Grants Public Library Upgrading Systems, Purchasing New Equipment and Hosting Events For the Community

GRANTS, NM – The Grants Public Library is a very important resource for the community. The library has many amenities available for patrons. They have been working on trying to update their systems to make the library more modern and are planning events for the community to take part in. They are also constantly purchasing new materials for individuals to check out.

The library always wants to add programing to attract visitors. A basic computer course is being started. It will be available to members of the community who want to learn the basics of computers. They are also trying to work with the local schools or daycares to do field trips that would include a reading time and a crafting class for the students. “Just to get them familiar with the library.”

The summer reading program is going on right now and will end on July 29. The library partnered with Western New Mexico University to provide prizes to the highest readers at the end of the program, the prizes include, Isotopes tickets, Meow Wolf tickets, coupons for Domino’s and many others. The theme of the program is All Together Now, the first half of the program is about differences and how it’s okay to be different and the second half of the program is about emotions and how to handle emotions and to identify them. They will be having two movies on the last Fridays of June and July during the program, the first movie is Lilo & Stitch, and the second movie is Inside Out. The program consists of attendees filling out reading logs during the program. Story times are on Tuesdays and Crafts on Thursdays, there are also take-home packets provided.

On Thursday mornings they have Tot and Me Time from 10:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. for children from birth to five years old. Jiron stated, “We encourage parents to come in with their little ones. We do story times, finger plays, songs, and a little toddler friendly craft with them.” The program was originally started to be during the school year, but after seeing how successful it was, Jiron thought it was a good idea to continue it during the summer.

The library is always getting new materials to include books, audiobooks, and e-books. Jiron stated, “I just made a purchase of about 220 audiobooks to add to our collection.” The library is always trying to add new materials to each section. “Every three to four months I’ll try to add a chunk of something to some section, whether it be large print, southwest, Spanish, adult or young adult… It’s always good to have fresh and new materials.” With the addition of new materials Jiron also made a purchase for new shelving and new public access computers. She said, “We just recently purchased ten new public access computers… It’s nice because the ones that we have are from when they moved over here five years ago.”

The library has recently transferred over to a new book circulation system. They are currently learning the new system and it has been a smooth transition. Library Director Nadine Jiron spoke about the new system, “It is a much more user-friendly system, not only for staff but for patrons in our community.” The old circulation system wasn’t advancing with time according to Jiron, but the new one is much more modern. The new circulatory system has now been in place since May 13.

The early and juvenile readers section was recently changed to be sorted by genre rather than through the Dewey Decimal system. According to Jiron, “It’s userfriendly for the little ones. If they are looking for a book on dogs, they can go to the animal section.” They are planning to also sort their audiobooks by genre as well, and then eventually sort the rest of the library by genre. Jiron stated, “A lot of people feel like we need to keep a library, a library, the oldfashioned way. But after I’ve researched quite a bit, I’ve seen most libraries have changed to genre.” With the library being sorted by genre Jiron believes that readers would discover more authors based on the genres they prefer, such as mystery or fantasy.

Many services are available at the library. There is of course the book checkout, they have audiobooks, e-books, manga, comics, graphic novels and many more. There is also DVD and Blue-Ray checkout, the library now has series available to be checked out such as Cheers. They have public access computers that can be used for general browsing or for essential work. Rooms are available for rent, they have a conference room and a reading room, if it’s for education there are no fees for rent. Faxing, scanning, copying, laminating, and notary services are available.

The library is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday and from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays. It is closed on Sundays. If you have any questions regarding the library and its resources, you can reach out by calling the library at 505-287-4793.

Look forward to reading more information on the library in next week’s edition of the Cibola Citizen on July 12.