August 28,2013

28 August 2013 The end of August is here and this is the Labor Day weekend. This has been a good summer. There was enough rain to keep the lawns green and the crops happy, there was plenty of sun and the temperatures were not oppressive. The Summer Reading Program was well attended and the plans for programs starting in September have been made. I want to thank all of the people who have volunteered to help at the library one more time, we appreciate all you do for us. The Brown Bag Classics Club will have its first meeting on September 23 and we will be reading Fred B. Galbreth's Cheaper by the Dozen. It is light reading but it is a window into how Americans lived a hundred years ago. Mostly the tone is light-hearted but there is trajedy as well. To join all you need to do is bring a bagged lunch to the library at noon on the 23rd, go down to the basement and take a place at the table. Fresh coffee and cold water will be provided along with cups. Some of the future selections will be to select a work from Charles Dickens, one of the Bronte Sisters, Mark Twain or a play from Shakespeare. Some of the titles we will consider are House of the Seven Gables, The Virginian, Elmer Gantry and the Canterbury Tales. We will not be a literature class but we will discuss what makes these works and authors worth reading. This fall we will also be working with PNC bank to do financial literacy workshops. How to maintain a checkbook, keeping your credit score high and why it is important, managing finances on a tight budget and how to address the financial decisions that are part of everyday life. We hope to schedule these workshops on Saturday mornings so most adults or students will be able to attend. Depending on attendance, we would like to have these programs once a month. The Wi-Fi room is now ready! We now have four wi-fi stations set up in the library in the audio-book room. Outlets are available so you can plug your laptop or other device in so you can save your battery. When you come in all you have to do is sign in at the circulation desk. We ask that you sign in so we may collect the statistics for our yearly report on library usage to the State Library. The Library Ladies Auxilary is taking donations for the book sale. The only restrictions are no National Geographic magazines, no encyclopedias and no Reader's Digest condensed books. Also, if the books are falling apart or have mildew will not be acceptted. It is going to be great fall. See you at the Library John

14 August 2013

14 August 2013

If you come into the Library over the next couple of weeks you will notice that we have a bit of a mess, and for a good reason.  The audiobook room is undergoing some remodleing and we will soon have six wi-fi stations for our patrons to use.  The wi-fi stations will have access to electrical outlets so that users can plug in their laptops instead of working off their batteries. 

On 23 September 2013 the first Brown Bag Classics Club will meet for the first time.  This book club will feature classic works in literature that many have always wanted to read but just didn't know where to start.  The first book we will read will be, "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.  It was made into a movie in the late 1940's with Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy.  It is on the light side but a good book to get started in reading of the classics.  Future books to be read will be books by Hemingway, Austen, Verne, Cooper, and so on.  Bring your lunch and book to the Library basement and we will have a good discussion.  The Library will provide coffee and water.

In the vestibule of the Library you will see the Lost & Found box next to the display case.  This is for items of clothing, tote-bags, and such.  We will keep ojbects in the box for 60 days after which they will be discarded. 

Anyone who has volunteered at the Library in the past year, there will be a reception for you at the Library on 20 August 2013 at 3:00 p.m. There will be some cake and punch served and it will last about one hour.
If you can phone in and let us know if you are coming before Monday 19 August 2013, it would be greatly appreciated.

Remember to eject the DVD from the player before returning the movie case to the Library.  Since the end of Summer Reading, we have had a couple of occassions where this has happened. 

Keep reading, it keeps your mind alert.

John

Planning time

8 August 2013

Looking at the Library calender, you would think that August is a quiet month for the Library but actually, it is one of the busier times for us.  This is the time of year when we sit down and plan out our programs for the next eight months.  We will be trying to better schedule older programs so they are more accessible for all patrons and we will also be looking at adding a few new programs.  The Library will offer two new programs for the adults this fall and I will go into it more in next week's posting.

The big news is that this month we are converting our audiobook room to accommodate at least four wi-fi users. With an older building like ours, there is a limited number of electrical outlets where patrons need them to plug-in their laptops, this has led us to create the wi-fi room.  There will also be some extra shelving in the adult fiction area which will allow us to shift the books so that they can be easily removed from the shelf. We should even have enough room to add to our collection.

I know a lot of people feel they should put a book back on the shelf after they have taken it to a table or chair and used it.  We are grateful for your concern but please put them on the carts at the ends of the aisles.  When we make our yearly report to the Library of Michigan, they want to know how many of our materials are being used, when the books are returned to the carts, we can take those books and scan the barcodes so we can get a count on the materials used in the library.  On the state-aid form there is a space for the number of materials used in the library so by returning the books to the carts, you are doing us a much greater service.

We will hold a reception for all the volunteers who have helped at the Library this past year.  It will be held on Tuesday, 20 August 2013, at 3:00 p.m.  If you have not received and invitation and you have volunteered and would like to attend, contact me at 649-1648 and let me know you will be attending.  Cake and punch will be served at the reception and it will last about an hour or a bit longer.

I want to thank everyone in the community for making our Summer Reading program one of the most successful ones that we have had.  The support of the local merchants was very high and people who donated to the support of the program.  Especially to all the students who did such a great job reading.

Until next week, keep on reading, John