instant Pot cookbook from Overdrive. I’m hopeful it will boost my confidence and save even more time.
I’ll let you know how my cooking adventures go.
Read On! Are You A Speed Reader?
Photo by Joy Deb from Pexels
The world’s speed reading champion clocks in at 4,700 words per minute, speed readers average between 1,000 and 1,500 words per minute, and the average American reads around 300 words per minute. Your Pryor Library Director falls behind the national average at about 230-240 words per minute depending on the test I take. My comprehension is off the charts, I’ll have you know, but my speed is not super stellar.
I’m not particularly interested in increasing my reading speed since the vast majority of my reading is for pleasure, not for profit. That said, being a slow reader makes me a choosier reader. I won’t spend that amount of time with just ANY old book. It’s got to be a good one.
To put it into perspective, the average reader can read the entire published “Game of Thrones” series in 98 hours. It would take me 127 hours. I’m not ready to commit to that kind of time investment.
My reading speed could have easily made me a reluctant reader – someone who can read but, for whatever reason, doesn’t. What saved me a life without books as a teen was sharing a love of thrillers with my older sister. At one point, we had read every R.L. Stine book we could lay hands on.
Today, in my busier adult life, having books in any format I want is what has kept me choosing to spend my time reading. Adjusting the font on an ebook can make it easier and faster to read. Plus, ereaders make bulky books less daunting. Audiobooks are truly a performance, so even though it takes me a little longer to listen to an audio (they’re narrated at about 150 words per minute), it’s often a delightful time.
Whatever your reading speed, we’re bound to have something that will make reading worth your time. If you’re a reluctant reader like I almost was, come talk to us. We’ll see if we can change your mind.
Read On! Interlibrary Loan
We try to always have what our patrons are looking for, but with the amount of works being published it’s an impossible goal to achieve. Luckily, hope is not lost when the book or movie you’re looking for is not in our collection! We have two options for you: 1) you can request that we purchase the item and add it to the collection; or 2) you can request an inter-library loan (ILL).
The decision on whether to purchase items our patrons request is made based on whether other patrons will want to check the items out in addition to consideration for expense and availability. We like to get what our patrons want, so requesting items is a good way to make sure your needs are met.
There is no decision to be made on our part about an ILL. For this process (which does have a postage fee of $3 per item), we simply ask another library to loan us the item you’ve requested so that we can loan it to you. If it is possible for us to get the item you want or need from another library, we will do everything in our power to do so.
Jacinda is our inter-library loan guru and has doggedly tracked down many items that our patrons thought were unfindable. Self-published books often difficult to find, but beyond those we have really great luck getting what you need from another library. We even had a loan come to us from the Library of Congress. We do about 100 ILLs per year, most of them are borrowing items for our patrons. Occasionally, another library will ask us for something, but because our collection is relatively small that doesn’t happen too often.
Requesting an ILL is fairly easy. Once you know the item you need is not in our collection, you can come in or call us to request that we look for it in another library. You can also log into your account online and request it through there.