Non-Traditional Services

WEBVTT
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Welcome to County Conversations, a podcast program
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to keep the community informed and to build public
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trust, understanding of county services and programs
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and events. On this episode of County Conversations,
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we have Deborah Gibson, our director of the St.
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John's County Public Library System. Welcome
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back to the program, Deborah. Thank you. In this
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episode, let's talk about the non -traditional
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services of a library. We talked about the different
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facilities and locations and bookmobiles and
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books and e -books, but the St. John's County
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Public Library system, as you mentioned earlier,
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is not your grandmother's library. And with that
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being said, let's talk about the non -traditional...
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cool stuff that you and your staff offer to the
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community. So there's a whole section of our
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library website that's dedicated to Library of
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Things. In addition, all of the items are also
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listed, the things are listed in our catalog.
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So if you're looking for a telescope because
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you're going to go do a program out in the parks
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and watch the stars, those kinds of things are
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listed in the catalog. And Library of Things
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are available at all of our locations, as well
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as the bookmobile. You can put a hold on it.
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It'll be delivered to you. So you will bring
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me a telescope? I will. I might not personally
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do it, but you will get a telescope. With the
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exception, there are some huge things that cannot
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be accommodated. What's the biggest thing in
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the library of things? A jumbo telescope, honestly.
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It's like a free -standing Really professional
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knockout. Yeah word on the street is that I can
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also ask for and go pick up or be brought to
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me pickleball Absolutely. We have a partnership
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with the parks now for new libraries and we are
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in most of those locations located between the
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splash pad and the pickleball. So we decided
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that it would be fun to let people try the equipment
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to see if they like the sport before they go
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out and buy it for themselves. But everything
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from like the adventure backpacks, if you're
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going to go down to see the fort and you want
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to explore. We have some bird watching things,
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musical instruments, musical instruments. The
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ukuleles are a hot commodity. We have the games
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and the puzzles if you want to do that. There's
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a little bit of everything in there. We even
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offer things like book club kits. So if your
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local community or neighborhood book club wants
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to do a certain title, we have those available
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that you can check out as well. And all of these
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are on display, a library of things display at
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each location so that folks can see what's available
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and kind of, oh, I'd like to try that out. Well,
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with puns intended, you are harvesting a great
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community in St. John's County with all the things
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that you all plant and help grow. And with that
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being said, talk to us about the Seed Library.
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The Seed Library is very popular in our community,
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and some people may not know about it. Right.
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We started at Southeast several years ago. There
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was a local organization that helped us with
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that. And it was a way for us to work towards
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an idea of, here's some seeds or some plants
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that are a hybrid, right? So wherever you got
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your plants and you dry the seeds out and bring
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them to us, ultimately the development of that
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seed bank would be a Florida native. at some
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point and easily reproduced here and grown. And
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that has expanded beyond southeast to the main
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library. If you get a chance to stop into that
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when they've done an awesome job of painting
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a giant mural on the wall to draw your attention
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to where the seed library is located. In the
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new Hastings location, they also have plans for
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a seed library out there, which is very pertinent
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to their community since it's so agricultural
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based. This is a way for us to provide something
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different. And for those folks who are new here
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and just want to try, you know, above garden
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beds or you don't have to till your whole property,
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you can borrow some of the seeds and just start
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small on a windowsill or in your backyard. Now
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are we talking about a sunflower seed or we're
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also talking about Fruits and vegetables, right?
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They have the whole selection, and a lot of it
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is seasonal. So here's the plethora of things
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that are available now because this is the summer
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season. And it usually tells you if it was already
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a Florida native versus I want to grow roses
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from Detroit, right? That's probably not going
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to, you're not going to find as many of those
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packets. And it really is the understanding that
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if you borrow them and you're successful at growing
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those items, please save the seeds, dry them
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out, save them, and bring them back so that there's
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a way to sustain that service. I'm so glad you
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mentioned that because that was going to be my
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next question is you're not only giving seeds
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away for free. Again, the seed library is free.
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Correct. But you're also accepting seeds to replenish
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your supply and your stock for the next set of
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patrons. Correct. And there's staff members as
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well as the folks representing those organizations
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that actually do all the sorting and bagging
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and labeling and then stocking those drawers.
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In each location, it was an opportunity also
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for us to recycle or repurpose our old card catalogs.
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So if you are using your grandmother's library
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and you remember those old drawers, those now
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are the ones that are alphabetized by the seeds.
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They're very popular. We get requests about that
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service all the time. And it's not really linked
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to your library card. It's more you sign your
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name and how many packets. We use it in our statistics.
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But the idea is really that you're going to sustain
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it by then bringing things back to us so that
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we can repurpose that again with the next customer.
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So cool. So cool. Well, let's jump from SAT training
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and seeds and books and e -books. to videos,
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because your branch, your library system, has
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a phenomenal supply of and offerings of movies
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and DVDs. Talk to us about the movie selections
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at these different libraries and how people can
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get a hold of these. what goes around comes around
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right and so if you think back in the days of
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vinyl right everyone got rid of their vinyl and
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they migrated to something else and now it's
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back and that seems to be what's happening with
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the dvds there's still an audience for those
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If you are not using a streaming service and
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you want a whole parcel of movies for a family
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event or a community event, they're a hot commodity.
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They're available at all of our locations. Again,
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you can put a hold on things. And there are a
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lot of feature films primarily, and then there
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are some assortment of nonfiction if you want
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a series of TV shows or older. And it's good
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quality stuff and newer movie You're always replenishing
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with the newest movies that have come out in
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recent time. Correct. We have a budget for that,
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and we get donations as well. There are in almost
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every location, maybe not the bookmobiles, but
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there's usually a section of shelving right towards
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the entrance that's called staff picks. And it's
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everything from their favorite book to their
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favorite audio to the movies. And a lot of the
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community members rely on that, so I'm out of...
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I read everything in the series. What have you
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got for me? If so -and -so read this, then it
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must be good, right, on the staff. And so the
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movies fall into that, too. And it's impressive
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when you walk down the aisles and see how many
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movies that we have, and that's a reduced number.
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I mean, we've weeded out the ones that, you know,
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either don't circulate or are in poor condition.
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And word on the street is you don't have a Be
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Kind rewind sticker on these DVDs and a $2 fee
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if they're not rewound, right? That's right.
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That's right. Well, you're not stopping there
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with the videos on the shelf. You have launched
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your Netflix empire with something called Canopy.
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Talk to us about Canopy. So Canopy is recent
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to us, and it replaces what appeared to be a
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lot of people's favorite of Hoopla. And this
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is another platform for us, and it provides an
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assortment. So again, you have a viewing opportunity.
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for almost everyone in your family of something
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that pertains to you and you're going to have
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some enjoyment. All of those instructions are
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on our website, so if you need help setting up
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the account or whatever, or you can ask a staff
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member at the building. But it's a way for us
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to provide things that we don't have to store
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on a shelf, and it's just available 24 -7. And
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available 24 -7 free. Yes. Seeds are free, books
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are free, canopies free. Yes. Awesome. We've
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got about a minute left. Talk to us about, you
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know, you've got your branches. You can go there
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and get your stuff. Oh, I don't want to go to
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a branch. We'll get to Bookmobile. We'll bring
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it to you to Bookmobile. You can download it
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from the canopy. You can order it, and we'll
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have it, you know, picked up for you. You've
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got books by mail. And you've got reciprocal
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borrowing. Talk to us about this service. We
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have that. Books by mail is really for people
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that are permanently or temporarily homebound.
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So if you don't have transportation and you have
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a broken femur, you know, someone... can drop
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these in the mail. It's free. Postage is free
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both ways. We utilize the federal service library
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for the blind and physically handicapped. So
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it's free for us to mail it to the person. It's
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free for them to mail it back to us. And it's
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a small service at this point, but it's valuable
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because they can't use a branch. They can't use
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the bookmobile. A lot of our assisted living
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facilities, the veterans assisted living facilities,
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we promote that through doctor's offices and
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so forth so that HHS, for example, that here's
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a way that you too can be a library member. And
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the staff there, that really is one -on -one.
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It's anything in our collection that you can
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borrow and we'll drop it in a bag and put it
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in the mail to you. The other thing we've been
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doing for several, several years is reciprocal
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borrowing. And so your St. John's Library card
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is good at 15 other county library systems. And
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most of that use is really Flagler, Putnam, and
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Clay because they're contiguous to our county.
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But you can go to the other they're also listed
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on our website. Baker County, it's not things
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that are really close. But if you're traveling
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around the state, here's a way to do that. One
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of my favorite statistics is that almost every
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year that we've offered this, we have a couple
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of circulations from Marathon. So somebody else
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is coming to St. Augustine on vacation and taking
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advantage of that reciprocal borrowing. We talked
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earlier about the e -books and so we also have
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kind of the same model. There are some counties
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in Florida that agreed to share their ebook collections
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with us, and there are three of those. So you
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again have the option to go onto our Libby platform
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and then say, I'd like to register for this county,
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this county, or this county. So that's Clay,
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Martin, and Indian River, I believe. So it expands
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the availability of titles that might be on hold
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with St. John's that you can find on someone
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else's location. And that brings me to probably
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one of the favorite services. If you're going
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to be an in -person visitor, we have a lucky
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day collection at each one of our locations.
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And so we buy things that are popular materials,
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items on hold, and every so often we'll buy additional
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copies that are on a shelf and it's your lucky
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day. If you find it on the shelf, then you're
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able to check that out. There's no renewals.
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but it takes you off of the hold list, so you
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don't have to wait quite as long. The Lucky Day
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is also available in Libby, so if you have a
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hold on something, you might actually find it
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in their catalog, and it's your lucky day online
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as well. Well, we're certainly lucky to have
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you and your staff in our community to provide
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these services, all of them free, by the way.
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Deborah Gibson, thank you again for being our
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guest on County Conversation and having a conversation
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with us about the library system. Thank you.
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For more information on the library system here
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in our community, check out their website at
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sjcpls .org. Thanks again for watching this episode
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of County Conversation. You've been listening
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to County Conversations with Director of Public
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Affairs for St. John's County, Wayne Larson.
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If you'd like to keep the dialogue going, like,
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share, and leave a review on our social media
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for news, events, and resources, make sure you
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visit our county website, sjcfl .us. That is
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sjcfl .us.