20 August 2014

Labor Day is early this year, September 1. This is the earliest that Labor Day can occur because by law it is set as the first Monday of September. The Library will be closed for Labor Day and our Sunday hours will begin on September 7 from 1-5.-------Coming in September will be the Brown Bag Classic Book Club and our first selection will be John Steinbeck's East of Eden. This is a great American classic and a great read. Other books this coming year will be Frankenstein, Anna Karenina, and The Great Gatsby. At the first meeting we will decide if we want to continue meeting at noon or if it would be better to move it to the afternoon or evening.------- The Library is looking for someone to be a janitor. The duties would be the cleaning of the library, setting up for programs, as needed, and dumping trash and taking out recyclables. Apply in person at the library. We would like to fill this position by the first week of September.------- Tomorrow we will be holding the preliminary fundraising meeting. We encourage people to come in and ask questions, make suggestions on fundraisig activities, and volunteer to work on the committee. The board meeting is at 6:00 p.m. in the basement meeting room.------- This September the Library will begin hosting some programs geared to adults and children on financal management. The first program will be on September 13, at 10:30 in the morning. This program uses the Hasbro boardgame, The Game of Life, to guide people along the road of life from childhood through retirement. It will cover saving, investing and budgeting. This is a free program presented by New York Life. There is no obligation or sales pitch attached to this program. We do ask that you register with the library so that we will know how many tables and chairs to set up. We will limit attendence to 30 people. Future programs will include teaching your child on financial management and awareness of fraud against senior citizens. All programs will start at 10:30 and will last about 1 hour and be on Saturday mornings in September and October.------- Our west window display this month features true crime. From the pursuit of John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated Lincoln to the life and legend of Jesse James. Learn "Isabels Secret" or how two drifters could murder a farm family "In Cold Blood." The truth is more intriguing than fiction. ------- You may have noticed that there is a card in the movie carrels that have the new movies we have received listed. While looking for movies don't forget some of the older ones. John Wayne in Hondo or The Wizard of Oz or even the Birds. Maybe you would rather catch up on a TV series like Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy or the Brady Bunch. For the children we have Bob the Builder and Barbie movies as well as Disney films. ------- If you volunteered to work at any library program or the book sale this past year, please contact me at the library at 649-1648 and let me know. We are having a reception at the library on Thursday, August 27 at 3:00 p.m. in the Library meeting room. ------- As the summer ends, the library staff is getting ready for the children's programs that will start. More on the start days, times of programs and times will be in next week's blog.-------Until next week, keep reading and support your local library. John

13 August 2014

13 August 2014 I want to say thank you to all our patrons for being patient with us as the new circulation system continues to vex the library staff. When we purchased the new program we had talked with several libraries throughout the state and it was given glowing reports. So what went wrong? You may ask. The program issued a new version when they loaded the new system in May. Every new version of a program will have bugs, take for example Windows Vista or Windows Millenium as examples of a good program with a new version being wild for the first five or six months. Every week Verso installs new fixes for the problems that are in the new version. Libraries all over the country are running into problems, it isn't just Vicksburg. The programmers are working on fixing the bugs but it takes time to write a repair program so continue being patient as it may be October before all of the bugs are addressed.-------The Library will be holding a reception for all the people who volunteered to help at the library this past year. We will be having punch and cake. The reception is going to be on 27 August 2014 at 3:00 pm in the Library's meeting room. If you have volunteered at the Library this past year please phone the Library at 649-1648 and leave a note for John that you will be attending. I will need to know how many people will be there so I can order the right size cake.-------Parents please let know if you want you child to check out R rated or MA rated video games. When we changed the circulation system not all of the notes were copied over. You will have to come in and personnally tell us to put a note on your child's record that they can check out materials with the above mentioned ratings. Our policy states that we will follow video store guidelines on checking out R or MA materials to minors 17 years of age or younger. I know that in the past we have let some videos and games slip through especially when we are busy we are not very vigilante. Remember, next time you are in the library and your minor child has a card, tell us if you are okay with your child checking out R and MA materials. I know it seems silly especially if your child is in high school but it is in that gray area that deals with childhood safety. -------On Thursday, 21 August at the regular board meeting, the board will be discussing the formation of a fundraising committee. The public is welcome to attend all board meetings but if you have any ideas on how to make the library better or you want to help us upgrade the library building please attend. The library staff have already made suggestions and we are looking for more. The fund raising committee will be meeting with professionals in library design, phone systems, construction and internet technology among others to establish needs and costs so we can set a fund raising goal. The Library has been putting money into funds over the years to help pay for upgrades of the physical library building. We are also looking to raise some extra money to add to the Vicksburd District Library Foundation which is operated by the Kalamazoo Foundation. The Vicksburg community has always been generous with the needed time and monetary resources to maintain the library and I believe that community spirits lives on today.-------Until next week remember to read to your children. John Sheridan, Director

6 August 2014

6 August 2014 ---------- August already and less than a month before the start of the school year. The Summer Reading Program parties were well attended and fun for everyone. At the children's party, New York Life was there providing free child I.D. photos and fingerprints for parents. This is a safety benefit for the parents as it provides a way for officials to identify and search for a lost child. I want to thank the United Methodist Church on Main St for making their community room available for us. Over one hundred children and their parents or guardians attended plus our staff members and volunteers. For two hours the children enjoyed games and treats. At the end many hated to leave. Also a big thank you for Miss Kristy who worked so hard putting the Summer Reading Program together. ------ The last party for the summer will be on August 7 for 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. It is the Doctor Who party which had to be cancelled in July due to the power outage in town at that time. There will be treats, a Doctor Who trivia contest and the showing of s Doctor Who movie. ------- I want to remind everyone that there will be a library wants and needs discussion at the next Library board meeting. The needs are to repair the front steps and the brickwork on the building, replacing the carpeting and the furniture re-roofing the library, and replacing the phone system This will be the first major work done on the libray since the addition was put on in 1986. The wants of the library are? This is where you the public are needed. Do we need more computers? Maybe more audio or large print books. Should we be getting more movies or ebooks for Kindle and other electric readers? Does the public want more programming for adults, evening programs? We need your imput. We also need people that will help set up a fund raising committee and to serve on it. The committee would decide what kind of fundraiser to have. An auction or perhaps a pledge drive or maybe a community challenge? The library has been ear-marking some of our income every year in anticipation of the major work updates updates but we can only estimate that we might have 25% of the needed funds. The library will engage architectss, builders and library design firms to get a solid estimate so that we can see what we will need for the upgrade. Once we have the estimates we can see what we will need. The Library Board has decided that a fund raiser would be the best way to accomplish financing of the needed work instead of going for a millage. This way the project will be paid as the work is done and any excess funds can be dedicated to the Vicksburg District Library Foundation which would generate funds to help with future renovations. ------- This September and October we are planning three workhops on finances. These will cover Senior Fraud Protection, Teaching children financial management and the game of Life, which previews the differenct financial issues that nearly everyone faces as they grow up through retirement. These workshops are free and run about an hour. They are presented by PNC and New York Life. ------- The Brown Bag Book Club will be starting again in September and we will read East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It is an American classic and still reads strong today. We will met at noon on September 22. I know it isn't the third monday but the first Monday in Labor Day so we won't count that.------- Until next week, keep reading and remember to come to the Board Meeting on August 21.---------- John

July29, 2014

29 July 2014-----This is the last post for the month. With the end of the month comes the end of Summer Reading Program Parties. The teen party is today in the basement meeting room from 3-4. The children's party will be on Thursday at the Methodist Church from 2-4. This was a very good year for the program and we appreciate all who took part.----------The annual volunteer reception will be held in August. The date has not yet been set but it will be after the middle of August.---------At the August board meeting we will be having a barn storming session with people in our community to review what the Library offers to the public. What works, what doesn't? What needs to be done to update the building? What long term maintenance needs to be done, (roof, carpeting, furniture, computers). We will ask some of the attendees to participate in a fund raising committee so that we can do what needs to be done with out having to go for a millage increase. We have been fortunate that the rate of inflation has been low so that our income is able to rise at the same rate. I want to point out that the last major overhaul of the Library was in 1986 so we will need to address the roof, the carpet, number of computers and connect speed of the computers.We encourage you to attend and to pass the word around about this meeting so that the Library can continue to be an asset to all people in our community. The meeting is on 21 August 2014 at 6:00 p.m. in the Library basement meeting room. Please plan to attend.----------The Library is planning a Senior Fraud Protection workshop for Seniors and care providers in late October. This program is a joint presentation with PNC Bank. More details will be released as we get closer to October.----------The Brown Bag Classics Book Club will resume in September. The first book we will be reading will be John Steinbeck's East of Eden. Copies will be available after August 1. Books in the coming year will be Moby Dick, The Three Musketeers, The Magic Mountain and Dracula.----------This blog is short as I will be out of the Library to attend a workshop for the last two days of the month. Until next week remember to keep reading. John

23 July 2014

23 July 2014 The Summer Reading Program is winding down. It officially ends at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday July 26. All reading records need to be turned in by then so that the times can be tabulated on Monday. We cannot accept late submissions. The end of Summer Reading party for the Teen segment of the program will be held on Tues. July 29. Games and prizes as well as treats and music from various decades will be featured for this program. The End of Summer Reading Program for the Children will be held at the Methodist Church from 2-4 on Thursday July 31. I want to thank all of the students who participated in the program this year. The attendance at the special programs was very good and everyone had a good time. Among the favorite programs this year were the Binder Park Zoo, the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, the Robotics demonstration and the Science Fair. Unfortunately, we did not have power for the Doctor Who program but that will be held in August. I would like to say that the new season of Doctor Who starts on Saturday August 23, on BBC America.------------During the month of August our staff will be planning out programs that we will be having during the last of summer and through the fall. For the adults we will be working with PNC bank to have a couple of finacial programs geared toward adults. These programs will be held on Saturday morning and will only last about two hours.------------During August we will also be getting the bugs worked out on our new circulation system. With the summer reading, it was impossible to give any time to doing this earlier.----------The Library Board is looking for people who would like to work on a fundraising campaign for the library. The last time any major work was done on the library was back in 1986 and after nearly 30 years it is time for a facelift. No dollar goal has been set yet and not plans are drawn-up. We want our patrons to give us imput on what they want to keep, add, or do away. When the addition was put on in 1986, computers for public use in the library was a science fiction fantasy but today it is a reality. So we know we will need to address the question of how many workstations do we need and are they currently in the best place. So plan to attend the next Library Board meeting on Thursday 21 August 2014 at 6:00 p.m. in the basement meeting room. I will be attending a grant writing workshop so that we may be able to obtain a matching grant to help in our fundraising goal.----------You may have noticed the dashes in this blog post. I have found that as I type the blog when I go to start a new paragraph I am not able to get this program to recognize the new paragraph with spacing alone. With the dashes I hope that it will act as the needed break between paragraphs and make my blogs more readable.----------It has been an amazing summer! Not a warm as normal but it has been very pleasant without too many high heat/high humidity days. The high heat is okay but the humidity is what makes the days miserable. The Taste of Vicksburg was a fun time and a lot of good food was servered up now this weekend we have the Lions 41st Summer Festival. It starts tomorrow, the 24th and runs through Saturday. It will be at the Historic Village area so come out and have a good time with the family.------------That is all for this week and I hope everyone will have a safe and fun weekend.----------John

July 16, 2014

16 July 2014 Summer Reading Program ends on Saturday, July 26 at 5:00 p.m. You still have time to sign in and win some prizes and attend the end of program party. You only have 10 days until the end of the program. Even after the program ends, we encourage people of all ages to continue reading. If you are wondering what you can read, ask a staff member for a reader's advisory. We will be more than happy to talk with you to see what your interests are and find materials for you to read. Maybe you have read alot of mysteries and want to try something a little different. It may be that you would enjoy reading some true crime books. Maybe your passion is cooking, we can direct you to cookboos or even books on how to grow your own herbs. Are you a history buff? We have books on all eras of American History as well as biographies on the movers and shakers in government and entertainment. Sports, religion, self-help, gardening, young adult books, audiobooks, movies, how-to books can all these and more can be found at the library. With our new system at times a new book will come up on the item search and say the book is available but when you go to the shelf you can't find it. It may be that the book is on the processing shelf. It is one of the issues that we have not had time to resolve with the new system because so much energy is going into the Summer Reading Program. In August we will have more time and plan to make sure that books on the processing shelf will tell the patron that information so that they can place a reserve on that title. Also in August, we will be working to get the email notification module set-up. This module will let us send a notice to you telling you that you have material coming due, send out overdue notices and also send out reserve notices. When we get that module set-up we will make and announcement on our homepage,in this blog and in the South County News letting you know so you can ask to be set-up for this service. August is also the month when the programs for the coming year are laid out and times and dates put on our master calender for the year. The programs cover everything from Baby Time to the Teen Advisory Board to general library programs such as the Bridge Club and adult programs. We plan these programs out so that we can reserve the meeting rooom, get our promotional materials ready, contact any volunteers we would need and to budget for materials for the programs. Don't forget that donations to the library are always appreciated. Donations can be made in honor of a special event (50th anniversary, promotion), in memory of a loved one who has passed away or as a charitable donation to receive a tax break. In the YA section on top of the music CD spinner there is a three ring binder with ideas for materials that the would like to purchase but do not have the budget to get at this time. Board meetings are held on the third Thursday of the month at 6:00 pm in the meeting room downstairs. The meetings are open to the public. Miss Kristi is in need of empty water bottles. Bring them into the library over the next week as they are needed for on of the Summer Reading progams. Talk with you again next week and until then keep on reading and be safe. John Sheridan, Director

9 July 2014

July 9, 2014 As you noticed, there was no new blog last week as the Library, along with the rest of Vicksburg, was without power. I am going to age myself here. I remember when libraries were not so dependent on electricity. If you look at the original half of the library you will notice the large windows, that was to allow light into the building so that people could read. When books were checked out, the patron signed out on a card that was kept in a pocket in the back of the book. At that time patrons signed their names but later, as privacy became more of a concern, their patron card number was written down. The card catalog was usually of oak construction and had 3 x 5 cards that gave the title, author and call number of the book. You would look under the author's name or the book title and sometimes under a subject heading to get the call number to find the book. Under this system, you did not need electricity to keep your library open but it was very labor intensive. Some books only had two catalog cards but some of the non-fiction titles could generate a dozen cards, more or less. Each card had to be typed individually or hand written, then the cards had to be filed in the card catalog under the author last name, title and under each subject heading. Do I want the old system back? NO! I may be nostalgic but I am not stupid. With the electronic cataloging system you can do all of the work in one step and when the information is saved onto the operating system all of the information about the book is instantly available to the public. When you go into the patron record it is easier to track the reserves that patrons have placed, you can track any fines or fees and you get an automatic notice to update the patron records. The old system was great for its time but that time is past. The only time it is missed is when the power goes out and then do you want to be at work when the power is out or repairing the damage a storm may have done to your house? The Doctor Who program is being rescheduled for August. Many people have phoned in to ask if it is being rescheduled so keep an eye on our website for further information. The program will still feature a showing of one of the Doctor Who specials and it will also be a kick-off party for the start of the new season of Doctor Who. The new season starts on August 23 on BBC America. The Summer Reading Programs are very popular this year. Science is fun and both the middle and elementary students are having fun doing the experiments. The next Teen program is IRON CHEF on Thursday, July 10. They even get to eat what they make! Remember, your child can still sign-up for the summer reading program. There are nearly three weeks left for them to register and read their minutes. If you would like to volunteer to help with the programs contact Miss Kristi at 649-1648. Books are being acceptted for next year's book sale. Again we ask that you not bring in text books, encyclopedias or magazines. Remember, the Library is supported by its patrons, mostly through the millage approved by the voters back in 1986. But donations also make a big impact on the library. A donation in cash is always appreciated but we also have a wish list that can be found on the shelf by the Young Adult new book shelf. They are mostly items that can be used for the Children's Department but there are others. You can also make a donation in rememberance of a person or event for the purchase of books or other materials or you can make a donation to the Vicksburg District Library Foundation Fund. Please contact me or another staff member if you are interested in giving some extra support to the Library. Well the storms are over and regular patterns of the Summer Program are set so I hope to be back on track to posting a new blog on Wednesdays. Be safe and read a lot. John Sheridan, Director