Pioneer Library System

New Catalog Video Tutorials

Pioneer Library System - Press Releases

Last Updated on Friday, 05 August 2011 15:00

The Virtual Library has created 5 tutorial videos to help you learn how to use the new catalog system. You may watch all 5 videos by clicking the video player to the left or by visiting the PLS YouTube channel.

The videos walk you through searching, sorting results, placing holds, renewing items, and managing the new favorite authors and subjects lists.

If you experience difficulties using a service or have suggestions for enhancements or future tutorials, let us know. Please contact your hometown library, use our online contact form, or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Read more: New Catalog Video Tutorials

PLS Presents: Mother Goose

Pioneer Library System - PLS Presents...

Last Updated on Thursday, 01 December 2011 11:38

As children we all love to hear our favorite nursery rhyme. The Pioneer Public Library presents a podcast on Mother Goose read by Susan Lura from Norman Children's. Your hometown library encourages you to start reading to your children at a very young age.

Growing Like A Read (better known as GLAR) is a project of the Pioneer Library System that promotes brain development for literacy skills in children from birth through age 4 through reading, talking, playing and singing. So sit back and enjoy 7 minutes of your favorite Mother Goose nursery rhymes. This podcast will be sure to bring back sweet childhood memories.

Mother Goose read by Susan Lura from the Norman Children's Department

Click to listen to or download Mother Goose Rhymes read by Ms. Susan

download mp3

A Message from PLS Director Anne Masters

Pioneer Library System - From the Director

The Pioneer Library System has just completed its fifth Big Read.   Thank you to everyone involved in supporting, promoting and implementing the many activities associated with this year’s Big Read: The Things They Carried

Author Tim O’Brien’s presentations at OBU in Shawnee on Wednesday night and at the Sam Noble Museum in Norman last night were attended and appreciated by capacity crowds.  Long lines waited following the presentations to speak with the author and have their books signed.

We conduct our Big Read programs to encourage the reading of literature in Cleveland, McClain and Pottawatomie counties.  We believe the reading of literature helps us to be better people and citizens – more understanding, more empathetic, more able to appreciate the complexity of issues, more willing to be involved.    I can’t imagine a better message to convey the value of literature than that delivered by Tim O’Brien.    

These presentations also provided an opportunity to celebrate the new Pioneer Library System Foundation.  Grant writing and fund raising conducted through the Foundation  made Tim O’Brien’s visit possible. 

It is with excitement that we can now announce that next year’s Big Read title will be The Joy Luck Club and that Amy Tan will be here next spring at this time.  The Foundation will be working to put together the funds to support that visit.  The Pioneer Foundation is seeking 100 Founding Donors.  Founding Donors may be individuals, but they may also be organizations, businesses, book discussion groups or other groups who support the Foundation’s mission:  To provide advocacy and financial support to enrich the present and enhance the future of the Pioneer Library System.  For more information, please email PLS This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Long live books and public libraries and all they do to make our world a better place!

Anne Masters, Director

Pioneer Library System

How the Whale Got His Throat

Pioneer Library System - PLS Presents...

Last Updated on Monday, 25 July 2011 13:55

Whales have been the main characters in legends and stories for centuries.  The majestic animals can be found throughout the world and are some of the largest mammals known to man. 

This month, the Norman children's department asked Father Alan Sutherland of St. Michael's Episcopal Church to share Rudyard Kipling's story about how the whale got its throat.  This is an interesting story about why many whales only eat krill, plankton and small fish even though they are such large animals.

If you would like to follow along, Just So Stories  by Rudyard Kipling is available as a book from the library or ebook from our OverDrive collection.

Read on to hear the story!

Read more: How the Whale Got His Throat