Earth Day Celebration!

Almost 50 years ago, April 22 was set aside as a day to help preserve the beautiful planet Earth. This day was the beginning of the world's largest environmental movement. It is meant to encourage us to think more conservatively and to treasure our planet. Earth provides clean air, land, and water for us. Give back to the Earth on April 22!

Read more about Earth Day and how you can help by browsing through our collection!

All Pioneer Library System branches closed for Easter 2019

All PLS branches will be closed on Sunday, April 21, for Easter. We will resume regular hours on Monday, April 22nd.

Here are some fun facts of Easter via Encyclopedia Britannica:

Easter is the holiest day of the year for Christians.

It celebrates their belief in the resurrection, or the rising from the dead, of Jesus Christ.

The name Easter may come from Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess. In ancient times, an annual spring festival was held in her honor.

A number of popular folk customs are also associated with Easter. These have to do with rabbits and colored eggs, which are ancient symbols of new life. In some countries children color eggs and then the eggs are hidden for them to find. According to tradition the Easter Bunny also leaves eggs and candy for children on Easter morning.

Can't wait for us to open? Read from home with the Pioneer Library System Connect App!

With our app you can:

• Use the physical catalog
• Renew & place holds
• Pay fines
• Stream ebooks and audiobooks
• Read eMagazines
• Use self check machines
• Locate library events

Available for: 

Library forgives fines for kids

The Pioneer Library System is taking another giant step in removing barriers for its younger customers. In celebration of National Library Week, April 7-13, PLS is retroactively waiving all accrued fines on children and teen cards.

This follows last year’s move to make all youth materials across the three-county system fine free and will make library resources available once again to some customers blocked because of fines.

“Fines are seen as punitive and too often they only serve as a barrier to library use,” said Executive Director Lisa Wells.

“The last thing we want to do is create barriers,” Wells said. “We want the opposite: as many people as possible visiting our libraries and using our services.”

The new policy does not apply to fees applied for lost or damaged materials, which will still be assessed. Anyone who has seen their privilege suspended will need to either return those materials or pay for replacement.

Less than one percent of PLS operating revenue comes from fines on youth materials. Staff time spent negotiating, collecting and settling such fines, effectively makes them a net loss. So Pioneer administration and the system’s Board of Trustees agreed that it was time to act – both to do away with fines on youth materials and later to forgive those already accrued on child and teen cards.

Retroactive forgiveness goes into effect on April 7.

Movie showings to accompany PLS Reads

The Pioneer Library System continues celebrating its 60^th anniversary of service by bringing communities together with its PLS Reads initiative, taking place throughout the system during April. The 2019 PLS Reads includes a pair of revolutionary fiction novels for readers to experience:

Small Great Things, by Jodi Picoult, tells the racially tense story of a labor and delivery nurse faced with a moral dilemma and how it changes her life and career forever.

The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas, looks at a high school student and the two worlds she has to move between: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the suburban prep school she attends.

Adding to the experience, PLS also will offer multiple free movie showings based on the Angie Thomas book. The schedule of presentations is:

6 p.m. Thursday, April 4, at the Grand Canadian Theater, 116 W. Main St. in Purcell;

6 p.m. Saturday, April 6, at the Sooner Theatre, 101 E. Main St. in Norman;

6 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at the Oklahoma Baptist University Business Center, 500 W. University St. in Shawnee.

PLS Reads is presented thanks to the support of the Norman Arts Council, Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation, the Pioneer Library System Foundation and the Pioneer Library System.