At The Library: Books And Other Things
Our Libraries Have Reopened. Here’s A Small Sampling Of What
By Rachel Reddick
Librarian at Park Hill Branch Library
Summer is almost here and the library has lots of ways to help you enjoy whatever time off you manage to amass.
We hope to see you and offer free internet, air conditioning, and water fountains at each of our Park Hill locations if you come by in person. Our digital offerings include local history info, ebooks, audiobooks, streaming movies, and recommended titles. Remember, the library is here to serve members of our community, and we’ve found lots of different ways of doing just that.
Feeling stuck on what to read next? Try our Personalized Reading List service, which recommends up to 10 titles specifically for you. We cover all age groups, and have teams of librarians who specialize in different departments help create our PRLs. More information is available on our website at denverlibrary.org/reads.
But maybe you’re going out of town for some time this summer. Restrictions are slowly loosening and travel options have opened up, so easy-to-carry titles can hold a lot of appeal. I encourage any of you roving Coloradans to check out our digital collections on Libby, which include both ebooks and audiobooks. These can be checked out and opened on a mobile device anywhere with an internet connection, allowing for multiple titles without the extra baggage charge. These can be particularly helpful for fast readers or for those experiencing unexpected travel delays.
If you know anyone 18 and under (really, anyone who either hasn’t started school or hasn’t graduated from high school yet), then the Summer of Adventure program could be a wonderful fit for them. Although our annual summer reading program will be scaled back this year due to budgetary constraints, we will still be offering incentives and small prizes for participating. Systemwide, we will have several activities for kiddos to participate in. It officially starts in June, so be sure to stop by any branch to get signed up!
The Park Hill branch has finally begun to offer our longstanding book chat group, No Strings Attached, in person again. This is a nice, no pressure book chat open for anyone to join. We meet every four weeks and discuss whatever books, movies, and podcasts we’ve consumed lately, and a recap of all the recommendations goes out to our email list. If you have any questions regarding joining either the in person group or our email list, please talk to Rachel at the Park Hill branch. Our May meeting will be Saturday, May 28 at 11 a.m. in the Park Hill basement.
Our in-person programming also includes our weekly toddler story-time, which is Fridays at 10:30 a.m. We do require reservations for every member of your party that will be attending, and reservations open on the Friday before at noon. Starting June, we will be adding a second storytime that will be all ages and outdoors. This one will not require reservations and will be held right at our opening time of 10 a.m. on Saturdays to avoid the hottest weather.
We have a wonderful seed library, located in the basement of the Park Hill branch in an old fashioned card catalog. Seeds are free and available to anyone who would like to grow something new in their own garden. We offer seeds for vegetables, flowers, fruits, and other plants. There is a small binder next to the card catalog where we request you record what seeds you’re taking, and we ask that you only take what you think you can use.
Finally, be sure to check out our Library of Things and all it has to offer. Features include Colorado state park passes that can be checked out for up to one week, a guest pass to the Denver Tool Library, a bicycle repair kit, Go Pros, and sewing machines. Have kids or maybe friends visiting from out of town? The library offers museum and cultural passes to DPL cardholders, which vary from institution to institution but often get more than one guest in for free or a discounted price. These include the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the Denver Firefighters Museum, and the Butterfly Pavilion. Passes can be reserved up to two weeks in advance. More information can be found on our website at denverlibrary.org/museum-passes.
Greater Park Hill has two public libraries: The Pauline Robinson branch library is at 5575 E 33rd Ave., and the Park Hill branch library is at 4705 Montview Blvd. For hours of operation and details on additional in-person and online programming for both neighborhood libraries, check out denverlibrary.org.