Posts by Cari

Who we serve

I love that people think of libraries as being a safe place for children and teenagers. When they think of libraries, they envision babies and toddlers at storytime, middle school kids hanging out after school, and teenagers meeting up to work on school projects. They’re not wrong, of course. We are a great place for kids and teens! But they’re not seeing the full picture. We’re a great place for everyone. 

Our services and resources are tailored to meet the needs of as many community members as possible. We have online resources, books, movies, audiobooks, and activities throughout the library that we have chosen because they serve individuals in our community well. 

When we interact with our patrons, our staff try to do so without judgment and without the assumption that we know what’s best. Overall, we do a good job of this, which helps make us a welcoming place where everyone, of all ages and backgrounds, can feel comfortable asking for what they need. Once we know what someone needs, we work really hard to make sure we connect them to resources that are reputable and useful. Then, ask follow-up questions to make sure we’ve answered their questions fully. 

Your Pryor Library’s mission is to “enrich lives by being a vibrant community hub.” To do so, curate our collections and services to best meet the community’s needs. But more importantly, we accomplish our mission by gladly serving the entire community to the best of our ability. That means we’re happy to see you whether you’re sleeping on a king size Sleep Number bed or on a bench at the park.

When you come to the Pryor Library, our hope is that you feel like you belong. When you leave the library, our goal is that you feel confident in the resources you’ve found and the interactions you’ve had with staff members. 

Your Pryor Library started our Books & Brews book club at The Fat Toad Brewing Company in March of 2018. Our first meeting was an informational meeting where we let everyone know what our first discussion book would be (“The Reader” by Traci Chee), and how each book club meeting would be structured. We would love for you to join us this Saturday March 4, 2023 from 1 – 3 to help us celebrate our anniversary!

This month, we’ll be discussing “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt. This is a gentle book that explores friendship and family through the eyes of Tova, a 70-year-old widow, and Marcellus, an aging giant Pacific octopus who is, as the title suggests, remarkably bright. 

At this writing, I’m just over halfway finished with “Remarkably Bright Creatures” and am enjoying it very much. It’s a slower read than I usually choose, but the pace gives us time to get to know the characters and watch their relationships unfold. I get a feeling that sadness is in my future with this book, but I think it will be okay. At least, I hope I don’t sob.

While I plan to finish the book before we discuss it at our next Books & Brews Club meeting, even if I don’t, I’ll be welcome to attend. We visit, eat lunch, and hang out for the first hour with absolutely zero talk about the book. Then, in the second hour, we begin our book discussion. Some months the book discussion hour is as lively and fun as the visiting hour and other months, the book discussion lasts 10-15 minutes so we can get back to our visiting. 

This format, which is the one we started with, has been a good one for us. We have a nice mix of men and women who come to Books & Brews. We range in age from late 20s/early 30s to early 80s. Sometimes, our kids join us too. It’s a good group and we’d love to see you there! 

This week, we’re only open on Halloween day, then we’ll be closed until mid-December when we reopen in our normal, newly additioned, newly renovated building! We are beyond excited despite the enormous undertaking before us. 

While we won’t have any face-to-face services during this time, all of our online resources will be available. You can download ebooks and audiobooks via the Libby app or the OK Virtual Library site. You can study for your GED, ACT, SAT or other standardized tests through our Learning Express Library. The Job and Career Accelerator addition to Learning Express can help you build your resume, write cover letters, or even search for jobs on Indeed. If you want to be able to greet us in a new language when we reopen, check out our Mango Languages resource. And don’t forget Tumblebooks for all your picture book and young reader needs! 

We will have phones and computers when we get to the building, but I cannot guarantee we’ll be able to answer calls or emails consistently. Especially not in the first week or so. I’m pretty positive we’ll have voicemail on Day 1, so leave us a message and we’ll try to get you called back. The bulk of our computers have been sitting in storage for eight months and need some serious TLC and software updates before they’re fully operational again. Once we get that done, we’ll be able to email and respond to any social media messages. 

Our time in the Graham Community Building has been more successful than we anticipated. So many of our patrons have visited us in the temporary location! We’re going to miss you all so much while we’re closed. We cannot wait to see everyone and be a fully functioning library again!! 

Our initial reopening will be without much fanfare. We’ll save the party for after the first of the year. Can’t wait!