PCL Holiday Schedule

Perry Carnegie Library will observe the following holidays:

CLOSED - Monday, 12/24/07 (Christmas Eve)

CLOSED - Tuesday, 12/25/07 (Christmas Day)

CLOSING AT NOON - Monday, 12/31/07 (New Year's Eve)

CLOSED - Tuesday, 01/01/08 (New Year's Day)

Library staff and the Friends of the Library would like to wish everyone a very Happy Holidays.

PCL Resumes Normal Hours Of Operation

Conditions have improved enough that the City of Perry, including the Library, resume normal operating hours today.

We would like to extend our condolences to those who have suffered losses during this trying time, and our warm wishes to everyone in the state of Oklahoma for a speedy recovery.

For updates on how Oklahoma is faring:

Statewide:

Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management - Ice Storm 2007

Oklahoma City:

KFOR - Newschannel 4 - NBC

KOCO - Channel 5 - ABC

KWTV- Channel 9 - CBS

Tulsa:

KJRH - Channel 2 - NBC

KTUL - Channel 8 - ABC

KOTV - Channel 6 - CBS

PCL Closed Today Due To Ice Storm

Perry Carnegie Library is closed today due to the ice storm that is gripping much of the state of Oklahoma. Our City Hall is also closed today, as well as the local public school system.

Based on our understanding of the weather situation later tonight, City Manager Roy Rainey will decide the status of city offices for tomorrow. For the library's status, keep checking here. For other city offices, please monitor your local news outlets as well as official communications from City administration.

Christmas Tour of Homes

The Library is on the Christmas Tour of Homes this year, and so we'd like to provide you full information about the event:

The Tour takes place on December 09, 2007 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Included are five area homes and Perry Carnegie Library.

Advance tickets will be sold at Thorn Originals and Foster's Corner Drug Store for $7.00. Tickets will be $8.00 at the door.

After taking the Tour, you are cordially invited to the Cherokee Strip Museum at 2617 W. Fir for refreshments.

Staffing Changes

I would like to pass along two changes that the public will notice starting in mid-December.

Cherie Cowan has been promoted to Assistant Librarian from her current position as Part-Time Reference Assistant.

O'donna Dean will move down to the Children's Department and be the Part-Time Children's Assistant.

We will be opening a job position for a Part-Time Reference Assistant soon.

Holiday Season

We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. We would like to thank the Friends of the Library for decorating the library for Christmas. The Library is on this year's Christmas Tour of Homes, and we invite everyone to join us at the library on December 9th.

Oklahoma Statehood Day

We would like to encourage everyone to attend the Oklahoma Statehood Day events this Friday, November 16th. The two closest to Perry are probably the Guthrie Centennial celebration and the Oklahoma Centennial Spectacular in Oklahoma City. The OKC event will be broadcast statewide on OETA, so you can watch it there if you can't make it to Oklahoma City.

PCL In The News

The library made yesterday's Perry Daily Journal not once, but twice. The first was a story about the first RIF distribution that was held on October 25-26th. Our local Friends group gave the Library a check for $250 toward our costs, and that award is pictured in the article. We appreciate the Friends of the Library and all they do.

The second library related appearance concerned my attendance at "Breakfast With Main Street" on Tuesday. Once a quarter, local businesspeople and community leaders gather to discuss important issues and participate in a program arranged by Main Street. This Breakfast featured Wayne Speer, former Pawnee County Assessor, who travels North America as an Oklahoma Centennial Ambassador portraying Gordon "Pawnee Bill" Lillie. All attendees had a great time walking through Oklahoma History with Mr. Speer.

Upcoming Holidays

Perry Carnegie Library will be closed the following dates in November:

November 12, 2007 - Veteran's Day (Observed)

November 16, 2007 - Oklahoma Statehood Day

November 22 - 25, 2007 - Thanksgiving

This schedule means we will have three "long weekends" in November. Also, please remember that even though we do not make items due on closed dates, you can still drop your materials into the book drop.

Halloween Redux

We had an absolute blast at Perry's Halloween celebration. I and four members of the Friends of the Library handed out candy and goodies to area children. It is great to know that the City is so generous in providing our children safe, respectable, and wholesome avenues to have fun. Children always look forward to trick-or-treating on the Square. We also hear that the various events held by local places of worship had large numbers of children.

Now, we start to look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Halloween

We would like to encourage all local citizens and children to attend the official City of Perry Halloween celebration tomorrow from 5:30 - 7:30 PM on the Square. The Library & Friends of the Library will be handing out candy and goodies the whole time.

LIbrary Board Meeting Postponed

The library board meeting originally scheduled for October 25, 2007 has been postponed until a later date. More details will be provided once a new date and time has been determined.

RIF

Today starts the first RIF distribution, for the homeschoolers and daycare kids. We're very happy to host the children and hope they enjoy their free books!

Children's Department Blog

Given that my blog has been going so well, we've also decided to start a children's blog. Miss Linda will be making her first posts as soon as the first RIF distribution is over.

"Happy Feet"

Today, we're happy to be sponsoring the children from Christ Lutheran Learning Center for a fall break movie time, full with snacks and activities. Miss Linda will be showing Happy Feet, and will wrap things up with a few Fall/Halloween stories if time permits.

Upcoming Meetings @ Library

Noble County Genealogy Society, Saturday, October 20th, 2007, 10:00 AM

Friends of the Library, Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007, 2:00 PM

Library Board, Thursday, October 25th, 2007, 5:30 PM

All meetings take place in the Thelma Knox Brown Meeting Room. If your non-profit community organization would like to host an event at the Library, call 580-336-4721 for available times/dates and a copy of our meeting room policy.

Updated New Book List

Over the past couple of days, we got in a great shipment of new books. Take a look at the new book list on the PCL site, and then come in to check them out!

Storytime Update

A couple of things to remember about upcoming storytimes:

1) Due to the first RIF distribution, there will be no storytime next week. We'll be busy setting up the Thelma Knox Brown Meeting Room with lots of great books for children.

2) For the Halloween storytimes (10/30 & 10/31), we would like to encourage all children and adults to show up in their best ghoulish garb! Wear your costumes and see who Miss Linda thinks is SCARY!

New Books

Don't forget to always check both the PCL website and the Perry Daily Journal for lists of new books available for checkout at the library. If you see a book on the list you would like, you can also call us and have a hold placed on the title. That means we'll either pull it from the shelves so you can pick it up immediately, or, if it's already checked out, we'll put you next on the list to have the book.

There are many great services available at Perry Carnegie Library. Drop by and we'll tell you all about them!

Website Changes

Recently, I've been making some changes to the PCL website in order to make it more "user-friendly". I'm standardizing a lot of the links on the left-side menu, as well as making sure everyone can navigate to my blog from the website.

I've set it up where my blog will open up in a new window and not direct you away from the PCL site in the process.

I'd like to encourage any member of the public to send me suggestions about what you'd like to see done with our website.

For example, one suggestion I've had is that the library create a Myspace page. Sounds like an interesting possibility that I'll have to look into.

Another is to create different pages for teens, kids, etc.

RIF

It's almost time for for our first RIF distribution for this year.

RIF is the nation's oldest and largest non-profit children's literacy initiative. We partner with the federal government in a 75%/25% cost-share.

Perry has three distributions per year, and local children (from the school, daycares, etc.) each get to pick out one free book per visit. All books are age appropriate and purchased from reputable national book vendors.

PCL has been involved in this program for decades, with the welcome support of the community. Generations of school children remember coming to the library to get "their RIF books".

I and my staff are proud to be able to continue this fine tradition.

Distribution Dates 2007 - 2008

RIF Distribution Dates
	Middle School	Elementary	Daycare / Headstart
1st	10/26/2007	10/25/2007	10/24/2007
2nd	01/18/2008	01/17/2008	01/16/2008
3rd	03/14/2008	03/13/2008	03/12/2008
Homeschooled students may come any afternoon the day of the distribution.

Middle School Tours

Today, we're happy to be hosting tours of Mrs. Brand's 6th Grade English classes. They are learning about the library and its importance to their schoolwork! So, if you see lots of middle schoolers around, say hello and welcome them to the Library!

City Council Meetings

One of my responsibilities in the City is to attend and contribute to meetings of the City Council. The Council meets every other Monday (not counting Federal Holidays and such) to make policy decisions about the City. In my capacity as Department Head, I attend to give City officials any information they need about the library, as well as to be informed about what is going on in other City Departments.

The next Council meeting is Monday, October 15th, so I will be attending once I return from the Public Library Director's Council meeting in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

All City Council meetings, as well as many other types of local programming, can be seen on Suddenlink Channel 19, Perry Information Network (typically referred to by our local citizens by the acronym PIN).

Public Library Director's Council

On Monday, October 15th, I will be attending Public Library Director's Council meeting at Stillwater Public Library. We meet every other month at different Oklahoma Libraries to discuss items of consequence to Oklahoma library directors.

For example, we discuss upcoming legislation involving libraries, how to make sure libraries are well funded, and how to make sure we let our local citizens know how important their libraries are.

It is also a great opportunity to network with my fellow directors and trade ideas about what we're all doing in our communities.

Things On My Desk

This blog replaces the old "Director's Corner" page I was publishing as time permitted. Having a more streamlined format will allow me to pass along news and information about the library and the community to all our readers in a much quicker fashion.

Given that I am fairly tech-savvy, I think that this will be a wonderful addition to our library's web presence.