We offer a Teacher's P.E.T. (Perks Enhancing Teachers) card free to classroom teachers.

What it provides…

• P.E.T. cards may be used August 1-May 31.
• Teachers presenting this card receive the following privileges:
  • You may check out up to 20 books on one subject rather than the usual 3.
  • Holiday books: Teachers may check out three per holiday to a maximum of ten holiday books.
  • The card includes $5.00 in overdue fine waivers.
  • It allows 6 checkouts of non-education videos/DVDs for 3 day loan with no rental cost. ("Educational" videos/DVDs may be checked out for 14 days. These have no rental cost.)

How to get a P. E. T. card…

The P.E.T. card is available only to classroom teachers, including special education teachers. It is not available to home school teachers, teachers aides, student teachers, art, music or physical education teachers, or non-teaching school employees.

P.E.T. cards are provided to classroom teachers in the Mount Vernon MSD (and also to teachers at South Terrace Elementary, St. Matthews, St. Philips, and St. Wendels schools) in packets distributed by the library at the start of the school year. The library maintains lists of classroom teachers in the New Harmony and North Posey school districts. Teachers whose names are on one of these lists may obtain a P. E. T. card by visiting or calling the library. Other teachers desiring a P.E.T. card should provide the library with a letter from their principal, on school letterhead, informing the library what they teach. When we receive this letter and determine that the individual is a classroom teacher, we will give them a P.E.T. card.

Take good care of your P.E.T. card. The library cannot replace it if it is lost. If it is damaged, bring in the tattered remnants. We can give you another - but we will void the video fee and fine forgiveness to match, as best we can determine, the values used from the original card.

In-library services...

We know from experience that students who know how to find their way around a library have a competitive advantage over students who don't. They are able to locate more of the information they need, faster, without having to wade through as much of the information they don’t need. For this reason our library staff will be happy to arrange to visit your classrooms to provide information on how to use the library and take advantage of its varied services.

Moreover, we also offer group visits to the library. Included in these tours are tutorials on how to use AlexCat (our online library catalog), browsing time, and time for your questions.

We are also very willing to prepare Special Collections for teachers on specific authors and/or subjects. We can do this given timely notice from teachers about the authors and subjects they wish to cover. Materials in these special collections, which complement homework assignments, are placed on reserve for use exclusively in the library, so that all students wanting to use the materials will have an opportunity. Otherwise, all library materials on a subject may be checked out before everyone has had a chance to use them. Of course, the greater the lead time we are given, the more materials we are able to secure; we suggest a month.

In addition, we maintain a Homework Alert form, wherein teachers can notify Information Services staff about upcoming homework assignments. Staff can then prepare enough material to accommodate the number of students researching the same topic or requiring the same books. Homework Hints are also available to help your students find information on a topic.