Get your read on
Want to know if a specific book is available in Ellis County?
It's easy enough to go online and find out. Two of the three libraries serving the almost 27,000 people in Ellis County are online.
With just a few keystrokes, it's easy to browse through the "card catalog" and determine if a library has a specific book and if it is on the shelf.
Those libraries are the Hays Public Library and Forsyth Library on the Fort Hays State University campus.
The Hays library collection is available at www.hayspub lib.org. Forsyth can be accessed at www.fhsu.edu/forsyth_lib.
Although its collection is not yet on the Internet, the Ellis Public Library, the county's third library, has its own Web site that provides details about the library. The Web site is www.ellislibrary.org (under construction).
Of course, to actually use the library, most patrons simply go there.
The Hays Public Library, on the 1200 block of Main Street, was expanded and renovated over a 20-month period with money from an 18-month, half-cent city sales tax.
The library features more than 125,000 adult, young adult and children's books, 220 current subscriptions to magazines and newspapers, The Hays Daily News on microfilm from 1929 to date and other Ellis County papers and Ellis County Census records.
There are more than 11,000 listings of audiobooks, music CDs and phonograph records, both music and recorded books, for adults and children.
The library has more than 12,000 movie classics and educational videocassettes and DVDs, more than 130 framed art prints for loan and large-print books.
Hays Public Library even has pamphlets and clippings on current topics, maps, telephone directories, and more than 700 interactive child and adult CD-ROMs.
If a wanted item is out, the library can reserve the item.
Talking books and the Mail-A-Book services are available through the Central Kansas Library System, of which the library is a member.
There is computer access to library resources, free Internet access, Internet and computer classes, public computers, word processors, copy machine, microfilm and computer printers and a fax machine.
The library also has a public-access video phone for the deaf.
Children's department events, with Norleen Knoll as the children's department librarian, include story hour, summer reading programs and crafts sponsored by the library and Kansas Arts Commission.
The Young Adult Librarian is Brandon Hines, bhines@hyaspublib.org, and the library offers several weekly programs for young adults.
The library also has video conferencing equipment available upon special request.
The adult section of the library, manned by Adult Department Librarian Eric Norris, has several events during the day and evening.
Winter library hours begin the day after Labor Day.
The adult section is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and the children's section is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Other hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Summer hours begin the day after Memorial Day. The hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. The library is closed Sunday.
For more information about the library or to use its card catalog, go online at www.hayspublib.org, or contact the library at (785) 625-9014 or mmiller@fhsu.edu.
Ellis Public Library, 907 Washington, has more than 20,000 fiction and nonfiction books for children, young adults and adults, both regular and large print.
There are more than 40 magazine subscriptions, an audio book collection, paperback book exchange and a reference section. The library also features a wireless Internet hot spot.
Library hours are noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 6 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
The library staff is made up of librarian Steve Arthur and assistant librarian Brittany Elliott.
Forsyth Library has reduced hours during the summer, but returns to more expanded hours when students return.