Category: Library news

Davenport Library to Expand

- Ann 5 Comments

Davenport Main LibraryToday it was announced that the Davenport Public Library will expand by adding two floors to the top of the existing Main Library building at 321 Main Street. These additional stories will allow for expansion of the library’s book collection as well as room for a full-service restaurant with banquet facilities, a therapeutic massage center (free massages for Davenport card holders) and a dog training facility. “We are excited to be able to offer expanded services to the citizens of Davenport” exclaimed LaWanda Roudebush, director of the Davenport Public Library. “Our goal is to make the library the best it can be and I believe we are doing just that.”

Construction is slated to begin in early 2009 with completion projected for late 2010.

April Fool! There are no plans to add floors to the Main Library building. However, the good news is, the Davenport Library is expanding with planning of the Eastern Avenue branch library in the final stages and groundbreaking expected sometime in 2009.

Know a teen that would like to see their shorts on the big screen?

- Ann Leave a comment

making moviesThe really big screen!

We’re having a film festival for teens of the Quad Cities. For full details, call the Davenport Public Library at 563-326-7893. But a bit of information now might help. The Quad-City area Public Libraries have put out a call for entries for our first ever YouTube film fest. We would like teens to create a 3 to 5 minute film that they post to a special account on YouTube.com and turn in to us.

To make this even more fun, the Putnam Museum & IMAX Theatre® have invited us to have a Red Carpet Event to showcase the winners. Prizes will be awarded for movies selected by the librarians and by audience choice.

So join us for the event on Thursday, March 13 at 7:00 PM as area teens present their YouTube movie on the giant IMAX® screen.

No registration is required for the free screening on the 13th, but teens must register their entries by March 8th. Entry forms are at both the Main and Fairmount libraries, or any local public library. More information is also online at www.davenportlibrary.com.

Just a Reminder….

- Ann Leave a comment

Both locations of the Davenport Public Library (Main St and Fairmount) will be closed today, Wednesday February 27 for a Staff In-Service. We’ll be busy honing our skills and learning how to create the best possible library for you. Plus, we get to wear jeans, so we’re pretty excited! We’ll be open again our regular hours on Thursday (9:30am-5:30pm at Fairmount, 12pm-8pm at Main)

Libraries Borrow Books, too!

- Lynn Leave a comment

Have you ever searched our catalog for a book you loved as a kid? Or, yInterlibrary Loanour grandmother keeps asking about a song popular in the thirties. You can’t find it anywhere and you give up and walk away. Well, ask us at Reference about going one step further.

Did you know that Davenport Public Library card holders can request books, dvds, and audiobooks from all over the U.S. – for free?

If PrairieCat doesn’t have an item, we can broaden the net for you.

Interlibrary Loan is a Library-to-Library transaction. You don’t have to get in your car and drive to Chicago or call the library or anything. Just sit back and relax and we will get it for you. What a deal.

We can save you time and money and you can have hands-on access to that book that is special and valuable to you.

Whole magazines are usually not sent, but we can get articles photocopied and mailed to you (there may be a charge for this, depending on the lending library).

Public libraries are all about cooperation and have set up a system (called OCLC or Online Computer Library Center) so we can see what other libraries own and request the item from mulitple libraries at once. The library that plucks it off their shelf first notifies the others and sends it on it’s way. You’ll soon be enjoying your treasured item that may have traveled hundreds of miles and passed through the hands of a dozen people to get to you.

What is PrairieCat? or Why We Are Lucky to Live in the Quad-Cities

- Lynn Leave a comment

PrairieCatWe have always been progressive here in the Quad-Cities because of our extremely cooperative, cross-border library system. For decades, citizens of Davenport could go to Rock Island , for instance, and check out their materials. Moline residents could check out materials in Bettendorf, return them in Eldridge, and so on and so on till your head spins.

In the past few years our catalog has grown from the Quad-City area to include northern Illinois – from the outskirts of Chicago to LaSalle, Ottawa and Kankakee to the Wisconsin border. PrairieCat, as it is now called, has more than 8 million items and includes more than 100 libraries (public, college, hospitals, schools, etc.).

Now we have access to more variety – MP3s, books on cd, as well as books that we may not own. This also means that more libraries with more copies of bestsellers are able to fill holds quicker.

As we all learned on the first day of Kindergarten, it’s all about sharing.