Sedona Library expands services in Village of Oak Creek

By David W. Keeber | Sedona Public Library

Sedona, AZ - April 18, 2008 - The Village Service Center, located on Cortez Drive in the Village of Oak Creek, has been operating for two and a half years now. It serves the Village area as a drop off and pick up location for library books, and provides Internet access via a wireless connection and the dedicated computers there. In keeping with the Sedona Public Library's efforts to improve access to our users as needed, that site is the seed for greater services to that community in the years to come.

One part of library services is providing programs, but if you have been to the Village Service Center it is clear that the small space offers no opportunity that. But, now through the cooperation of the Sedona Winds facility on Jacks Canyon Road we are beginning to offer programs to Village residents.

Beginning on Monday, April 28th, at 1:30 PM, Sedona Public Library, working in partnership with Sedona Winds and the Arizona Humanities Council, presents the first in an ongoing series of speakers and book discussion groups. On that Monday, Associate Professor of English and Women's Studies Judy Nolte will speak on "Family Secrets: The Uneasy Tradition of Diarists and Their Readers." The story of diarists, their devotion to their private books, and the tensions diaries raise in families has a long tradition. This presentation covers ordinary pioneers on the Overland Trail, as well-known diarists and examines how today's blogs tease the line between privacy and publicity.

I also encourage attendees to participate in our first book review program by picking up a copy of These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine 1881-1910, by Arizona author Nancy E. Turner, following the presentation. Inspired by her own family memoirs, Turner has created pioneer Sarah Prine's dramatic tale of survival in the Arizona Territory in the late 1880's.

This book is the subject of the coming book discussion slated for Wednesday, May 28th, also at 1:30 PM at Sedona Winds. Through the Arizona Humanities Council, we anticipate bringing a speaker to the Village every other month and a Community Book Discussion on alternate months. Information on upcoming speakers and book discussions will be available at the Village Service Center, on the Library website (www.sedonalibrary.org), at the Library's main branch, and on flyers distributed at Weber's IGA, other Village businesses and in the "Villager", "Kudos" and the "Red Rock News" publications. Keep your eyes peeled for these announcements and plan on attending. Finally, programs in the Village of Oak Creek from the Sedona Public Library!

Shifting lanes, the Sedona Public Library is implementing a new procedure with our Internet access computers beginning on Friday, April 18th. The new procedure is called "Authentication" and it is the first step in better managing these extremely busy machines. Authentication changes how you signup for time on the computers. Instead of simply typing in a name to reserve a machine, you will now need your SPL Library card number. Visitors will be issued a temporary, one-day use card for this purpose. The strength of this new method is that one person cannot sign up for multiple sessions on the computer by using names such as Keeber1, Keeber2, etc. Users must use their card number and it cannot be entered until the current session is finished. What this means is users who want multiple sessions must get back into the queue to get those extra times. Coming soon, but not this Friday, are limits to the number of times each day one person can sign up for the computers. This means that more users will have access to the machines and wait a shorter length of time to use them. The system will be more fair for all involved.

Further changes in this system will be announced in this column and via signs and handouts at the Internet computers as they are implemented. With so much use of these vitals tools by which we provide information to our users, we are looking forward to this more equitable method of doing so. Users are thanked, in advance, for their cooperation and understanding of the need for these changes.

Past Library News issues: Sedona Library Archive

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