Fall Events Newsletter
The Library’s Fall Events Newsletter for September, October and November is available here. Continue Reading
Wi-Fi Hotspots Available
At Petoskey District Library (PDL) you can check out more than just books! The library is pleased to announce the addition of six mobile Wi-Fi hotspots which can be checked out from the Reference Desk for a one week period by PDL cardholders aged 18 and up. The portable hotspots allow patrons without internet to easily get online using any Wi-Fi enabled device such as a phone, tablet or laptop anywhere there is a cell connection. Currently, the library lends hotpots from Verizon and T-Mobile.
PDL has long offered free Wi-Fi to anyone in their building and on the library grounds. With over 1400 Wi-Fi users in the month of May alone, the need to extend the service beyond the building was clear. “These mobile hotspots accommodate Continue Reading
No Daily Overdue Fines!
Beginning March 1, we will no longer charge patrons daily fines for overdue Petoskey District Library materials. Checked out material will have an extended grace period of two to four weeks, depending on the type of item borrowed. Understanding their responsibility to the library’s collection and tax payer dollars, the library board decided the Library will charge fines for any materials returned past the grace period. The elimination of a daily fine is one way the library hopes to break down financial barriers that often shut off access to some patrons.
“Most of our patrons return their items on time, though there are situations that occur that prevent people from getting items back before the due date. We hope that taking away the stigma of overdue fines will Continue Reading
Repair Café@the Library
What a great turnout for our inaugural Repair Café on October 14. A big thank you to our volunteer “fixers,” Kathy, Patty, James, Dave, Matt, Bob, and Jack; and to our helpers, Joel, Tanner, Laura, and Scott; and especially to the folks who brought in nearly 40 items for repair during the 4-hour event. We were able to successfully repair 23 items, with several others being diagnosed for repair pending acquisition of necessary parts. Items repaired included, among others, several lamps, a leaf blower, a garden hose, a sewing machine, several pieces of jewelry, an electric tea pot, a weed whip, a fan, and several articles of clothing. Stay tuned for info about our next Repair Café, which we’re tentatively scheduling for February. Let us know if you are interested in helping, either as a “fixer” or otherwise assisting with planning or on the day of the event. Call the Library at 231-758-3114. Continue Reading
Friends @ the Carnegie
We are pleased to welcome local historian Jane Cardinal Monday, October 23 at 7:00 p.m. as she gives us an extensive history of the Cross Village area of Northern Michigan. It may surprise some to learn that Cross Village was once the largest town in the region, and for a while, the largest settlement in the whole state! An extensive Native American village was situated at the water’s edge, and tens of thousands of Ottawa (now Odawa) people lived along the shoreline from Cross Village to Harbor Springs.
Jane is a native Michigander and spent over 30 years in a career of commercial design and illustration. Good Hart summers were the delight of her childhood. Both a love and curiosity of history led her to write a book with Connie Cobb titled “The Place Where Crooked Tree Stood”. She also helped to establish and maintain the L’Arbre Croche museum in Cross Village.
All Friends @ the Carnegie programs are held at the Carnegie Building at 451 E. Mitchell Street, unless otherwise noted. The programs are offered at 7:00 p.m. on the fourth Monday of every month, except May (third Monday) and December (no program). All Friends @ the Carnegie programs are open to the public and admission is free. If you would like more information about this or other Library events, call the Petoskey District Library at 231-758-3100.
Mah Jongg
Join us every Monday, 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m in the library classroom for Mah Jongg, a game of skill, strategy, calculation and a certain amount of chance and luck. Mah Jongg originated in China about 2,000 years ago. The goal is to build a hand of 14 tiles and win. Come and play with others who enjoy this competitive game. Please bring your own tiles.
Print from Anywhere/RBDigital Magazines
Petoskey District Library in partnership with RBdigital from Recorded Books is pleased to announce the availability of RBDigital Magazines for Libraries, the world’s largest newsstand. Through the Library gateway, patrons of Petoskey District Library will have unlimited multi-user access to complete digital magazines, which can easily be viewed on most Internet-enabled devices inside or outside of the library. RBDigital’s unique technology digitally recreates a magazine page for page, including full color pictures, intuitive navigation, key word article search and interactive elements such as audio and video.
Book Club Kits
Attention book club members! We have kits for you to check out for your book clubs. As you are thinking about next year’s titles, you may want to consider our collection. Choose from the following titles:
– Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl.
– The Girls of Atomic City, by Denise Kiernan
– 1984, by George Orwell
– Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
– The Turner House, by Angela Flournoy
– A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
– The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George
– Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
– Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett
– The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Hguyen
– First Darling of the Morning, by Thrity Umrigar
Visit here for descriptions of each of our book club kit titles.
Coming soon:
– Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance
– A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles Continue Reading
Gateway Writers Group
The Gateway Writers Group is held on the 2nd Tuesday and
4th Friday of each month from 10:30 a.m – 12:00 p.m. in the small meeting room on the first floor of the library. The next meeting will be held on Friday, October 27.
This is a new writing group. The group’s format will be decided on by the attendees. Open to anyone with a sincere desire to learn and sharpen the craft of writing.
Online Catalog Contest
Each time you contribute information such as ratings, tags, comments or reviews, you receive community credits. Community credits are a way you can keep track of your contributions to the library’s catalog, and to the wider community of library users.
The simplest way to start earning community credits is to add titles to your shelves: each star rating, tag or other comment that you add earns one credit. When you create a list of at least five titles, you earn 5 credits. Continue Reading
Petoskey Parks and Recreation Master Plan
Parks and Recreation Master Plan 2018-2022
Available for Public Review and Comment
October 11 – November 13, 2017
A draft of the five-year update to the City of Petoskey Parks and Recreation Master Plan has been completed and is available for public review at City Hall, the Petoskey Public Library Reference Desk, and online by clicking here. The public is invited to review and provide input on the draft plan.
The Parks and Recreation Commission will then hold a public hearing on the plan at its November 13, 2017 meeting, 7:00 P.M., City Hall Community Room.
Please provide comments to the attention of Kendall Klingelsmith, Parks and Recreation Director, 101 East Lake Street, Petoskey, MI 49770 or kklingelsmith@petoskey.us no later than Monday, November 13, 2017.
New Metered Parking
We are pleased to announce 3 hour metered parking on Woodland Avenue. We hope that our patrons will find these parking spaces convenient while at the library. Just returning items? Our drive-through dropbox is located in the alley off of Waukazoo Avenue and is open 24/7. We also have installed new drive-through book returns at the Little Traverse Township Hall and Springvale Township Hall, in addition to those previously placed at the Bear Creek and Resort Township Halls. Now residents of these townships can have the convenience of returning items without making a trip in to town. Township book returns are emptied weekly, and all items are backdated to the previous date it was emptied.
Michigan eLibrary (MeL)
Administered by the Library of Michigan in partnership with Michigan’s libraries of all types, the Michigan eLibrary provides all Michigan residents with free access to online full-text articles, full-text books, digital images, and other valuable research information at any time via the Internet, as well as providing an easy-to-use interlibrary loan system, known as MeLCat, to allow Michigan residents to borrow books and other library materials for free from participating Michigan libraries.
For links to the complete collection, go to the MeL Databases page.
Michigan Activity Pass (MAP)
Did you know that your library card can be your best travel companion? Discover hundreds of Michigan’s cultural destinations and natural attractions with your Michigan library card! You can “check out” FREE or discounted admission passes (or other exclusive offers) to hundreds of Michigan state parks, campgrounds, museums, trails, arts & cultural destinations, seven National Park Service venues, and more. The Michigan Activity Pass (MAP) is the product of a partnership between 638 public library buildings and over 400 destinations. Use your valid library card to reserve and print a pass, either from home or at the library. Take that pass with you to the cultural attraction, and present it to staff. That’s all there is to it!
Each MAP pass expires within one week from the date it is printed. Limit one pass per library card every 7 days.
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Michigan Notable Books, 2017
The Library of Michigan is pleased to announce the list of the 2017 Michigan Notable Books – 20 books highlighting Michigan people, places and events. The list highlights a wide range of exceptional “Michigan books” published in 2016 that bring attention to Michigan authors and topics.
Each year the list features 20 books, published the previous calendar year, which are about or set in Michigan or the Great Lakes region, or are written by a Michigan author. Continue Reading
New Townships, New Hours, New Services!
The Library is pleased to announce the addition of two new townships as part of our service area. On November 8, 2016 the voters of Little Traverse and Springvale Townships passed a ballot initiative in support of contracting library services with Petoskey at a rate of 0.40 mils. All residents of Little Traverse and Springvale are now eligible for a library card, beginning immediately. The Library will prorate reimbursements to those residents with active paid cards. Patrons should call or visit the library to request the prorated refund.
As of December 1, 2016, the library will be expanding their hours to now be open on Friday and Saturday mornings, the new library hours will be 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and Noon – 5:00 p.m. on Sundays.
Michigan Children’s Protection Registry
Parents have new tool to protect children and teens
With cell phones and the Internet, today’s kids have an easy connection to the outside world. It’s like a huge playground without a fence and that makes protecting kids so much harder.
The reality of the digital world is that children and teens are regularly inundated with electronic advertisements promoting alcohol, tobacco, pornography and gambling. The companies behind these ads are increasingly using text messaging as their marketing strategy of choice, though they often don’t know the age of the recipients.
Thankfully, parents now have some help to stop these ads. ProtectMiChild, offered through the Michigan Secretary of State’s office is a free service that blocks adult ads from reaching emails, mobile phones and Instant Messenger IDs belonging to children and teens. Similar to the federal Do Not Call List, the Michigan Child Protection Registry is a free do-not-contact service for Michigan residents. Signing-up takes only seconds and the information entered is kept secure and private.
Protect your child today.
Ancestry® Library Edition
Thanks to a gift from the Friends of the Library, we are pleased to make Ancestry® Library Edition available to our Library users. Ancestry® Library Edition provides instant access to a wide range of unique resources for genealogical and historical research. With more than 1.5 billion names in over 4,000 databases, Ancestry® Library Edition includes records from the United States Census; military records; court, land and probate records; vital and church records; directories; passenger lists Continue Reading