The OSU Institute of Technology Library offers so much more than books. During the annual Library Week, it also becomes a place to relax and express your creativity before finals and graduation.
National Library Week is April 9 through 15, and the OSUIT Library will offer the campus community something fun to do every day including board games, puzzles, crafts, adult coloring sheets and refreshments in addition to games for prizes and the 13th annual Poets Live Poetry Reading.
The primary goals of Library Week are to celebrate the role of the library, to highlight some of OSUIT’s library services, and to provide students with some fun activities during pre-finals week.
“It’s a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association and libraries across the country each April,” said OSUIT Library Director Jenny Duncan. “It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians, and to promote library use and support.”
Some of the activities this year include a Learn About the Library crossword puzzle on Tuesday, April 11, and an electronic scavenger hunt on the library’s website on Thursday, April 13. The winning students from each of these activities will take home a $25 gift certificate to the OSUIT Bookstore.
Last year’s amnesty day is being expanded to the entire week this year. Patrons can have their library fines from March and April waived when they donate a gently used book or canned food item.
“One gently used book or canned good will equal one dollar worth of fines. So if they have 40 gently used books they want to donate, they could potentially have $40 worth of fines and fees waived,” Duncan said. “All of the books will be donated to the Little Free Library in Henryetta, and the canned food items will go to the Okmulgee County Homeless Shelter.”
A Library Week tradition, the 13th Annual Poets Live Poetry Reading will be Wednesday, April 12 at 2:30 p.m. in the library. Ten poets, which can be students, staff or instructors, are selected to read original or previously published material. Those participating receive a $15 OSUIT Bookstore gift certificate.
“You typically don’t see this type of activity at a technical university. Poetry readings are normally found in more of your liberal arts-type colleges and universities, so this gives our technical students an opportunity to see, hear and even participate in something that might be somewhat out of the ordinary for them,” Duncan said.