Category: Alerts

Meinders Community Library is closed today, Monday January 18^th in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

We will be closed today due to significant blowing and drifting.

Materials due back to the library can be returned next week when the roads are clear. No late fees will accrue.

stay safe~ jody

Thanks to another visit from Mother Nature, the Library will be closing today at noon. We are taking in-house appointments and checking out materials for curbside pickup until 12:00pm today. As our driveway and parking lot can have significant drifting, please call before heading out to make sure the roads are passible and our doors are open.

Since we are in a Blizzard Warning this afternoon through 6pm Friday, January 15, it is possible that Meinders Library will be closed tomorrow as well. For weather-related updates, please check back here, on Facebook, or Twitter.

If you find yourself stuck inside for an extended winter weekend, you can access our digital platforms to engage both you and your young uns during this wintry retreat. Our Plum Creek Library System catalog can be found on our right sidebar, while other digital platforms can be found on our Quick Links tab. Enjoy great books, articles, experiments, and more! All you need is an active PCLS library card, the internet, and a device.

*Lastly, Meinders Community Library will be closed on Monday for MLK Day.

relax and read, or get moving with snowshoes and yoga~ jody

Meinders Community Library will be closed on Friday, January 1st. We will be open normal hours, 10am-2pm, on Saturday, January 2nd. Have a safe and happy New Year!

Due to the author’s need to quarantine, the author talk for this Saturday, November 14^th, has been cancelled. Because of the current Covid-19 situation in Pipestone County and new mandates for social gatherings coming from Governor Walz, it will not be rescheduled at this time.

With the exception of eLibraryMN (aka ELM), all of our library services are accessed through your library card.

• Checking out a book? You need your card.
• Putting an item on hold through MNLink? You need your card.
• Accessing an e-book on Overdrive? You need a card.
• Reading an audio book on RBdigital? You guessed it: you need a card.
• Using Plum Creek Library System’s online catalog? Yep. You need your card.
• Exploring any of our Scholastic platforms such as ScienceFlix and BookFlix? Cards definitely required.

Because of this, it is important that you protect your library card and the information in your account in much the same way you safeguard your debit card–password and all.

I can already see some of you scratching your heads, thinking, What is this password?

I once did the same thing. Who needs a password on a library card, and how do I get one? The answer is easy peasy. You need a password if you ever plan on using your library card to access our digital materials. When your card was made, you were told your password by the friendly librarian at the circulation desk. At some point thereafter, you may have changed your password. In fact, you should have changed your password to keep your checkout information safe and to eliminate the possibility that someone else may be using your card to access your library account and all the platforms your card unlocks.

But, if you’re like me, you maybe forgot to reset your password. Or, you immediately reset it, then years went by, and now you finally want to sit down with your kids and poke around on ScienceFlix together. Well, lo and behold, you have forgotten the little protective gem in the ensuing years.

Never fear, you are in full control of your literary info.

• If you don’t know your password, call the library and we will reset your password for you. Don’t worry about us knowing your password, you get to change it the second you get off the phone with us. To do so, follow the next step.
• If you know your current password–which you do, because we just gave it to you, or you are one of the rare rock stars who just memorizes everything easily–you can, and should, change it online through the OPAC (our Online Public Access Catalog) which you can access by clicking here.

Once you’ve gotten into your account, you can do all sorts of things like renew books, put items on hold, and see if you have any fines (hint, you shouldn’t, as we have stopped fines from accruing during COVID to help you get your books back safely without penalizing you in the process). You can also check your reading history, CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD, or request that we update your personal information such as email, phone number, or address. These things are found on the left side bar.

As you can see from the above image, once you are logged into an account, you have access to all the great stuff the library has to offer. This makes it even more important to change your password. Especially since it’s easy to lose or misplace one of your cards.

When I was cleaning out my desk at home, I came across a stray library card. Having four kids and a husband, I had a pretty good chance of guessing the right name. Nope. It belonged to one of my youngest son’s friends. If I had nefarious intentions, I could have accessed all sorts of personal information from that lone card as long as the password had never been changed. It hadn’t.

Which leads us to this post. Please password protect your library card.

keep reading, keep learning~ jody

Due to construction and the holiday weekend, Meinders Community Library will be open for curbside pickup from 10am-3pm this Tuesday 9/8, Wednesday 9/9, and Thursday 9/10. The library and parking lot will be inaccessible after 3pm on all of these days.

We will resume our normal in-house and curbside pickup hours on Friday 9/11 from 11am-6pm. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Because of construction, the library will be open for curbside pickup and in-house appointments on Thursday 7/30 from 11am-6pm, instead of Friday 7/31. We still plan on being open on from 10am-2pm on Saturday 8/1.

The library board’s public forum scheduled for 6:30 pm on Thursday, July 9^th at First Lutheran Church has been cancelled due to COVID-19.

Anyone who has questions, comments, or concerns can contact the library board by emailing meinders@pas.k12.mn.us or sending a letter to 1401 7^th St SW, Pipestone, MN 56164.

At least through Labor Day, Meinders Community Library patrons can schedule a 20 minute session to browse for materials or use technology. We will reassess our open hours based on the impact of COVID-19 in our community following the start of the school year.

We continue to provide and encourage curbside pickup.

Here are a few things to note if you are coming out for a scheduled in-house session:

• Library cards are required if you are checking out materials.
• Masks are required for in-house visits.
• School lets out at 3:15pm, making the campus very busy with traffic between 3:00 and 3:30.

Call the library at 507-825-6714 or email us at meinders@pas.k12.mn.us to schedule a time or with any questions.