Category Archives: Circulation

What to expect when you visit the Indiana State Library in 2024

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The Indiana State Library offers books for people of all ages, and much, much more. The State Library is a peaceful, beautiful place for learning and exploring. We have something for everyone to enjoy. Visitors can walk around and look at the beautiful architecture and stained-glass windows, or they can simply find a book and make themselves comfy for a while. The library has public computers or tables where one can sit and study.

How can someone get a library card?
Every Indiana resident can have an Indiana State Library library card. Just stop by and see us and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Any citizen of the state of Indiana is eligible to obtain a State Library library card. When a patron requests the issuance of a card, they will be required to complete the information on the Indiana State Library Card Registration Form – state form 44689 – and provide a picture ID. This ID may be a valid Indiana driver’s license; valid Indiana state identification card; valid U.S. Government issued identification (e.g., passport, military ID, permanent resident card, other employment ID with a current address or other picture ID of this type).

Hours of operation
The Indiana State Library is open from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month, with some exceptions. For a complete list of library hours, open Saturdays and holiday closures, click here.

Parking information
Many downtown garages within walking distance of the State Library offer commercial parking. Metered parking is available on most downtown streets, including Ohio Street. and Senate Avenue. An interactive map showing parking in downtown Indianapolis is available from Indianapolis Downtown, Inc.

Please note that construction of a new Indiana State Archives building on Ohio Street, across from the State Library, began in August of 2023. Construction will last approximately 2.5 years and will affect street parking. During this time, please park in the Senate Avenue parking garage directly across from the library and bring your ticket in for validation.

Indiana Statehouse Tour Office and Education Center Native Plant Garden at the Indiana State Library.

Directions to the Indiana State Library
The Indiana State Library is located at 315 W. Ohio St. in downtown Indianapolis near the Canal Walk. Click here to get directions.

Patrons should enter through the entrance on Ohio Street. The door on Senate Avenue is not a public entrance.

So, plan a trip to your Indiana State Library. We look forward to seeing you soon!

This blog post was written by Rayjeana Duty, circulation supervisor, Indiana State Library.

What to expect when you visit your Indiana State Library

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Your Indiana State Library offers books for people of all ages, and much, much more. Your state library is a peaceful, beautiful place for learning and exploring. We have something for everyone to enjoy. You can walk around and look at the beautiful architecture and stained-glass windows. Or you can simply find a book and make yourself comfy for a while. We have public computers or tables where you can sit and study.

How can you get a library card?
Every Indiana resident can have an Indiana State Library card. Just stop by and see us and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Any citizen of the state of Indiana is eligible to obtain a State Library card. When a patron requests the issuance of a card, they will be required to complete the information on the Indiana State Library Card Registration Form – state form 44689 – and provide a picture ID. This ID may be a valid Indiana driver’s license; valid Indiana state identification card; valid U.S. Government issued identification (e.g., passport, military ID, permanent resident card, other employment ID with a current address or other picture ID of this type).

Hours of operation
The Indiana State Library is open from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month, with some exceptions. For a complete list of library hours, open Saturdays and holiday closures, click here.

Parking information
Many downtown garages within walking distance of the State Library offer commercial parking. Metered parking is available on most downtown streets, including Ohio St. and Senate Ave. An interactive map showing parking in downtown Indianapolis is available from Indianapolis Downtown, Inc.

Directions to the Indiana State Library
The Indiana State Library is located at 315 W. Ohio St. in downtown Indianapolis near the Canal Walk. Click here to get directions.

So, plan a trip to your Indiana State Library. We look forward to seeing you soon!

This blog post was written by Rayjeana Duty, circulation supervisor, Indiana State Library.

Come visit the Indiana State Library

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Do you know how many times we hear “I didn’t even know this was here”? Well, we’ve been here for nearly 90 years, just waiting for you to come check us out!

I understand some people aren’t very fond of coming downtown. All the worries of how bad traffic might be or thinking, “Where in the world will I park?”

Nowadays, Google it makes it easy to get here. I found my way and I get lost going around the block. Also, there is convenient metered parking on both sides of Ohio Street that will take coins or your debit card.

To the residents of the state of Indiana, this is your library, rich with history, beautiful murals, stained glass windows, carvings in the Indiana sandstone and architecture you just don’t find anymore.

While here, you can trace your genealogy, scroll through microfilm for that news story or bring in the kids to visit the Indiana Young Readers Center. We just have so many great things to show you!

Also, did you know we have a small giftshop called the Nook? We specialize in selling products made right here in my hometown and yours.

So, pick a day and come check us out. We really do look forward to seeing you.

This blog post was written by Rayjeana Duty, circulation supervisor, Indiana State Library.

Keeping clean: Methods your State Library takes to make sure your library experience is safe

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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about sweeping changes to the way we live, work and interact with one another. Tasks we take for granted, such as going to the grocery store, meeting with friends and even going to the library to find materials for research have been made somewhat more challenging to carry out. Here at the Indiana State Library, we do a lot to keep everything clean and to ensure that both patrons, and ourselves, have a fun and safe library experience.

Several studies, such as the one illustrated in this comprehensive American Library Association article, have noted that the virus survives on hard surfaces for about two or three days, and up to 24 hours on paper. Sanitization is top priority at the library, and the staff makes sure to clean and disinfect all surfaces as often and thoroughly as possible. In the case of books, which understandably do not do well to be soaked in cleaners on a regular basis, they are placed in isolation for a set period of time until it is safe to return the materials to the stacks.

Patrons are welcome to come inside the building, but to encourage social distancing and personal safety, that library is operating on an appointment-only schedule. If you are a walk-in patron and didn’t make a prior appointment when you stop by, don’t worry. If we have appointment slots available, we will still be able to help you with your research needs. Seating arrangements to encourage social distancing are available, hand sanitizer is provided at the information desks and also next to each elevator in order to keep things clean, and to reduce the spread of the virus and other bacteria. Are you unavailable to come to the library personally? Patrons can chat with a librarian through Ask-a-Librarian, with no charge.

As per county mandates, face masks are required for entry into the library facility. Don’t have a mask? No worries. We provide free paper masks at our circulation and information desks. Simply ask the librarian or desk attendant and we will be happy to give you one. If you live in Marion County and you’re seeking something a bit more permanent and portable, the city of Indianapolis and IndyGo have partnered to provide free cloth face masks that can be picked up at the Julia M. Carson Transit Center in downtown Indianapolis. Masks can also be ordered online.

We hope that these procedures and precautions allow to you to fully utilize all the services the Indiana State Library has to offer, all while keeping you safe and giving you peace of mind.

Please call 317-232-3675, email or use our Ask-a-Librarian service to schedule an appointment.

This post was written by Damon Lawrence, library technician 2, Indiana State Library.

There’s something for all you boils and ghouls at the Indiana State Library

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You can’t go into a Halloween store today without seeing a plethora of creepy and scary costumes, but that’s not how things were when I was a kid. I went out on Halloween night in one of Grandma’s old housecoats and her favorite wig, while my brother donned a pair of Dad’s old jeans and a trash bag full of newspapers. We’d walk around the neighborhood getting our goodies, come back to the house, switch costumes and then go out for another round.

The candy and costume industries surely make a lot of money this time of year due to aggressive marketing, but I believe that most people still enjoy the simple things about Halloween.

Who doesn’t like roasting hot dogs over a campfire, bobbing for apples, hay rides, getting lost in the corn maze or sipping on warm cider? Let’s not forget about carving the pumpkin and roasting the seeds in the oven. All of these things make Halloween a favorite holiday for so many goblins of all ages.

So, I did some checking around at the library – with help from some other great people who work here – to see how others here in Indiana celebrated Halloween. Take a look at some of our finds!

Here’s a haunting doily, colored by hand, from our Manuscripts Collection:

Check out some of the clippings we found from Halloweens past. You’ll find these in our Indiana Collection:

You can creep through our catalog and find a spooky novel, like “The Witches,” to enjoy while you’re handing out candy to all the little monsters.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Cleopatra” analyzes the Salem Witch Trials to offer key insights into the role of women in its events, while explaining how its tragedies became possible. It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister’s daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before 19 men and women had been hanged and an elderly man crushed to death.

You can also pick up a wonderful book, like “A Halloween Scare in Indiana,” from the Indiana Young Readers Center to share with your little goblin.

A fun and funny Halloween romp for children and parents alike! It’s Halloween night, and creatures and critters from near and far are starting to gather outside the front door. And now here comes a whole army of monsters, on broomsticks, buses and bikes, all clamoring in the darkness. What is it they want? Are they coming for you? This humorous, creative story is the perfect Halloween adventure for children and parents to share.

Regardless of how you like to spend Halloween, be safe, have fun with friends and family and take time to visit the Indiana State Library.

This blog post was written by Rayjeana Duty, circulation supervisor, Indiana State Library.

Lost book makes its way back to state library after 40 years

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Recently, after a 40-year, 10-month and 27-day absence, a long-missing item was finally returned to the Indiana State Library. Arriving in a United States Postal Service (USPS) box, the package was postmarked from Arlington, Virginia. The book inside was well-worn and much-used. As you can see in the lower right corner it must have also moonlighted as a coaster at some point. With a due date of Aug. 23, 1976, we can only image what an overdue fine would be back then. Today, we charge 25 cents a day for overdue books, which would make the fine $3,735.25.

The book? William Bast’s 1956 James Dean biography, which was published a year after the native Indiana actor’s death in a California auto accident. Bast was also Dean’s roommate at UCLA.

For now, the book goes back on the shelf with a flag for our conservator to find at a later date for repair work. As for the overdue fine, if there was circulation pardon that I could bestow, this would earn it. However, it had been missing for so long there is no way to trace who had it. Let this serve as a reminder to us all that it is clearly never too late to return an overdue library book. Even though it was due six years before I was born, I’m glad to see it back.

This blog post was written by Stephanie E. Smith, circulation supervisor, Indiana State Library. For more information, email the circulation supervisor at stsmith3@library.in.gov

DNR and Indiana State Library extend park pass program

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The Indiana State Library (ISL) and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) have agreed to extend the Annual Parks Pass Program for one more year. The passes will be sent to libraries as soon as they arrive in January.

Indiana Dunes State Park

ISL is thrilled to partner with DNR to continue to offer this program. ISL is purchasing one pass for each public library in every library district. Passes are limited to one pass per building and libraries may purchase additional passes through the DNR site for individual branches. The passes are non-transferable and DNR is again allowing libraries exceptions for these passes.

The passes can be checked out by library patrons and will provide access to Indiana’s 32 state parks and also to Indiana’s state forest recreation areas where entrance fees are charged.

This year, DNR would like libraries help to get direct feedback from the users of the passes. A user survey will be posted on ISL’s site so that libraries may print as needed. Libraries should send completed surveys to Wendy Knapp through InfoExpress throughout the year.

For more information on Indiana State Parks, please visit the DNR’s state parks page.

Video game collections in your library

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Today we welcome guest blogger Eric Fisher of the Alexandria-Monroe Public Library

After doing a presentation at the Indiana Library Federation (ILF) conference this this year, I thought I’d try to answer many common questions and considerations that a collection developer might face when considering circulating video games.

First, the Alexandria-Monroe Public Library does not circulate consoles. Your average console will run you anywhere from $200 to $450, or so, and consoles do not operate like they did several years ago. They are now essentially computers with proprietary operating systems. They usually require games to be installed off of the disk and often have game patches that need to be downloaded. They are also usually tied to an individual’s game account (e.g. a PlayStation Network account or an Xbox Live account). Therefore, the console itself usually contains some level of personally identifiable user information. It would be a bit like circulating laptops to people to take home for days at a time and allowing them to be able to install software on them at their own discretion. This is not to say that you couldn’t circulate game systems, we just feel that the cost and other challenges/logistics make it more trouble than it’s worth. Just last week, however, we did purchase a PlayStation 4 (PS4) and an Xbox One S for use in the library and for programming; a practical option for us.

Video game collection at the Alexandria-Monroe Public Library

Second, we currently purchase primarily for PS4 and Xbox One, with the increasingly rare purchase of a PlayStation 3 (PS3) or an Xbox 360 title. The reason for this is that both the PS4 and Xbox One were released in November 2013, which means that PS3 and Xbox 360 systems are at the very end of their lifecycles and are getting very few new title releases now. The Nintendo Wii was replaced by the Wii U in December 2012 and the Wii U was extremely commercially disappointing with abysmal adoption rates. In fact, Nintendo is releasing their successor console, Switch, in March of 2017 partly because the Wii U was such a failure. All that being said, our collection contains PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii and a small handful of Wii U games. The games for the older systems do still circulate, so we’re not in a hurry to weed them out, but at the same time I’m interested in putting funds toward current generation games as opposed to previous generation games, especially since backward compatibility is non-existent or limited. For example, PS4 will not play PS3 games and Xbox One can only play a number of Xbox 360 titles. However, the Wii U will play Wii titles. We do not currently purchase for the Nintendo 3DS or PlayStation Vita handhelds, as their media formats are small cards, not unlike SD cards, which makes them a bit more difficult to secure. The systems we do collect for use disk-based media, so they’re very easy to secure using standard lockable cases; the type we use for DVDs. You could collect for handheld systems depending on how you plan the logistics. Some libraries do circulate handheld systems and their accompanying media.

Video game collection at the Alexandria-Monroe Public Library

Third, we collect games of all ratings. Some libraries, for example, opt not to collect games rated M (mature), which I feel is based on the misconception that “video games are for kids.” According to the 2016 Entertainment Software Association report on sales, around 75 percent of gamers are over the age of 18, with the average age of gamers being 35. An ESRB M rating is akin to the MPAA’s R rating for movies. The ESRB also has the AO (adults only) rating category, which is akin to an MPAA NC-17 rating, but just like the movie rating, you really never see any games that come out with an AO rating. Since their inception in 1994, ESRB has rated about 30 games as AO and all have been released on computer, not consoles. The report also notes that female gamers make up 41 percent of the game playing community, so it truly is a medium that is consumed by all public age and gender demographics. Our collection practices try to reflect the demographic makeup of the gaming community.

Video game collection at the Alexandria-Monroe Public Library

Finally, your collection decisions regarding title purchases and the number of formats you’ll support will rely heavily on your gaming collection budget. Games typically retail at $59.99 on release, and depending on popularity, will start to drop significantly in price over their first six months, usually settling around the $20 to $30 price point. PS4 currently dominates the console market in regards to number of titles released and number of consumers who have purchased a console, though Xbox One is a close second. Each brand has their own exclusives (e.g. Mario and Pokemon games for Nintendo) as well as versions of multi-platform titles (e.g. “Call of Duty”). I try to purchase very well-known titles/franchises at launch while waiting for less anticipated titles until the price drops a bit. It’s not unusual for the console companies to release around four “must have” titles in any given month. Some times of the year see heavier launch lists, particularly during the fourth quarter holidays. I will generally purchase those titles at launch. Additionally, many games are offered in “special editions,” as well as a “standard edition.” Most of the extra game content released exclusively in a special edition is in the form of a redeemable one use code. So, for circulation purposes, it’s usually best to purchase the standard edition. Bonus content tends to be digital downloads in the form of a code tied to the user’s game account, so it can be safely ignored. Efficient collection development of games generally requires a decent level of familiarity with the gaming landscape and the big franchises, so collections usually benefit from frequent game journalism research. That being said, big titles are often announced far in advance of release, so it’s possible to build a wish list well ahead of time and tweak it as release dates change or as previously un-hyped, but worthwhile, titles are released.

I think this post should give you a good foundation for starting a video game collection in your library. Video games have been an extremely popular collection for us. We service a community of about 8,000 people and typically our monthly game circulation is about 600. We let patrons check out up to three games at a time with a one week loan period and we allow one renewal. My budget for 2016 was about $6,000 and will be about $7,500 for 2017. You can view the documents relating to my ILF presentation here and let me know if I can answer any questions. Good luck!

Eric Fisher is the assistant director of the Alexandria-Monroe Public Library. For more information on video games in your library, contact Eric at efisher@alexlibrary.net.

ISL welcomes Lauren Patton as its new Circulation and Support Supervisor

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As many of you may know, the Indiana State Library (ISL) is in the process of opening the Young Reader’s Center in the former manuscripts room on the second floor. Christy Franzman has accepted the position of young reader’s center librarian, which opened an opportunity for Lauren Patton to step in as the circulation and support supervisor.

Lauren Patton comes to the ISL from the Indiana State Museum where she was the store manager. For the past two years, Lauren has been volunteering at the ISL and possesses a Master of Library Science from Indiana University. “I was already familiar with the collections and a lot of the great people who work here,” stated Lauren.

Lauren_web

A long-time cardigan sweater enthusiast and volunteer at the ISL, Lauren’s transition from State Museum store manager to librarian just made sense. “You just can’t find that kind of comfort and convenience anywhere,” Lauren explained. “It’s not just a sweater; it’s a state of mind.”

On a serious note, the ISL is excited to have Lauren on board and looks forward to seeing what she can accomplish as circulation and support supervisor. “I’m here to assist and supervise the circulation and support staff to ensure that items are moving seamlessly within the library as well as out of the library,” said Lauren. “I can answer questions pertaining to registering for a library card, obtaining library materials through inter-library loan or Evergreen, and checking out materials. I have spent many years working in customer service, most recently the Indiana State Museum, and also have diverse experience within libraries. I’m excited to join the team here at the library and hope you come by and check us out!”

This blog post was written by ISL Communications Director Ryan Brown. For more information about the Indiana State Library, please visit http://in.gov/library/.

Top Ten Things to know about Interlibrary Loan

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  1. It’s accessible! You do not have to have an Indiana State Library card or be a member of an Evergreen library to request items from the Indiana State Library.  Interlibrary loan allows sharing of resources among libraries.
  2. It’s easy! You simply make the request through your local public, academic, or special library. Your library will send us the request for you!
  3. It’s convenient! Once interlibrary loan requests are approved, the items are sent directly to your local public, academic, or special library for you!
  4. It’s affordable! If your library is in Indiana and uses InfoExpress, delivery is free!  If your library does not use InfoExpress or is located out of state, the cost of postage is all you will be charged.
  5. It’s flexible! Up to two renewals may be requested for interlibrary loan materials not on microfilm. As long as the item is not on hold, we’ll extend your loan period.
  6. It’s unique! The Indiana State Library has the largest collection of Indiana newspapers on microfilm and they are accessible through interlibrary loan. Our materials focus on Indiana history and may not be found many other places.
  7. It’s fast! Interlibrary loan requests are processed every weekday the library is open. Indiana State Library staff work hard to respond to requests in a timely manner in order to get materials to you quickly.
  8. It’s LARGE! Print, that is. Items from our vast large print collection may be requested through interlibrary loan by Indiana libraries.
  9. It’s adaptable! If an item cannot be loaned out, the material, or a portion of the material, may be copied for a fee in order to fill the request.
  10. It’s for work! Indiana state employees may request work-related items from other libraries through the Indiana State Library. Contact the Reference division for more information.

This blog post was written by Christy Franzman, Circulation & Support Supervisor, Indiana State Library. For more information, contact the Indiana State Library at (317) 232-3675  or “Ask-A-Librarian” at http://www.in.gov/library/ask.htm.