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Announcing OCPL@Home

Posted 04/13/20

A Message from our Library Director, Dottie Thomas:

"COVID-19 is affecting all of our lives. Whether you are working at home and homeschooling your children, or sheltering in place, or even continuing to come to your workplace each day, the disruption to our daily routines and activities is palpable. Our own doors at OCPL have been closed for exactly one month now and we miss seeing all our friends and patrons.

"We regret not being able to have open doors during these trying times, but we want everyone - our staff and our patrons - to be safe and we are continuing to follow the guidance of our state and local government officials. 

"We know that you can't visit the Library right now, so instead, we are bringing our Library to you. Digitally. 

"While our doors have been closed, we have been concentrating on adding to our digital resources, both for adults and children, and expanding our programming to include online offerings."

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OCPL@Home

You can now virtually browse our digital shelves at our new website section, OCPL@Home. We've got something for everyone - Kids, Teens, Parents, Adults, Music Lovers, History Buffs, Lifelong Learners, and Job Seekers. OCPL@Home is our way to connect you to resources and opportunities to read and learn and grow from the comfort of your house. Our doors might be closed, but OCPL@Home is always open. 

Visit https://www.ohiocountylibrary.org/at-home/. Not all OCPL@Home resources require a library card log in. However, you'll get the most out of OCPL@Home if you have an OCPL library card. 

No Library Card? No worries!

While the Library is closed, you can apply for a temporary internet-only library card. Click here to learn more. 

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Hungry for Lunch With Books?

Each Tuesday at noon for the last fourteen years, we've invited you to "Bring Your Lunch, Feed Your Brain" at our flagship Lunch With Books flagship program for adult patrons. While it saddens us that the auditorium has been dark this past month and some great programs have had to been canceled or postponed, OCPL Programming Director, Sean Duffy, has been hard at work creating two new initiatives to bring Lunch With Books to you virtually. 

Lunch With Books: Livestream Editions

Same Lunch With Books Time, Different Lunch With Books Channel.
Starting Tuesday, April 14, 2020, OCPL has begun offering a virtual Lunch With Books livestreamed over Facebook. You can tune in at noon to watch live and interact with our guest lecture through comments, or catch the recorded version later at your leisure. 

Upcoming LWB Facebook Livestream lectures:

- Tuesday, April 21, 2020 - 
Ohio County Sanitariums with Ryan Stanton

- Tuesday, April 28, 2020 - 
Wheeling’s Polonia with Dr. Hal Gorby

- Tuesday, May 5, 2020 - 
Confederate Spy Ellie Poole with Jeanne Finstein

How do you tune in to the LWB Livestream on Facebook?

Make sure to like and follow the Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library Facebook and log into your Facebook page a few minutes before noon on Tuesdays.  LWB Livestream lectures are also recorded so if you can't tune in at noon, check back later for the playback video.

Missed yesterday's lecture with Travis Henline?
We've got a page for that - no Facebook account even required, if you're not the Facebook type. 
Visit our Lunch With Books: Livestream Editions page.

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Lunch With Books: "From the Vault"

"It broke my heart," Programming Director Duffy said, "that we were not able to perform 'A History of Ireland in Song and Poetry' for you Tuesday, March 17th,  to honor St. Pat with the beautiful vocals of my cousin Michelle Duffy, the music of Faire May, some great poetry readers, and narration written by yours truly. We all worked very hard on it, and we promise to do everything we can to bring that program to you at a future date, when the world is safe again."

In the meantime, we're bringing you a weekly program of Lunch With Books past from our "vault." Every Tuesday we will release a new Lunch With Books from the vault. Yesterday marked the release of our sixth "From the Vault" video. Our good friend Yodeling Dick Brooks has been capturing our LWB presentation on video since 2006, so rest assured we have some great programs in our safe and plenty to last long beyond our self-isolation. 

- Visit our Lunch With Books "From the Vault" page
- Visit our Lunch With Books YouTube Channel

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A final word...

It is hard to fathom that we have been closed for an entire month. We at the Ohio County Public Library miss our patrons terribly and hope you are all staying safe and healthy. We've compiled a video of our staff members sharing messages for all you familiar faces out there. Until we meet again...

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Keep connected

Did you know the Library has an app? With our OCPL Connect app, you'll receive real-time alerts on our latest news items while we're closed, and be able to view our upcoming virtual events. You can customize your settings to choose the news and events you want to populate your feed. OCPL Connect also makes it easy to add Library event dates - like the next Lunch With Books Livestream -  you don't want to miss in your device calendar or share news and events to your social media accounts or via texts or email.

The OCPL Connect app is available from the Apple App Store and from Google Play. Download it today and keep connected!