Library Reopening Guide
by Library Admin
The Putnam County Public Library will enter Phase Two of the library’s reopening plan on Monday, June 15. On that date, the library’s staff will return to regular work, the library will resume normal business hours, and limited services will be offered and expanded.
During Phase Two of the library’s reopening, we will continue to offer Curbside Service and Virtual Reference services for your convenience.
Return To Normal Business Hours
The library will reopen and return to normal business hours on Monday, June 15. Library business hours are:
Monday-Thursday: 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
Friday & Saturday: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Open Areas: Library Lobby & Computer Lab
The library will reopen two areas of the building: the library lobby and the library’s computer lab. The library computer lab is available by appointment. The library lobby is open for materials pick-up, OPAC use, and print/copy/fax services. Please use the Carnegie entrance for computer lab use and the front entrance for library lobby use.
The library’s bookshelves, the Imagination Portal, and library meeting rooms will remain closed to the public.
Please wear a mask when inside the library building. If you are unable to wear a mask, please consider our Curbside Service.
Library Computer Access
The library is excited to announce the reopening of the library’s computer lab! Library computers will be available by appointment during normal business hours. There is a limit of six patrons at a time in the computer lab and an hour limit for computer use.
If you’d like to know more, or if you’d like to make an appointment, please click here.
Archives Research Appointments
The library’s Archives Department is available for research appointments. Please email [email protected] to schedule an appointment.
Book Bundles
Excited to pick-up books from the library, but don’t know what you want to read? Never fear! The library’s Youth Services department understands how difficult it can be to choose books for your little ones and are now offering Book Bundles!
Book Bundles can be collected by subject and by age. A youth librarian will choose materials for your bundle, based on your request, and have them ready for pick-up at the circulation desk or for Curbside Service.
To add a Book Bundle to your order, please email [email protected] or call 765-653-2755 ext. 7173.
Make & Take Crafts
Each week, the Youth Services staff will prepare a NEW Make & Take Craft kit. These kits can be requested with your Curbside/Pickup order. Visit us each week for a new craft!
Summer Reading Club
The library’s Summer Reading Club is on! Beginning June 15, the library will host its annual Summer Reading Club.
Reading programs are available for all ages, and there will be prizes awarded to everyone who finishes their challenge!
Learn more about the reading challenges here.
As the library moves through our planned stages of reopening, we will continue to add and expand to our services. Make sure to check back often for updates and announcements. If you have any questions or need help using our services, please call the library at 765-653-2755.
Black Lives Matter: Resources
by Library Staff
Black stories matter. Black lives matter.
At the library, we welcome all persons of every race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, height, weight, physical or mental ability, veteran status, military obligations, and marital status.
We are committed to the safety, dignity, and respect of our patrons, including our Black patrons. We stand with the American Library Association in condemning violence and racism against Black people and People of Color.
We’ve pulled together a list of books to help put current events into perspective and help confront racism as well as resources and books to help navigate conversations about race with children. Many of the books are available electronically through OverDrive.
Book Lists
Books for Kids
Books for Teens
Books for Adults
Resources
Discussing Race with Young Kids
Tips for Talking with Kids about Race
5 Myths of Talking about Race with Your Child
How to Talk to Your Child About Difference
100 Race-Conscious Things You Can Say to Your Child to Advance Racial Justice
How to Not (Accidentally) Raise a Racist, The Longest Shortest Time (podcast) episode
Announcement: Events Calendar Experiencing Issues
by Library Admin
PCPL Unveils Covid-19 Reopening Plan
by Library Admin
At the Putnam County Public Library, we believe that libraries are one of the most essential industries. We provide access to vital resources, such as government programs, resources and research for schoolwork, free internet and technology. We offer a place for the community to meet and discuss ideas, children to play, learn, and grow, and even as a place for someone to simply get warm. During the library’s closure, the library staff has worked tirelessly to continue to provide these essential services to the community outside of the library building.
On April 29, 2020, the PCPL Board of Trustees approved a phased plan to reopen the library. PCPL is a hub of connection, creativity, entertainment, and information in the Putnam County community. Throughout the library’s closure, the library has continued to provide essential services through remote reference by email, digital programming, digital materials (eBooks, eAudiobooks, eMagazines, streaming video, and talking picture books), digital library card sign-ups, free public Wi-Fi, and much more.
The library will continue to provide these digital services, but will begin the process of reopening the library beginning Monday, May 11. On Monday, May 11, library staff will be able to return to the library building on a limited basis, in order to asses whether library staff has appropriate PPE for working in the library and technology to work remotely. Additionally, library staff will use that time to process returns and mail, and put the finishing touches on procedures for offering curbside and remote services. Safeguarding the health of library staff and patrons is the primary goal in the library’s reopening policy.
Phase 1 of reopening the library will use the following guidelines in order to provide the best safety measures for staff and patrons:
It is our hope that we will be able to begin providing curbside services, as well as more access to free Wi-Fi and public computers in the coming weeks. Please check back on our Covid-19 Updates page for more information on when the library will begin providing these services.
We miss our patrons and we hope to see you soon. Stay safe and stay healthy, Putnam County.
Virtual Programs From DePauw University, Greencastle City Councilpersons, IU Auditorium and Indiana Humanities
by Adult Services
Missing live musical performances? We are too, so we’ve put together a list of virtual programming/performances by some of the best local performers, venues, and more.
Check out these videos and programs from IU Auditorium, Greencastle City Council Member Veronica Pejril, DePauw University and more.
ERIC EDBERG
Eric Edberg: Eric Edberg, cello and May Phang, piano DePauw Faculty Select recital 8-29-18 music by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, F. Chopin, Vivian Adelberg Rudow and F. Mendelssohn.
Link: https://www.facebook.com/eric.
VERONICA PEJRIL
INDIANA HUMANITIES
THE SHOWS MUST GO ON!
IU AUDITORIUM DIGITAL EVENTS
IU SIDNEY AND LOIS ESKENAZI MUSEUM OF ART
Make Your Escape With These Fantasy Audiobooks
by Adult Services
Do you need a vacation, but are stuck in a house? Craving adventure and valor, but you can’t leave your couch? These eAudiobooks through Overdrive are just for you!
Title: Neverwhere
Author: Neil Gaiman
Summary: Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them. And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew.
Link: https://iddc.overdrive.com/iddc-putnam/content/media/144579?cid=31327
TItle: The Aeronauts Windlass
Author: Jim Butcher
Summary: Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity. Within their halls, the ruling aristocratic houses develop scientific marvels, foster trade alliances, and maintain fleets of airships to keep the peace.
Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship Predator. Loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy’s shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is damaged in combat, Grimm joins a team of Albion agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring his ship.
Link: https://iddc.overdrive.com/iddc-putnam/content/media/2160036?cid=31327
Title: The Water Cure
Author: Sophie Mackintosh
Summary: King has tenderly staked out a territory for his wife and three daughters, Grace, Lia, and Sky. Here on his island, women are protected from the chaos and violence of men on the mainland. The cult-like rituals and therapies they endure fortify them from the spreading toxicity of a degrading world.
But when the King disappears and two men and a boy wash ashore, the sisters’ safe world begins to unravel. Over the span of one blistering hot week, a psychological cat-and-mouse game plays out. Sexual tensions and sibling rivalries flare as the sisters are forced to confront the amorphous threat the strangers represent.
A haunting, riveting debut, The Water Cure is a fiercely poetic feminist revenge fantasy that’s a startling reflection of our time.
Link: https://iddc.overdrive.com/iddc-putnam/content/media/3949010?cid=31327
Title: God Help the Child: a novel
Author: Toni Morrison
Summary: Spare and unsparing, God Help the Child—the first novel by Toni Morrison to be set in our current moment—weaves a tale about the way the sufferings of childhood can shape, and misshape, the life of the adult.
At the center: a young woman who calls herself Bride, whose stunning blue-black skin is only one element of her beauty, her boldness and confidence, her success in life, but which caused her light-skinned mother to deny her even the simplest forms of love. There is Booker, the man Bride loves, and loses to anger. Rain, the mysterious white child with whom she crosses paths. And finally, Bride’s mother herself, Sweetness, who takes a lifetime to come to understand that “what you do to children matters. And they might never forget.”
A fierce and provocative novel that adds a new dimension to the matchless oeuvre of Toni Morrison.
Link: https://iddc.overdrive.com/iddc-putnam/content/media/2032156?cid=31327
Title: The Keeper of Lost Things
Author: Ruth Hogan
Summary: Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago, he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. That very same day, she died unexpectedly. Brokenhearted, Anthony sought consolation in rescuing lost objects—the things others have dropped, misplaced, or accidently left behind—and writing stories about them. Now, in the twilight of his life, Anthony worries that he has not fully discharged his duty to reconcile all the lost things with their owners. As the end nears, he bequeaths his secret life’s mission to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, leaving her his house and and all its lost treasures, including an irritable ghost.
Link: https://iddc.overdrive.com/iddc-putnam/content/media/2813083?cid=31327
LIBRARY HOURS
Monday-Thursday: 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
Friday & Saturday: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sunday: Closed