Read On! It’s National Library Week

Welcome to National Library Week, 2019! This is the week where we formally celebrate our nation’s libraries and all the ways they benefit our communities and community members. Fittingly, this year’s theme is “Libraries = Strong Communities” which “illustrates how today’s libraries are at the heart of our cities, towns, schools and campuses, providing critical resources, programs and expertise.”

The week features a few special days that we’d love to celebrate with you.

Tuesday, “National Library Workers’ Day,” honors the contributions all library workers bring to their libraries and communities.

Wednesday is “Library Giving Day,” a new addition to the week’s celebrations. On Wednesday library users are encouraged to donate to their local library in some way. Remember, donating materials/books is a wonderful way to show your love for your library. If we don’t use them in the collection, we will sell them or find them another good home. (If you need to make a tax-deductible donation, you can donate through our Friends of the Library group which is a 501 c(3).)

Thursday, “Take Action for Libraries Day,” is another new way to celebrate. On Thursday everyone is encouraged to tell their library story. Why are libraries important to you? How has your library helped you? Spread the word! Social media is a good place to share (use #MyLibraryMyStory), but if you want to take it a step further, share with your city and state officials!

By far, the best way to celebrate National Library Week, whether you take time to acknowledge each day or not, is simply to visit your local library. We’ve got five amazing public libraries in Mayes County. This is a good week to check them out if you’re not using them already. Between the five of us, you’re almost guaranteed to find something worthwhile!

 

Read On! Books & Brews

It’s time for our monthly Books & Brews meeting at the Fat Toad. This month, we’ll discuss Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book,” a sort of retelling of “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling. Instead of the main character being raised by a pack of wolves in a jungle, he is raised by a haunt of ghosts in a graveyard.

“The Graveyard Book” was my choice for the group. Mostly because Neil Gaiman may be my favorite author ever. I love the way he begins a story with many disparate threads only to weave them all together into a single fabric and I love the characters he brings to life. “The Graveyard Book” is not my favorite of Gaiman’s works, but I felt like it would be a nice choice for the Books & Brews folks. It begins with murder, then features a boy who finds adventures with graveyard creatures. There’s a lot of discussion material between its covers.

It’s the only book to win both the Newbery in the U.S. and the Carnegie in the U.K. so it is well received among the toughest critics. The Newbery Award is awarded to “the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” The Carnegie Award is awarded to “the writer of an outstanding book written in English for children and young people.” Dave McKean’s illustration style enhances Gaiman’s writing incredibly well even though he didn’t win any awards for his contribution.

There’s still time to read “The Graveyard Book” before our meeting on Saturday, April 6th from 1 – 3 PM. Or don’t read it and come anyway. We won’t judge. The first hour we meet is reserved for socializing and the book discussion is in the second hour. No one is required to purchase anything in order to join us and we have a nice mix of men and women of all ages. You don’t even have to be 21 to enter the brewery anymore!

Read On! Improving Your Library

As you may know, the voters of Pryor are allowing the City to extend a bond that will fund a new police/fire station, library additions and renovations, as well as many other projects. Your library staff is so excited about our portion of this bond money! It gives us the unique ability to carry out the vision of the library we helped form in the Comprehensive Plan.

The biggest need we identified is more space for people to gather, study, and be comfortable in the library. The bond money will help us meet that need with the addition of a large meeting room that can be divided into two rooms and will be accessible to groups after hours. We’ll also get four study rooms. The new meeting room will be on the far east side of the building and the study rooms will be on the south side outside the adult computer lab.

As we have been allowed to add staff back, our second need became apparent. We need more space for staff to work behind the scenes, take their breaks and meals, and store their belongings. This need will be met with an addition to and remodel of our current office area. We will get a new, functional kitchen (the current one has plumbing issues), work areas for projects that need uninterrupted attention, and a new break area.

Our third addition will have the potential for dual use. We’re getting a special room that can act as a “Makerspace” – a space for patrons to make things – and additional storage/workspace for staff. The “maker” portion will house equipment for patrons to use. (We’re thinking a sewing machine and 3D printer to start.) The details of this third space are still forming, but we love the potential it has.

If you’d like to see architectural drawings of where the additions will be, we’ve got them at the front desk. We’d love to share them with you!

 

Read On! Adult Literacy

We’re still working on the final wording for our Strategic Plan, but some of the projects we want to tackle are too important to wait until the Plan is fully complete. Two of those projects are the Adult Literacy and English Language Learning programs.

Haley, our point person for both programs, is in the process of selecting the curriculum we will use for both programs. While she’s working on that, we have begun our search for students. That’s where you come in, dear reader.

If you know of anyone who wants some one-on-one tutoring to strengthen their reading or literacy skills, please send them our way. We are a judgement-free space at the library. We don’t care why they need help, we just want to help.

Also, if you know of anyone who wants one-on-one tutoring to learn English, please send them our way. We simply want to help anyone who wants it.

Eventually, when we have students, we’ll also be searching for tutors, so keep that in mind.

And finally, as part of our English Language Learning, we’ll come full-circle to help English speakers who are interested in learning another language. We’re looking for languages of interest and students of those languages so that we can start small conversation groups. Likely, they’ll meet on a Monday evening and consist of a group of people speaking entirely in Spanish, Vietnamese, etc.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to encourage prospective students to reach out, consider volunteering to help those students, and languages you’re interested in learning, languages you’re proficient in speaking, and whether you’re willing to spend some time with us to make these programs successful. 

Feel free to call the library (918) 825-0777 and ask for me or Haley if you’d like more information.