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Details: Written by Mackenzie; Published: 08 July 2020

Summer's looking a bit different this year, isn't it? While we might not get to enjoy our usual summer camps, family reunions, or city festivals, there's still plenty we can safely do in the time of COVID-19, especially outdoors. After a few months cooped up in our homes, it feels especially good to get out and soak up some vitamin D.

Luckily for us, the beautiful state of Utah offers so many options, both for long getaways or to simply get out for the day. For longer trips with plenty to explore there is Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands. If you are looking for something that is closer and more of a day or weekend activity then there are the beautiful state parks. Some of which we may not think about or even know. To name just a few there is Antelope Island, This is the Place, Jordanelle, Bear Lake, Dinosaur National Monument, Utah Lake, and Deer Creek. T

he list of state parks does not even include local hikes that we can go on with family and friends. For more aggressive hikes there is Mt Timpanogos Summit and for easier hikes that are kid and pet friendly there is Timpanogos Falls and Devils Kitchen. To help you plan your fun adventures the Provo Library has you covered with some great books to check out. Here are a few to help you get started.

50 BEST SHORT HIKES
By Greg Witt
(2014)

An in depth look at the best hikes in Utah’s National Parks. Each chapter is a National Park that describes the hike from location, distance, and highlights about the trail. It includes some pictures of what you will see and some helpful tips for hiking.

60 HIKES WITHIN 60 MILES: SALT LAKE CITY, INCLUDING OGDEN, PROVO, AND THE UINTAS
By Greg Witt
(2012)

The book is broken up into sections based off county and each chapter is a specific hike with details. It has key at-a-glance information as well as a description of the hike and a map. Some hikes include pictures, sights to see, and nearby activities.

100 CLASSIC HIKES UTAH: NATIONAL PARKS AND MONUMENTS/NATIONAL WILDERNESS AND RECREATION AREAS/ STATE PARKS/ UINTAS/WASATCH
By Julie K. Trevelyan
(2016)

The best and most popular hikes from Utah are described and includes full-color photographs and topographical maps to help hikers get started. The hikes range from easy day hikes to challenging backpacking trips.

SOUTHWEST USA & NATIONAL PARKS
By Randa Bishop
(2018)

This book goes through areas in Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona and the National parks and activities to do in each state. It has beautiful pictures, maps, history, and even traveler’s information including where to stay and where to get food.

BEST EASY DAY HIKES. ZION AND BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARKS
By Erik Molvar
(2014)

A guidebook to the best and easy day hikes in the beautiful Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. Includes maps and mile-by-mile hike descriptions including distance, difficulty, hazards, and what to look for.

Details: Written by Caroline; Published: 06 July 2020

It is never too late or too early to have conversations with your children about racism, diversity, and inclusivity. If your kids are older, then you already know that they are eager for answers – especially as they are exposed to information they may find hard to process. Having open and honest discussions with your children about racism will encourage them to come to you with questions and worries.

Here are more recommendations of #ownvoices stories from Black authors to help foster those conversations in your family. And, by reading stories that center Black characters, you can fight against racial bias in the media your family consumes. Reading stories that feature complex Black characters can help confront harmful racial stereotypes.

THE ONLY BLACK GIRLS IN TOWN
By Brandy Colbert
(2020)

Brandy Colbert, best known for her award-winning YA novels, makes her Middle Grade debut with this story about two girls who become fast friends in their quiet California beach town. Alberta is used to being the only Black girl in town, but she is thrilled when her dads bring home the news that a Black family with a daughter her same age is moving in across the street. As a goth from Brooklyn, Edie is pretty different from Alberta, but the two become friends while bonding over shifting family dynamics, microaggressions at school and middle school mean girls hurling racist taunts. Their bond is strengthened when they find some mysterious old journals in Edie’s attic and work together to uncover a major secret.

This friendship story centers two well-characterized Black girls in a way that is realistic and wholly welcome. And, the added mystery of the old journals is able to introduce events central to Black history in a way that transcends time.

JUST SOUTH OF HOME
By Karen Strong
(2019)

Sarah is expecting the worst when she finds out her cousin Janie is being sent from Chicago to spend the summer in Sarah’s rural Georgia hometown. Sarah wanted to spend the summer studying astronomy and bossing around her younger brother, not dealing with Janie and her proclivity for shoplifting. Things go from bad to worse when Janie steals a necklace from the ruins of Creek Church, an old church burned down by the Ku Klux Klan, and accidentally awakens the restless spirits buried there. The three kids, along with their friend Jasper, must help their town acknowledge it’s unsettling and racist history to allow these ghosts, called haints, to rest.

This ghost story is just the right amount of spooky while helping readers understand how ignoring a painful past can come back to haunt us.

THE PARKER INHERITANCE
By Varian Johnson
(2018)

After her parent’s divorce, Candice and her mother are spending the summer at her late grandmother’s home in Lambert, South Carolina. While digging around her grandmother’s old things, she finds a letter that offers a hint to why her grandmother, as city-manager, tore up the town’s tennis courts in pursuit of buried treasure – ultimately losing her job. Now Candice, with her bookish neighbor Brandon, is on a quest to find the treasure, restore her grandmother’s reputation, and uncover a decades-old mystery that includes acts of racial violence against a Black family that threatened the status quo.

This is a perfect mystery for any reader who loved THE WESTING GAME and gives compelling arguments against standing by and doing nothing. This Coretta Scott King honor book is a satisfying exploration of racism that gives young readers a lot to discuss about injustice.

SO DONE
By Paula Chase
(2018)

After a summer apart, Tai is excited for her best friend Jamila to return from her aunt’s house in the suburbs. Tai and Mila have been inseparable since they were toddlers, but lately Mila has been acting weird. And though Mila is happy to be home with her dad and brothers, she sort of wishes her dad would send her to live in the suburbs forever like her older sister – that way she wouldn’t have to stress about her dance audition for the new Talented and Gifted Program or about accidentally revealing her secret to someone. Especially to Tae.

Told in dual-perspective with alternating chapters Tai and Mila come to life in a way that reminds readers that we don’t usually know the whole story. This is a brave book that doesn’t shy away from real issues that worry many young people. But this #ownvoices story (and its follow-up DOUGH BOYS provides a window into a very different world. Perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds or Angie Thomas.

WHAT LANE?
By Torrey Maldonado
(2020)

Stephen has always thought of himself as “mixed” – but it hasn’t really mattered that much before. But recently, Stephen feels caught between two lanes and then he starts to notice that some people treat him differently than his white friends. Then, Stephen discovers the Black Lives Matter movement at school, and begins to realize the racism he experiences everyday in interactions with strangers, shopkeepers, or his best friend Dan’s racist cousin Chad. Stephen does his part to make his classmates aware of injustices Black people face everyday while trying to avoid being cornered into one lane.

This slim novel is at times hopeful and heartbreaking. As a white reader, this book was eye-opening – following along with a biracial boy as he comes to the realization that people will hate him because of the color of his skin and that hate can bring dire consequences. This book is a great conversation starter about racial profiling, police violence against Black people and allyship – through the eyes of a brave, young protagonist.

Details: Written by Ann-Marie; Published: 02 July 2020

Earlier this week we excitedly announced that starting July 1st there will no longer be overdue fines for children’s materials! We’ve had some questions about this change and wanted to give the answers here.

Q: Why are you eliminating fines on children's materials?

A: It's easy: we want children to read. We know that life with children is hectic and sometimes it's hard to get to the library on time; we also know that it's not unusual for a child to have many books checked out at once and so late fees add up quickly. We would hate for a family to stop using the library because they feel they cannot afford it.

Q: But how will you make sure that the books come back?

A: We will still have due dates on all library materials and we do still expect people to return items on time. If a book is one month overdue it will be marked lost and the patron will be charged for the full cost of the item. We will still charge for lost or damaged books. If the book is returned, we will waive the "lost" fee.

Q: Does this apply to everything for children?

A: Almost everything; we will continue to charge late fees for Discovery Kits as they are a high-demand specialty item. But books, DVDs, and books on CD from the children's collection will all be fee exempt.

Q: Why just children's materials? Why not go fine free for everything?

A: This could be such a long answer, but it boils down to this: our readers of children's materials and our readers of adult/teen materials just behave differently. Our collections move differently. Adults and teens are more likely to want specific titles--the next in a series, the next from their favorite author--and so we find that we have long holds lists for lots of items. We have found that late fees for those materials provide a great incentive to bring things back and help us keep high-demand materials moving.

However, many children do not consume books in this way. They might want 50 picture books about dinosaurs, but many times they don't care about which 50 picture books about dinosaurs they have. We have found that having these materials returned a few days late does not negatively impact another patron's ability to enjoy the library (we have enough books about dinosaurs to satisfy many future paleontologists).

Q. Won't this make hold lists for kid's chapter books super long?

A. This is a valid concern and a big part of why the policy change only applies to children's books right now. We've been watching data for several years now from libraries around that country that have instituted similar policies who have found that their patrons still return things in a timely manner. It just gives a little more grace when people forget or have complications come up. Most patrons still want to return their items on time or close to on time because they know other people are waiting. And many libraries have even found people are more likely to bring things back than before, because fear of fines they couldn't afford had previously kept them from ever returning with that book they'd had out too long. We're hopeful that will be the case here.

We're committed to this not being a system that unintentionally penalizes, in this way, the patrons who always would have returned their materials on time, though. We'll continue monitoring hold lists for popular items, the way we currently do for all library materials, and will buy extra copies as needed to keep the holds/copy ratio low.

Q: Okay, that makes sense. Do you have anything exciting to announce for adult and teen users?

A: Thanks for asking! We wanted to talk about this in a previous question above, but that answer was getting too long. We are excited to announce that we're also instituting automatic renewals for library materials. You have always been able to renew library materials, but we have turned on automatic renewals to save you a step. As long as no one has requested an item, it will automatically renew for you on the due date for an additional three weeks. Since each item may be renewed twice, this means that you could potentially have up to nine weeks to finish that 40-hour epic fantasy book on CD (as long as no one else has requested it). You can see how many times the item as been renewed by logging into your online library account from our website.

Q: What if you put a hold on a children’s book, how will that affect the book being returned?

A: If you put a hold on a children's book that is currently checked out to someone else, that book will not automatically renew to them, and they will be expected to return the book on its original due date. The only change here is that they won't be fined at that point, but they will still receive the usual repeated reminders to return it. Once that book has been overdue for a month, it will be considered lost and the patron will be charged for it. BUT if they return it after that, we'll waive that fine. We're hoping some long-lost books will make their way back home this way.

Like we mentioned in the last answer, we’ll be watching hold lists carefully and buying more copies as needed when the ratio of holds per copy gets too high.

Q: Is this going to affect the library's budget?

A: Short answer? Yes. It will be a significant budget shortfall. We've made some adjustments; we think it's worth it to keep kids reading.

Details: Written by Erika Hill; Published: 29 June 2020

With its new fiscal year, the Provo City Library is closing the book on a long-held library practice: charging fines on late books and materials for children. Effective July 1, the Library will stop charging fees on children’s materials that are returned past their due date.

Gene Nelson, Library Director, has been thinking about this move for quite some time. “Every librarian who has worked in a Children’s Department has heard some variation of this conversation between a parent and child: ‘I’m sorry, we just can’t check out books today; we can’t afford the late fees.’ It breaks your heart to hear that a child’s access to library books is a financial decision. That’s not what we’re about.”

According to Joella Peterson Bagshaw, Children’s Services Manager, the motivation behind lifting fines on late materials is simple: get books in the hands of Provo’s children. “In going fine-free for children's materials we are making materials more accessible for our youngest library patrons. We are helping families who have tight budgets and limited free time know that they are valued. We want children to have every opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed.”

“As a father of six kids, I know that sometimes things go missing,” Nelson notes. “They disappear under a couch, under a bed, in a toy box. We don’t ever want a late fee to be the reason that a child can’t check out books.”

But without due dates, how does the Library make sure that people return materials? “Going fine-free doesn’t mean it’s a complete free-for-all,” notes Erika Hill, Community Relations Coordinator. “People are still responsible for returning books, and if a book is out for too long we will assume it’s lost.” Patrons will still be charged for lost or damaged materials (though if a lost item is returned then those fees will be waived).

It is important to note that this change only applies to materials in the children’s collection; adult and teen materials, along with specialty items like telescopes, board games, cameras, and more will still have fines if they are returned late. To help patrons avoid late fees on those materials, the Library has also introduced an automatic renewal policy. As long no other patrons have requested an item, it will be automatically renewed up to two times to avoid late fees.

Though there will be a financial impact for the Library, Director Gene Nelson notes that the benefits to the community outweigh the revenue loss. “Across the nation, we’ve seen that when fines go down, circulation goes up. When we eliminate fines on the children’s collection, we gain more than we lose.”

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