This is National Library Week. And while it seems this is another program that the Trump Administration will try to defund because it doesn’t turn a profit, you need to still support your local library.
You can still check out DVDs for free. I know I still enjoy watching them. And then it seems to be the few public place left that has access to printers and fax machines. Some of the libraries here in northeastern Oklahoma have installed three-dimensional printers.
If your library has a business partnership with the streaming service Hoopla, you can access movies, audiobooks, music and eBooks online. There’s also Kanopy, another streaming service that partners with public libraries, colleges and universities.
Also, if you’re wondering why most libraries are named Carnegie Library, well, that’s because the famous industrialist Andrew Carnegie used the monies from the sale of his company to J.P. Morgan to form over 3,000 universities in America, Canada and the United Kingdom.
There are actually two Carnegie Libraries both east and west of where I live. Tahlequah’s current library is connected to the Carnegie library built in 1905. The old library is still in use periodically for events and meetings. Because Tahlequah is also near where Wilson Rawl’s Where the Redfern Grows is set, another meeting room is named after him in the building.
Wagoner also has a Carnegie library that some people have reported might be haunted. However, the building has been closed to the public since 2018 for safety concerns. It was once used as the location of the Wagoner Literacy Program and a meeting place for the Senior Citizens Organization after the city opened a new building not to far away in the main downtown area.
I went to the Q.B. Boydstun Library early in Fort Gibson. It was opened in 2003 but had to close temporarily earlier this year for renovations. I picked up the graphic novel for Watership Down there.
You’ll never know what you’ll find and it’s cheaper than Amazon.
What do you like to use your local library for? Please comment.
Zane Says 