Greetings from the Great Bend Public Library! We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We will be closed Thursday and Friday for the holiday, but we will be open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

I’m sure a lot of you have been and will be doing some traveling for the holiday weekend. My favorite thing to do on long car trips is listening to audiobooks. I enjoy music, too, but audiobooks always seem to make the drive a lot easier for me. Having an audiobook to listen to actually makes me look forward to long road trips so I can get through as much of the story as possible. Many modern cars have auxiliary jacks built right in, which means I can use the audiobooks downloaded from Hoopla or Libby right to my phone instead of worrying about changing discs while driving or after finding a place to stop. Plus, when I get to my destination and I’m not quite done with my chapter (or I just have to know what happens next), I can switch to playing it through my phone speakers and keep listening.

To those traveling this weekend or busy in the kitchen cooking, I highly recommend you check out our vast selection of audiobooks offered through the apps mentioned. Both are available free for downloading audiobooks straight to your device as a service included with your Great Bend Public Library card. Libby has thousands of ebooks and audiobooks you can borrow with no limit, and Hoopla offers thousands of audiobooks as well as ebooks, comics, music, movies, and even TV shows.

Through the end of this month, Hoopla is offering Bonus Borrows that don’t count against your allotted monthly borrow limit. In addition to the Bonus Borrows, the monthly limit has been extended from 4 to 6 borrows through the end of this year. As you can see, both of these apps would make the perfect road trip buddies or sous-chefs. With so many titles to choose from, you are certain to find more than enough to listen to this weekend and beyond.

Next week we have our November Wildlife Book Club on Tuesday, November 30, at 7 p.m. This month we will be discussing the book “Flight Behavior” by Barbara Kingsolver. Copies are still available at the front desk for those who wish to read it before the meeting.

For the Great Bend Silver Screen Society’s December meeting, we will be watching a bit of an older movie, a classic that takes place over the holiday season and stars Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. If you would like to join us for the film as well as some popcorn and rousing discussion, join us on Thursday, Dec. 2 at 5:30 p.m. The following day at 3:30 p.m. will be the last Casual Game Friday of the year. Teens grades 6-12 can join us in the Teen Spot to race each other in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Later that evening at 7 p.m. we have our next Adults’ Night Out Movie. We will be showing a wonderful holiday classic that you won’t want to miss. The north doors will be open from 6:45-7:15 p.m. for entry to the movie.

For library events, visit our Facebook and our website, greatbendpl.info. You can also message us on Facebook, email us at gbcirc@gmail.com, or give us a call at 620-792-2409 for any questions about our programming or services.

Written by Hannah Grippin, Outreach Manager at the Great Bend Public Library.