If you can't find it at your library let us find it for you—July 17, 2009
There are so few places in life where we get exactly what we want. However, did you know that at the library you can request almost any title in the world and be connected to the information or entertainment you are seeking? The library is always open to requests and suggestions for new titles, new authors or new subject areas that you, our community members are interested in.
There are two ways to get what you want from your library. One is through our Interlibrary Loan service. For $1.50 charge to cover some of the postage expense you can request titles that we do not have in our collection but other libraries own. We handle the request and receiving the item, check the item out to you on your Hastings Public Library card, and when you return it, we send it back to its “home” library. The process can take anywhere from a week to two weeks to receive an item, depending on which library owns it and who is willing to lend it. Any of our talented staff members can help you locate items in other libraries, so if you’ve heard of a title or author that you can’t seem to find in our collection, let us know and we’ll be glad to help you search it out.
The other way to get what you want is by suggesting something be purchased for our collection. In a library with limited funds, those of us responsible for choosing library materials have to make hard decisions about how many copies of latest bestsellers to purchase and which hot, new movie titles to add to our collection. For the most part, we rely on professional reviews, publisher information and experience with certain types of books or authors to help us gauge what will be a popular item for our community. We balance this with the need to cover basic information needs in a variety of topics for general researchers or the curious lifelong learner.
But when we get a suggestion from you, not only does it make our selection job easier, but we also learn more about what our community needs and interests are. I take requests from community members very seriously and we try very hard to purchase the titles and formats you suggest. After all, if it’s something you might enjoy, chances are someone else in the community would too. So again, if there is a title, author or type of book or movie you’re curious about and you think it might be something the library can obtain for you, just ask!
To request items, visit the library, call us at 461-2346 or email us at rstaff@hastings.lib.ne.us
