What a tremendous year 2019 was for Hoisington Public Library!

In February, we moved all 21,000 items in our library to add new carpeting and paint for an updated look in the library. Staff and patrons have all enjoyed it. With the help of part-time staff and regular staff, we managed to stay open during that time. It was a lot of work for us, but well worth it.

With renewed dedication to children’s books, we added 742 children’s books. We make every effort to keep the latest children’s books available. This includes all of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dog-Man, Fancy Nancy, Owl Diaries, graphic novels and Dork Diaries. In 2020, we plan to update our children’s nonfiction section.

We have updated our audio book collection, adding 519 audio books. This number includes science fiction, horror and nonfiction. Check out our new nonfiction section in audiobooks.

As a part of our Kansas State Library grant, we must remove 3 percent of our collection each year. Books that haven’t circulated in many years are generally the ones chosen for removal. We will have a book sale Jan. 2-15 to sell these books. We will be adding books to sell as we sell the old ones.

We make every effort to keep all of the latest best sellers in the library. Please ask if you can’t find a book. Our staff does displays or books get checked out so they will not be in the stacks. We are very happy to put the book on hold if it is checked out. We send many books out through interlibrary loan, we will gladly put our own books on hold for you.

We have added 943 adult books this year, including 126 nonfiction books. Our total number of acquisitions is 2,643. This includes 308 movies, including Toy Story 4, Season 8 of Game of Thrones, Seasons 1-4 of Outlander, and Seasons 105 of Endeavor. After the first of the year, we will get rotating DVDs from CKLS.

Overall, it’s been a great year at HPL. Come on down if you haven’t been here for awhile and save money on book purchases.

Karen La Pierre is the director at the Hoisington Public Library. She can be reached by email at library@hoisingtonks.org +-