Library Collections
From PPL Comments
- "I wish the library would subscribe to Muscle and Fitness magazine."
Thanks to your suggestion Muscle and Fitness is now available at the Downtown Library."
- "Thanks for the Oprah magazine! I would like to suggest letting only past issues be available for checkout. That way we could look at the most current issue when visiting the library."
I’m glad you’re enjoying "O, The Oprah Magazine." At PPL only back issues of magazines are available for checkout. If you don’t see the current issue, maybe somebody else is already reading it. You might also try lifting the shelf. Sometimes the current issue gets mixed in with back issues. Sadly, sometimes issues are stolen instead of checked out.
- "Please offer Ancestry Library Edition instead of or in addition to Heritage Quest. Ancestry Library Edition would be much better for doing genealogical research."
Although Ancestry Library Edition would cost PPL around $1,000 per year, the database would only be available to computer users inside the Downtown Library. Unlike Heritage Quest Online and Digital Sanborn Maps (two research tools your library does offer), ancestry.com is heavily marketed to home users, and the vendor does not want to cut into their potential customer base. We are not inclined to subscribe to a database we can only offer in-house, as our experience with Heritage Quest tells us most patrons use it from home.
- “Is there a way to request a title be added to OverDrive? I would love to listen to Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry. The library has the hardcopy, but I like to listen while I’m knitting and weaving. I have to tell you I love the library's downloadable audiobook service. I’m a bookaholic and listening to the books has opened a whole new world for me.
We love suggestions. Just use the Request an Item form (under Books & More). Under other information, be sure to specify OverDrive. Not everything is available and we do our best. Charlemagne Pursuit has been added and is now available for download.
- “Please remove all copies of “Slipstream” from the library. This movie starts with gratuitous violence and never develops a plot. It’s all psychopaths victimizing ordinary people. This movie is a bad trip from start to finish.”
- “Day of the Dead” by J.A. Jance tells of a couple that buy 12-year-old orphans from Mexico, then sexually mutilates and butchers them. My hope is that it will be removed.”
Prescott Public Library’s copies of Slipstream have been checked out almost 100 times. Our copies of Day of the Dead have been out over 1,000 times. We are more a popular lending library than an arbiter of good taste. We suggest library patrons read dust jackets and DVD cases when selecting materials. If you do find an item you’ve checked out offensive or disturbing, please remember you don’t have to finish it.
- "Thank you so very much for Auralog. I have wanted to learn Italian for a long time. I just registered and have already practiced for 1 hr. and 20 minutes tonight. I love it!"
I’m so glad you’re enjoying Auralog. Note to curious library patrons- If you're thinking about that trip to foreign shores, or want to brush up on the language you learned in high school or college, Auralog is a new innovative language learning system, available free to you from the Prescott Public Library Research page. Just choose "Auralog: Innovation for Language Learning," log on, set up your account and you are ready to go. You can learn or review Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish (both European and Latin American versions). Reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar and vocabulary are all included.
- “Please do not put the barcode over book titles. Wouldn’t a lower right hand corner work just as well and not cover up so much information on the cover?”
- “Please put barcodes on the back of the book. I find it terribly rude to authors to have their name or title blitzed by barcodes. It’s doable – no excuses! It’s also not cool to have to look at the binding to read titles! Thanks!”
- “It makes me absolutely crazy when titles and other information are covered by barcode or tape!”
Library staff and volunteers need to locate the barcode to check out and check in thousands of library items every day. Consistent barcode placement reduces the time and repetitive motion required to do this necessary task.
- "I went to the library for the first time yesterday, and was disappointed in a couple of things. First, none of the books I wanted were available. I was told that they could get one from another Yavapai County library, and that’s in progress. Then I learned you have no biography section. A reader has to look through all the nonfiction shelves to see what biographies are available. This is not very user-friendly. I have probably visited more than 50 libraries in different cities, and have never seen it done that way, although I admit I’ve probably never been in a library as small as Prescott’s. I hope you will consider setting up a distinct biography section for those of us who read biographies frequently."
I'm sorry your first visit to the library was not positive. Although we may not be as big as libraries you are used to, we are happy to get you just about any book you want to read. Prescott Public Library is the headquarters of the Yavapai Library Network, a consortium of over 40 school, public and college libraries. Almost all the holdings of these 40+ libraries are available for you to reserve. If they are checked in at the owning library, they generally arrive within a week. If more than four patrons are waiting for a particular title, we automatically order additional copies. Even if the book you want to read is not owned by any network library, we can almost always get it for you. If it's in print, we usually purchase it. If not, we use inter-library loan to get books and other library materials from all over the world.
There's no right or wrong way to handle biographies. In the mid-90’s, PPL chose to merge the biography and young adult nonfiction collections with the general nonfiction collection. Yellow biography stickers were placed on biographies to help biography lovers like you locate them. This has worked well for biography readers who like to focus on a particular type of biography, for example, biographies of authors or sports figures. It also works well for students of a subject like World War II, as they find military biographies and history in the same location. I'm sorry if it doesn't work for you.
To keep up with current biographies, you might want to track New Biographies in Best Sellers in the online catalog, and consider signing up for NextRead's Biography and Memoir newsletter (under Books & More on the web page). Every title has a link to the online catalog, so it's easy to reserve a book you would like to read.
- “One of the most wonderful things you have done for the library is the audio books. I studied the MP3 players and got one and downloaded a book, or two, or three. I am wondering if there is any way you can have OverDrive take books back into circulation if someone is done reading them. Or perhaps you get a book and don't like it. I listen to a lot of audio books while I am working on crocheting for charity and would appreciate anything you can do on this.”
Downloadable Audio Books have quickly become a popular library service. The due date for the book is set when it is downloaded, and the book is "checked in" automatically on that date, eliminating late returns. People who listen to a lot of recorded books sometimes find themselves finished with their books, yet not able to check out another because they still have the maximum of three books checked out. Now you can choose whether you want to check out Downloadable Audio Books for 7 days, 14 days or 21 days. If you find yourself finishing books quickly, or occasionally not enjoying one, the shorter check out period will allow you to reduce the waiting time between books.
- “You have no fiction by William Makepeace Thackeray!”
You’re right, and you will find plenty of Thackeray's fiction at other Yavapai Library Network libraries (Sedona, Yavapai College, Prescott High School, Congress or Bagdad, etc.). Just search the library catalog for a title like Vanity Fair, place a hold, and within a few days, the book will be waiting for you on the Reserve shelves at Prescott Downtown Library. Can’t wait? Prescott Public Library owns Vanity Fair as a NetLibrary eBook you can “check out” and read on your computer.
- “I would like to see the audio books separated into those on cassette and those on CD's. Having separate sections would save a great deal of time for those who have either system, but not both. Most new cars have CD players, but not cassette players. As time passes, more and more cars will have CD players and fewer and fewer will have cassette players. For those of us who like to travel with audio books, having separate sections would serve both "constituencies". Further, the same trend is taking place with home technologies. CD's are replacing cassette players. Once again, having to look in only one place for either media type would be a plus.”
You are not alone in wishing we would separate recorded books by format. At Prescott Public Library, we have opted to combine genres (mystery, science fiction, westerns, etc.) and formats - movies (DVDs, videos) and recorded books (CD, cassette). As you point out, most new cars have CD players, and for the last few years, we have purchased recorded books only on CD. Cassettes will disappear by spring 2010, and the recorded book collection will be all on CD (at least until the next new format appears). For now many library patrons are still able to listen to books on either CD or cassette, and if looking for a mystery by J.A. Jance, will settle for the cassettes if the CDs are not on the shelf.
- "Can I download library eBooks and Audio Books to an Amazon Kindle?"
Not at this time. Kindle supports neither DRM protected PDF (Adobe) or PRC (Mobipocket) files, the formats in which eBooks from OverDrive are delivered, nor DRM protected WMA (Windows Media Audio) files, the format in which OverDrive Audio Books are delivered. On a more positive note, OverDrive will soon have eBooks available for purchase in the EPUB format, compatible with Sony Readers, as well as with PCs and Macs.
- “How can I find new DVDs or Recorded Books?”
To find new DVDs, go to the library catalog and search the term DVD. Then use the drop-down menu in the upper right of your screen to Limit this list by: PPL New Videos/DVDs. To find new Recorded Books, go to the library catalog and search the term Audiobooks. Then use the drop-down menu to Limit this list by: PPL New Recorded Books. To find the newest of the new, now Sort this list by: Publication Date, Title, Author.
- "This is the first time I have been frustrated with the library. I get all my DVD's at both the Downtown and Gateway Branch libraries, and have only a DVD player. Now someone has decided to put DVDs in with the videos. This is very time consuming for someone looking only for a DVD. You don't know whether the title is in a DVD or not...it might be checked out, but you figure they don't have it. Even Yavapai College keeps them separate. Please put DVDs back where they were, so I can find something I want without taking too much time and giving up. I do enjoy the library and I'm in one or another at least 4 times a week just browsing and keeping busy."
Videos will disappear by spring 2010. Until then, if you want to know if we have a title available for checkout on DVD, any of the librarians would be delighted to show you how to limit your catalog search to items in the DVD format. You might also enjoy the ever-shifting list New Arrivals on DVD. It's in the catalog under Best Sellers.
- "I wanted to tell you about the dialysis patients who use the library here in Prescott. My husband is one. First he used the CD's while doing 5 hours of dialysis three times a week. It was hard for him to change the CD's, with all the lines of blood going thru his system. Sometimes the CD player was pushed on the floor by the nurses, so this wasn't a great situation for him. Now he uses the electronic system of downloading books and it works pretty good. I would like to ask for more books for dialysis patients to download. They need more popular books and good stories with substance. Although most dialysis patients are older, some of them are in their 30's and have a long haul ahead of them. More good books would be a real asset for all of them. There are a lot of dialysis patients at the center in Prescott, enough for three shifts a day. With the nation all overeating and overweight, there will be many more in the future. I'm sure you didn't know about this, but all this is true. My husband has been in dialysis for over two years and won't quit. He wants to live and enjoy his family and community. I thought you should know all this and be aware of the many dialysis patients who use the download system. So thank you if you can help the cause."
Thank you for sharing your husband's story with us. I'm so glad the OverDrive recorded book downloads help pass the time during dialysis. The library purchases new titles every month, and would be glad to receive requests from your husband and other dialysis patients.
- "Is there a special area where you shelve books by local authors? If not, I suggest that we have one. I noticed recently in Friends Book Sale a novel by a local author that had been taken out of circulation. I wonder if staff realized she was a local author. I think such books should remain on the shelves."
If we know a book is by a local author, we give it a "Local Author" sticker and subject heading. If you enter "local author" in the Library Catalog, you will find books by over 100 local authors. Although your library is always happy to accept donations from our many talented local authors, as with all books on our crowded shelves, if a book isn't checked out for several years, we remove it to make room for more popular titles.
- “In another state and library, the librarians would turn a recommended book out, face first, at the end of its shelf. I found that these recommended books often became some favorites of mine! Could you consider this, please?”
This is a great idea we already use in many areas of the library. Unfortunately most of our shelves are too full to permit us to put books face out. Our librarians do maintain changing displays of recommended books on a variety of topics. Additional sources for recommendations are NoveList, the Library Ladies Book Reviews and NextRead, free annotated email newsletters highlighting the latest books in any of twenty areas of interest. Find all three in the "Find Library Books & More" section of the library web page.
- “You are overloaded with fiction, and rarely order the newest non-fiction. Why all the stupid mysteries? As an ex-professor, I am amazed!”
Last year Prescott Public Library purchased twice as much new non-fiction as fiction. Readers might be surprised to know the demand for fiction is much greater than for nonfiction. Almost 2/3 of titles checked out are fiction, so the argument could be made we purchase too much non-fiction. We are very responsive to purchase requests from library patrons. If you read reviews of books you wish we had, please ask us to add them to our collection. Odds are we will! Prescott Public Library is part of the Yavapai Library Network, so you can also take advantage of the library collections at Yavapai College, Embry Riddle and Prescott College libraries.
- “Please return to genre cataloging and shelving of books. The greater number of we readers dislike very much perusing hundreds of books to find something we already know we might enjoy. I know I use the library less and resort to book stores where I can find something easily. Therefore I read less. I know several others who agree with this.”
- “Please have mysteries separated from the rest of the fiction.”
- “It would be easier for patrons to find mysteries, science fiction, romances, etc. if there was a mystery section, a science fiction section, etc. A person would not have to search through all books to find their specialty.”
- “It appears to me a lot of money was spent renovating the library, only to make it less user-friendly; for example, you no longer separate science fiction, mystery or western novels from general fiction, and never, ever, have I seen large print novels not in their own area.”
You are not the only patrons who prefer genre collections for fiction. The change was made after considerable discussion followed by a year of "field testing" while the downtown library was in temporary housing at Prescott Gateway Mall.
On balance we find combining genre collections (mysteries, science fiction and westerns) with other adult fiction has several positive results:
- Browsers are exposed to a wider range of fiction and are sometimes surprised to discover a favorite science fiction author had also written a thriller and western
- Most patrons have an easier time finding authors on the shelves when they don’t need to know if an author’s works are classified as mystery of fiction
- Less pre-sorting of is required, allowing for faster return of items to the shelves
We continue to put genre stickers on fiction, so patrons can easily identify mysteries, science fiction and westerns. Large print fiction still has its own section along the west wall of the main level.
The library's newest books can be found by genre through the library web page. First click on “Catalog,” then on “Best Sellers.” You’ll find lists of new mysteries, new Christian fiction, new biographies, new romances, new graphic novels, new science fiction, new westerns, new DVDs and new books on CD.
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