July 30, 2020

Our Doors Are Closed But We're Still Open!

Last week. I saw someone complaining on social media about government buildings being closed.  If the employees are there, why are the doors closed to the public, they wondered?      

We at the library are no different.  But while you may not be able to come inside the library just yet, we’re here Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm providing library service, albeit through a door.  If you need a pile of books or you just need to veg out and watch some movies, you can place items on hold through the library’s online catalog.  If you don’t have access to the internet, give us a call and we will put together a bag of books and/or movies for you.  Please know it’s not an inconvenience to us… we actually LOVE doing this! 

We also provide printing, faxing, and scanning.  Just give us a call and we can give you the details for the most convenient way to get your paperwork to us. 

And if you’re craving some social interaction, I have two programs coming up this month!  Montana author Richard Fifield will be joining us on August 14 at 6pm to discuss his latest book “The Small Town Crimes of Tiffany Templeton” and Humanities Washington speaker Brian Hennings will talk to us about the ethics of climate change on August 31 at 6pm. Contact us for the Zoom information for both programs

~Heidi Harting, Library Assistant


July 24, 2020

Quarantining Library Returns

Have you been wondering why you're still getting emails about late items from the library even when you know you returned them days ago?  It's probably because they're in quarantine! 

Since we reopened our library return bins back in June, we've been placing all items in quarantine for 72 hours.  To protect staff as much as possible, we don't check in any items until after they've sat for at least that long to make sure there's no trace of the virus. 

And with more scientific research from Battelle Laboratories as part of the REALM (Reopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums) Research Project, we now know that the virus can live for up to 4 days on some surfaces.  As a result, we started quarantining all library items for 96 hours this week.

So, if you get an email from us and you know you returned the item, just ignore it!  It's probably just in quarantine, waiting to be put back on the shelf so someone else can safely check it out.

~Kylie Fullmer, Director

July 14, 2020

New Shelf, Who Dis?

Attention all adult readers, don’t be alarmed when you’re able to re-enter the building and you can’t find your favorite genre/author. Now all books in the Romance, General Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Inspirational Fiction, and Science Fiction/Fantasy genres will be shelved together alphabetically by author last name.

While it may look like we’ve made a giant mish-mash of genres, we think you’ll not only have an easier time finding ALL of the books by your favorite authors, you might find some new favorites too (don’t worry shelf browsers, spine labels will still list genres for guidance).

You’re probably wondering, why the heck did we do this? The old system was working fine! <fist shaking>

Well…it was and it wasn’t. As you all may know, our amazing little library has a shelf space issue (shhhh! She’s sensitive about it) and our genres were having some growing pains. Romance had a ton of room to grow while Suspense was consistently bursting at the seams, Mystery was getting mad that Suspense was stealing half of her good titles, Science Fiction/Fantasy just wanted to be in the mix somewhere instead of on the outskirts, and everybody was mad that DVDs took up all the prime shelving in the middle!

Plus prolific authors are branching out across genres or publishing titles encompassing more than one genre more so than ever before. Nora Roberts (aka J.D. Robb) has books in Romance, General Fiction, Mystery, and Science Fiction/Fantasy; David Rosenfelt’s books encompass both Mystery and Suspense, and James Patterson has books in every single genre we carry (including children’s, tweens, and teens!)

So we thought we’d tackle both issues head on and blend our genres while continuing to keep DVDs + TV (now found side by side), Large Print, and Westerns separate.

So when you return, please give our new shelving system a chance and remember that staff are always available to point you in the right direction or answer any questions you might have!

~Amy Hille, Library Assistant

July 9, 2020

Imagine Your Story

Our Summer Library Club theme is “Imagine Your Story” and every week this monthwe’ll be imagining ourstory in new ways with a story time reading on Monday mornings, new Grab & Go craft bags every Thursday, and other fun programs for kids and adults throughout the week. 

This week our theme is “Once Upon a Time.”  You can pick up a Wizard Hat kidcraft kit from the Grab & Go table every weekday from 9am-5pm and request any of our fun fairy tale books for kids (or kids at heart) through curbside pickup.  We’ll also be putting out snacks every week (thanks to Harvest Foods!) so make sure you stop by the table by our back door.

Next week’s theme is “A Hero’s Journey” so remember to tune into our story time for all ages on Monday morning and pick up your new craft kit starting on Thursday!  I wonder what we’ll be making next time =)

*All programs, including the Grab & Go table, are free and open to the public even if you don't have a library card. If you haven't started the Summer Library Club yet, you can pick up a packet from the Grab & Go table or sign up online.

~Millie Hopkins, Youth Library Assistant