Julie Yates
PRYOR —
The Pryor library board welcomed a potential board member this week.
The Thomas J. Harrison Pryor Public Library board held its monthly meeting Thursday. In attendance was Paul Stevens, Pryor, who is interested in
becoming a board member.
“I’d like to be a member and help out any way I can,” said Stevens, who is in the Lakes Area ABATE motorcycle group and serves in other committees and civil groups.
“I grew up here, my kids grew up here,” Stevens said. He has management experience in his job with American Airlines.
“We are a real forward-thinking library,” said Library Director Kim Risner. Risner said she feels the Pryor library is well received and respected in the state because of its advanced technology and the genealogy department.
“We are not an old-fashioned library,” she said.
“Our patrons support us,” said Jeanette Anderson, chair of the board. She added the library has a hard-working staff. “They have worked with us.”
Risner said the library circulation – material checkouts – is up 10,000 from last year
Stevens would replace former board member Richard Beattie, who resigned approximately two months ago. The Pryor City Council must vote to accept Stevens as a library board member.
The library floor is undergoing repairs to the floor in the computer and adult circulation areas. The children’s wing remains open and adults are welcome to use the children’s computer area during the flooring process.
“Our goal is to open the adult end by Sept. 7,” said Risner.
While the adult area is closed for floor repairs, library staff are intershelving reference materials with the main collection and weeding out materials at the same time. Risner said the staff is also removing a lot
of adult fiction and
nonfiction.
The reshelving process will allow the library to have room to be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The shelving in the adult section will be rearranged to allow for wheelchair access.
“We are going to become ADA compliant in the adult area,” Risner said. “We have to use the space that we have.”
Risner said the aisles in the adult section will go from 36 inches wide to
42 inches wide, with a turnaround of 48 inches.
The library’s capital outlay budget for the 2010-2011 year is $90,000. Over eleven thousand has been spent or encumbered, leaving $78,884.50 unexpended. Those funds will be used for replacing the library windows and the ceiling in the genealogy area.
Eight percent of the general budget has been expended in salaries and 5 percent in the general operating funds.
• Two hundred thirty cards were issued in July. Ninety-nine of the cards were new cards issued to adults. There were 45 new juvenile cards.
• Material checkouts numbered 8,143. Total adult checkouts were 4,914, juvenile checkouts were 2,714 and young adult checkouts were 515.
• Checkouts on adult cards were 5,388. Juvenile card checkouts were 1,651 and young adult checkouts were 19.
• There were 829 movies checked out.
• The library added 279 materials: 172 adult, 23 young adult, 84 children and 33 non-book materials. One hundred seventy-two of those materials were donated.
• Items withdrawn from the library collection were 1,250. Risner said there will be more this month as the library weeds materials. She said a lot of books are in poor condition.
• Donations to the library in July were $549.
• A total of 421 people used the meeting room during July for the summer reading camps, story time and the Science Matters mobile museum. Ninety people showed up for Science Matters on July 24, which Risner said brought one of the best turnouts the library has had in a long time.
