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CHANGING UP OUR MEDIA, 2020 STYLE

“THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA,” “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” “Midsommar, “The Lighthouse,” and “Annabelle Comes Home.” FCPL customers surprised us this year. Given the state of the world we might have thought people would look for romantic comedies or heartwarming movies about lost dogs, but instead we watched horror movies fly off the shelves. Not just horror, but movies about all kinds of frightening things, like pandemics, dystopias and a real-life scary clown for hire in Florida.

Last year saw library customers hunkering down for the long haul with audiobooks and movies, and this year continues to challenge the way we think about what to purchase for the library’s collection.

Recently we’ve seen a modest shift away from physical library books in favor of ebooks and downloadable audiobooks, available primarily in the library’s Libby app. People are venturing out less than they used to, and for those who didn’t know already, downloadable content is both instantly gratifying and contact-free.

We’ve increased our efforts to beef up our digital library. We look at every request from customers, and we add as many of them as our budget permits. People love to follow stories in a series. Keeping up with them feels like work that can never be done — as long as our favorite authors keep tempting us with the next book.

Libraries around the country are also experiencing higher demand for materials that address how to build racial, cultural and economic equity. Some of our most popular titles have been “How to Be an Antiracist,” “White Fragility,” “The Color of Law,” “Evicted” and “Between the World and Me.”

The year 2020 brought many unexpected changes for all of us. We’re continuing to roll with those changes by constantly re-evaluating what our community wants and needs. If you would like us to get a specific audiobook or movie, send us an email: forsythlibrary@gmail.com. I| S

— JAMIE STROBLE, audiovisual

librarian

The Most Requested AV Materials from March Until November

Adult DVDs

“Knives Out” “Little Women” “Midway” “The Good Liar” “1917”

Adult Audiobooks

“A Minute to Midnight” by David Baldacci “Camino Winds” by John Grisham “The Guardians” by John Grisham “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens “Walk the Wire” by David Balducci

New Year=New Resources LOOKING FOR SOMETHING NEW? TRY THESE RESOURCES, ALL FREE WITH YOUR LIBRARY CARD.

> Learn from over 110 languages with the new Transparent Language Learning app. This is a great way to kickstart your language learning journey. > NCLive has moved their RBdigital collection to hoopla. With your library card, you can enjoy full access to this collection and all of the features on the hoopla app. > Like Films on Demand? NCLive now offers a version just for kids. It’s perfect for parents and educators to enrich their children’s education.