Puzzled

Have you noticed the jigsaw puzzle on one of the tables on the main floor of the library? We are putting out puzzles this summer, letting anyone interested the chance to sit down and try to put in a few pieces. Being a jigsaw puzzle fan from way back, I thought it would be something to do to while away a few moments, be something to do when waiting for a friend or family member to finish browsing, and test the interest in offering puzzles to circulate.

So far it has been a huge success. I put out our first puzzle on Monday - I don't think many of the staff thought there would be much interest and I thought it would take some time to catch on. A young man discovered it early in the morning and worked on it the rest of the day. He put together the 1000 piecer in about 5 hours. So I put out another on Tuesday, and by Wednesday that was done too. I put out the 3rd (again, 1000 pieces, and a bit tougher than the others) on Thursday, and it was slow going. But late this afternoon we noticed a pair of teens working on it. Friends? A date? Who knows. Just a nice thing to do on a hot and lazy afternoon.

We've had some interesting reactions. A number of people came to report that someone forgot their puzzle on a table - so we put out a sign inviting people to work the puzzle. Others have offered to donate their puzzles - a very welcome gesture. Even my enormous store of puzzles won't keep up with the interest being shown!

This all has gotten me thinking about what else to do. Maybe a speed contest. 5 copies of the same puzzle, 5 teams competing to see who finishes first. Maybe we should put out a chess set. It is all part of keeping the mind active, alive and sparking - one of the important roles of libraries.

Margaret Drabble has written a memoir of her life through the lens of the jigsaw puzzles she has done throughout her life. The book, 'The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws', is do out in September and talks about puzzling with her aunt and how doing jigsaws have helped her over rough patches in her life. Sounds like my kind of book.

The Pattern in the Carpet, by Margaret Drabble
Frannie in Pieces, by Delia Ephron
Jigsaw, USA (software)

A welcome change

I don't know if you have noticed, but we have made a change with our DVD collection. Previously the collection was too small for the demand, and we have worked hard over the years to increase the size - without neglecting the other parts of our collection, of course. Recently, we decided the time had come, the collection was at a sufficient size, and there was no need to put it off any longer.

You can now reserve our DVDs - old or new. Maybe it doesn't seem like that big a change, but it is already making a big difference to many of our users. Instead of having to haunt the check-in desk trying to grab something good, you can just put a reserve on it and before long it is ready and waiting for you. In addition, we can watch the reserve lists and know just what titles to buy additional copies of to meet the demand. We do this already with our new, popular books and it has worked well for years. We see this as a wonderful enhancement of our service to you.

And as a nice side effect, we are now able to supply DVDs to users of other libraries in our consortium. Our patrons were already calling in DVDs through the online catalog and we thought it wasn't right that we weren't able to share our collection back. Now we can, and the huge benefits to us of being part of GMILCS is reciprocated from us to the other member libraries. It isn't often that a simple change can have so many positive ramifications.

So, reserve away!


1001 movies you must see before you die, edited by Stephen Jay Schneider.

Taking risks

We are all uncomfortable with trying new things, but there are such benefits. A few weeks ago, Kelley Library hosted the Pontine Theater of Portsmouth for a presentation of their program about ee cummings. I have been coming to all the programs this year, many of which weren't on topics that I would jump to attend. I haven't regretted any of them, and each has spurred me to explore the topic in some way or other.

I mention the Pontine Theater program particularly because ee cummings' poetry was a real trial for me in high school. I just didn't get it at all and came to the program sure that I would still not get it. Let me say that I lucked into one of those wonderful aha moments early in the program. Several poems were projected for background and reference during the overview of ee's life. There it was, the lack of punctuation, the lack of caps, the odd layout - the high school nightmare was returning, when one of the presenters said the simplest of comments. ee was creating a pattern that would mirror itself in the poem - the beginning mirrored the end. The content was important, but the precision of pattern was equally important. There was the aha. Suddenly it all fell into place, made sense and I could finally appreciate this respected poet.

I have had similar ahas over the years - watching the history channel (another thing I normally avoided) the cause of WWI suddenly made sense due to one simple sentence (and it wasn't just the Archduke assasination we all learned). Watching remedial math years ago (desperation early in the morning with a cranky baby) fractions suddenly made sense. The list goes on. I have often wondered why teachers didn't provide these simple explanations, but thanks to trying something different, something new, I finally did get the explanations.

Libraries often talk about lifelong learning, too often creating the idea that as we age we will be busy studying like back in school. Lifelong learning to me is finding these nuggets of information when I least expect it and heading off to find out more on the topic. I think this is why non-fiction has grown in popularity at libraries. No longer the dry books of the past that challenged even the most dedicated readers, there are now wonderful books being written as interesting, thrilling, and fun to read as any fiction book. I never used to read non-fiction and started to mostly due to my job. Now, I find it the best read there is.

So, take a chance, try something outside of your comfort zone, say yes to something new. You might be surprised where you end up going.

Yes Man, by Danny Wallace (way, way, way better than the movie)

Wild Trees, by Robert Preston

Round Ireland with a Fridge, by Tony Hawks

Survey revisited

We have gotten a lot of surveys returned either from the webpage or in hard copy and I want to thank everyone that has done one. There is still a couple of days for you to fill one out if you haven't taken a moment to do so. Pick up a survey at the library or take a quick moment to go here to do it. Why? Because we want to hear what you think. A few minutes of your time will have a big impact on your library. You can be confident about one thing, I pay attention to what our users are saying and follow through. Your time is far too valuable to waste. I already know some things we will be doing in response to this survey: expand the audiobook collection focusing on new titles and big authors; expand our large print focusing on best sellers, big authors and non-fiction; and we will be keeping videos of movies that we don't have and/or can't get in DVD. You told us, we listened.

Outreach

One of the many services offered by the Kelley Library is one that not many people know about. However, it is a service that has a huge impact on those that benefit from it. For many years now, the Library has offered home delivery of books and other materials to residents who are unable to get to the library due to age or infirmity. Anne Pepin (who you probably know from her work at the main desk and is famous for her work on our garden) has been doing the home delivery for over 25 years after taking it over from someone who had also been doing it for years. Home delivery is now an expected service of libraries, but Kelley has been doing it longer than most.

It is an enormously rewarding service. The people who get home delivery have a limited world beyond contact with caregivers, family and trips to the doctor. A visit from Anne with a fresh supply of reading is a bright spot in a quiet life. It is someone new to talk to, a fresh source of news about the community, and a chance to have something new to read or listen to. Anne has many stories that she will share here at a later date, but it all comes down to a deep understanding of how important this service is to her people. It makes it worth trudging and driving through snow, ice and rain to make her monthly visit.

Soon after I started here, Joan Fardella, now a Library Trustee, came to me with an idea for providing this service. She knew I had worked with a bookmobile service which brought books to elderly people in assisted living facilities, and thought we could start our own 'bookmobile' - Joan in a car. When she discovered that we already provided that service, she was delighted that she would be able to help expand the program. That idea has grown over the past months to Mobile Books, an extension of the fine work Anne continues to do. Joan is providing home delivery to anyone who can't get to the library due to illness, physicial handicap or any limitation. The program kicked off on May 1st, and Joan is now accepting requests for service. Interested in arranging for home bound delivery to someone you know? Please call the library at 603-898-7064 or email me at abaker@salem.lib.nh.us and we will get the process started.

Book: The Camel Bookmobile, by Masha Hamilton
Book: Mystery of the Bewitched Bookmobile, by Florence Parry Heide
Website: Floating Bookmobiles
Website: Camel bookmobiles - (scroll down the page a bit)
Website: Mule Bookmobiles

New Survey says . . .

A while back we conducted a survey concerning the Children's Department. It brought to light what users of the department liked and disliked, enjoyed and wanted more of, and what suggestions they had for us to improve the department. In previous posts I have discussed what we have done in response to the survey suggestions. It worked out so well, we have developed a similar one for the Adult Department.

You can find the survey link on the main page of our website or click here. It is only 10 questions, so I hope you will take a moment to give us your thoughts and ideas. Ask your family, friends, neighbors and coworkers to fill one out too - especially any that don't use the library. We want to hear from as many people as possible. We will have some paper copies for those of you that prefer the more traditional way to take a survey.

And as with the Children's Room survey, I will keep you posted on the results and what we will be doing to meet the ideas from the survey.

What's new for April

We are offering a variety of programs aimed at adults this month. That's something new for Kelley Library right there. We saw a need to expand programming at the library and thanks to Andy, our new Assistant Director, we are offering three.

Of course, we are offering the next in the KLAS series (thanks as always, Deb)on April 16th and this month's session is sure to be fascinating, building on the growing desire right now to eat local and homegrown. Liz Barbour from Creative Feast is presenting a program exploring cooking and gardening with herbs. I have had extensive personal experience with both these as my mother was a member of the Herb Society of America for years, has extensive herb gardens (outdoors in Maine and NJ, and in her greenhouse in NJ), lectured on the topic, edited the Herbarist, and used herbs in everything. I highly recommend your exploring this varied and fascinating topic. It can range from a plant or two on your kitchen windowsill to enhance your cooking to exploring your inner gardener and creativity with an herb garden.

On April, 22nd we are celebrating Earth Day with a panel of experts discussing alternative and green energy sources and practices. On hand will be Peter Rudd from Salem's Atlantic Biodiesel, Jack Lin from Woodlins Renewables also here in Salem, Jeff Goodman from the Wind Guys USA in Rye, and Howard Coffman of Fuel Cell Info Network in Nashua. We are lucky and honored to have these well-respected individuals on hand to help us all explore the future of alternative energy and to answer our questions. It is a timely topic - wind energy is being vigorously debated in NH right now. Alternative fuel is sure to be a part of our country's future, and here is the perfect opportunity to learn more about it all.

Rounding out the month, we are offering a Job Search Workshop on April, 23rd. Although New Hampshire has not been as hard hit by the recession/depression/bad times as other areas of the country (like our neighbors Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont), many are looking for jobs in this exceptionally difficult job market. Michael Markham of the Northern Essex Community College will be at Kelley Library to offer tips, guidance and insight into what employers are looking for in prospective employees.

Three remarkably different programs, yet similar in the end - helping us to understand the world around us, find new ways to live in these challenging and changing times, and ideas to challenge, inform and spark creativity. That's a library in a nutshell. A single source for a broad spectrum of information and resources to enhance your life.

Little herb gardens, by Georgeanne Brennan.
How to say it: job interviews, by Linda Matias.
Farewell my Subaru: an epic adventure in local living, by Doug Fine