Library

We’re two weeks into our new operating hours. It’s not ideal (and it feels like a failure, if I’m honest), but we’ll get through this together. After a 13% overall budget cut (more than 12% from staffing once the dust settled from the severance packages and 15% from operations), we hope this fiscal year will be the worst of it. 

We are actively looking for additional funding through grants. We are hopeful they come through, but they are not guaranteed and they take time for the application & approval process to complete before we’ll actually receive any funding. 

To help in the shorter term, we are also asking our community for some specific help. We have three active “wish lists” of things we’ll need but may not have the budget for. Two of the lists are supply lists on Amazon. One is for general office supplies (paper, cleaning supplies, kitchen supplies, etc.) and the other is for specific supplies we’ll need for upcoming programs and activities. 

The third list is housed at the Book Exchange and consists of books the library would like to buy, but probably can’t afford this year. (Please don’t buy these books on Amazon.) All you have to do is go to the Book Exchange or call (918-825-6015) and let Chris know you’d like to buy one of the books on our list. He’ll get it ordered and over to us. 

We also always take donations of books and movies in good condition. If we don’t add them to the collection, we’ll add them to our sale shelf. Either way, your unwanted items will find a new home and help the library. 

Join us this week for our Quiet-ish book club on Mon at 4 PM, coloring on Tues at 11:30 AM, Storytime on Wed. at 11:30 AND 1:30, and yarning on Thur. at 11:30. 

As always, thank you for valuing your library. 

Celebrate Summer Reading with us by entering the library card design contest! Winning designs will be printed on a batch of library cards. Anyone living, working, or attending school in Mayes County is eligible to enter. One entry per person. One winner will be selected from each age category: children (5-11), teens (12-17), and adults (18+). Physical and digital submissions are accepted. Digital entries must be in JPG or PNG format and may not exceed 1 MB in size. Artwork must be original and not published elsewhere. Submitted artwork will become property of Pryor Public Library and will be reviewed by members of the community. Complete rules and entry packet are available below!

In my Library Life, nothing makes my heart swell quite like a busy library. I came to work late the other morning and had a really difficult time finding a parking space. It was glorious! Inside, we had families playing and reading in the Youth Services Department, tutors and students in our study rooms, a civic group meeting in the meeting room, and our regulars for Coffee & Coloring in the makerspace. 

Our door count numbers show that what has felt like an uptick in Library use and traffic has, indeed, been an uptick. In February, we had 4,206 visitors in the building. That averages to about 180 people through our doors each day. For context, we averaged about 140 people every day in January.

We answered more questions in February, by over 1,000 questions! We answered 6,297 questions in February and only 5,159 in January. (When we first started keeping track of the number of questions we answered each month, we were giddy when we answered more than 2,000 in a month!)

Another astounding number for our February statistics is how many times patrons used our study rooms and meeting rooms – 398 times! Seven of those uses were in our meeting rooms and 391 were in our study rooms. When we were planning the Library’s additions, we knew the study rooms would be popular, but we had no idea how popular! 

Attendance at our programs and activities was up in February, too. We had 17 programs/activities total in January and in February, but in January, we had 157 people attending the programs compared to the 249 people attending in February. 

All of this is to say, we’re getting busier at your Pryor Library and we absolutely love it. Thank you for using your library!

While I didn’t hate school growing up, I didn’t see it as much more than a means to an end. If I had it to do over again, I’d like to think I’d pay better attention to what we learned in History classes and I might actually read all the books assigned to us in English. Maybe. 

Luckily for me and anyone else who might want to revisit what we learned in school (or dive deeper into a particular subject), the public library has resources to help! Many of these resources can be found online through our website (pryorlibrary.org). They’re listed on the “Research and Resources” page. 

My favorites are BrainFuse and Mango with EBSCO Host getting an honorable mention. They are all user friendly and offer helpful resources for current students as well as life-long learners. 

BrainFuse comes in three varieties: HelpNow, a resource for students full of study guides, practice tests for most standardized tests, and the option to connect with a human tutor; JobNow, a resource for job seekers that helps with resumes, interview skills, and more; and VetNow, a resource that helps military veterans navigate the VA’s complicated systems. 

Mango is our language learning resource that features 70+ languages in easily accessible lessons. It even has some English lessons for non-native speakers. There’s even an app!

EBSCO Host is a true database full of articles from magazines, newspapers, and journals that cover almost any subject you might want to research. For those still in school, EBSCO will even help you get your citations correct! 

Of course, we also have our collection on the Libby app, in the building, and from just about any library in the world through our Inter-Library Loan (ILL) service. If there’s something you want to learn or know more about, let us know. We’ll get you connected!