Alva Review-Courier -

The Alva Friends of the Library have presented the Alva Public Library with a new After-Mouse touch table. It was set up in the conference room during the library board meeting on Monday. Ott said it will be moved to the downstairs juvenile area following fall break. The heavy table has a touch screen allowing up to four people to play games.

Ott said they have loaded 13 games for different age levels of kids up to eighth grade. The games include pong, tic-tac-toe, matching games, checkers, dominoes and more. The games promote skills and teamwork. The library staff hopes youngsters can enjoy playing with each other or with parents.

Ott said the Friends of the Library purchased the table at a big discount for about $6,000. Alva is probably one of the first six libraries in the state to get one.

Regarding the Friends, Ott said they will have a meeting Monday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m. at the library and they're always looking for new members. The Chocolate Fantasy date has been set for Thursday, Nov. 9.

Imagination Library

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is a program providing free books to children from birth to age five with funding provided by Parton and the local community. Patty Harkin, chairman of the library board, is handling the database for the library. The Alva Goldbug Education Foundation is in charge of fundraising.

Ott said the library kicked off the program the preceding week with announcements to the Little Explorers groups. Already there were 48 kids signed up for the program. Information on the program will be distributed at parent teacher conferences. The library information sheet has a QR code that makes signup easy. Parents can visit the library for more information or help getting signed up. The first books will be distributed in December.

Deleting Materials

The library had an unusually large number (820) of deleted materials in their statistics for September. Ott explained that they went through the adult fiction and collection of biographies. If a book had not been checked out in 10 years, they removed it from the shelves to make room for new books. She said books that are considered classics were retained even if they hadn't been checked out.

Ott said some of the biographies will be replaced with updated versions. She said they are not purchasing biographies of the more current trendsetters like social media "stars." Those tend to have short popularity.

Marione Martin

Symbols surrounding the center of the After-Mouse play table lead to games with just the touch of a finger. The table will be set up in the juvenile section of the Alva Public Library following fall break.

Board member Lynn Wilt asked how the library staff chooses books that don't have bias. Ott said they read a lot of reviews, and they are not adding a lot of political books because much of that is opinion. "We try to provide the very best in all viewpoints," she said. They look for writers who are known to present unbiased, historical views.

Other Business

Board members looked over the library's written borrowing policy and approved an updated version. The only change was to remove reference to Overdrive in digital materials because the library no longer uses that service.

Looking at the financial information, Ott said all the big items in property maintenance have been paid or encumbered. In the next five years, she said they will be looking at some renovation of the building. One of the first projects will be some structural problems that have developed in the front entrance.

In addition to Harkin and Wilt, board members present were Lenny Reed and Marilyn Clyne. Absent were April Ridgway, Chris Eckhardt and Taylor Dowling.