The changes just keep coming

I have spoken here a few times about changes happening at the library. Each of these is intended to make your library experience easier, more enjoyable, or better. Our most recent change falls right in line.

You might have noticed that you now can take out more DVDs than before. When the DVD collection was first formed, it was small and DVDs were expensive, so the circulation period (back then it was 2 days) was set up to keep what DVDs we had coming back for circulation to the next person in line.

But times change, the collection grew and the cost of DVDs dropped, and we decided it was time to make some changes in how we handle circulating DVDs. The change highlight: you can take out as many as you want (TV series included) and keep them 2 weeks, renewable 3 times. If you are anything like me, you take those DVDs with every intention of watching them right away, and time just slips by. Before you know it a week has whizzed by and you haven't even taken them out of your bag! Now you can renew and get to them at your leisure. Anther thing that happens to me is I pick those 5, sure that the whole family will want to watch them, and you get them home and they just don't hit the spot. Now you can take more and be sure that something will be interesting.

Of course, the worse scenario was when you forgot about the DVD and now it has been more than a week and wow, those really high fines have kicked in The change bonus: fines now are down to just $.15 a day. Great news - right?

We did keep the limit of 5/check out for a week for our brand new DVDs. Those are in short supply and high demand and we still need to keep them coming in and out. But the fines are lower! Just $.50 a day now.

Speaking of the new movies. People are always asking me if we get new movies - believe it or not, we get them all - they are just always out. Consider putting a reserve on them. Not only will you be sure to get it, but it gives us some data to decide if we need to get additional copies to meet the demand. You will be helping everyone, you will be sure to get the movie pretty quickly and you will be sure to get that great film you have been waiting for since it was released.

Change - in this case we are all winners!

Book: 1001 movies you have to see before you die.
Music: Buffalo Springfield

Book sale revisited

I promised some updated pictures - and I finally have some:

As the sale started - here is the room with books for adults:










Here is the children's and audio-visual sale room:










We got browsers and buyers:










And how the storage area looked after the sale (please note no more stacks and stacks of boxes of books):

It's Pie!

There are a very few things that are considered the symbols of America's small town values and apple pie is right at the forefront. It's interesting that so many of these symbols are linked to this time of year: apples, baseball (especially the world series), football, Thanksgiving turkey, celebrations of the discovery of America and of the Veterans who have protected the American way of life over the centuries. I'm not sure why there is this cluster - maybe it is a natural result of the beauty of this time of year. How can you see the vivid colors of the fall and not feel again an appreciation of our country? And how better to celebrate that with a nice slice of apple pie? We are doing our part with a couple of great programs coming up.

Our Baked Bean Cook-Off was so much fun, we decided to try an Apple Pie Bake-Off. If you have a great recipe for apple pie, enter it for judging on Saturday, October 16th. You can enter a traditional apple pie or an anything but traditional pie. We are awarding ribbons and some nice prices with the judging being done by another fine panel of judges: Fire Chief Breen, Merri Carlson from the Pie Guy, food columnist Pat Altomare and staff members Natalie Ducharme and Audrey LaRoche. These judges will vote in the traditional and anything but traditional categories. There will also be a People's Choice award given. Stop by the Kelley Library for the rules for the Bake-Off and a registration form. You can also find these on our website.

So put your baking to the test and you might just be the Apple Pie King or Queen of Salem. Don't bake? Love to eat? Come by after 12:30 on Saturday and taste all the entries and select your favorite.

Drop by Thursday night, October 14th, for a tasty program featuring Sam from Apple Acres. Sam will be telling us all everything about apples, and of course, there will be some sampling of the great apples from this local orchard.

Book: Pie: 300 tried-and-true recipes for delicious homemade pie, by Ken Haedrich
Book: Stand for something, by John Kasich
Book: The book of new family traditions, by Meg Cox

Annual Book Sale

Our big Annual Book Sale is this weekend as part of the community's SalemFest event. Every year I wonder if we will have enough to make it a big sale, and each year I walk into the room where we store the sale books and am amazed at the generosity of our community. Do we have books to sell!











This is an important fundraiser for us as the money raised through our book sale - annual and daily - provide the total funding for our Summer Reading Club, all our programming throughout the year, incidentals like software and signs. So every purchase of a book gets cycled right back to our service to the community.

I will post additional photos as we set up for the sale, during and after the event.

Information is light

I recently came across this quote by Tom Stoppard: "Information is light. Information in itself, about anything, is light". I didn't find the context, so I am not sure how Mr. Stoppard intended it to mean, but I immediately flashed (if you will excuse the pun) onto the cartoon staple of a light bulb over a character's head - enlightenment, understanding, ideas. I certainly think that the library is responsible for a great deal of light in people's lives. It is an extremely rare book, piece of music or film that doesn't shed a bit of light on the human condition, a bit of understanding about our neighbors, insights into ideas. It is that Aha moment, that moment where you say to yourself while reading, "Oh I didn't know that". Light shining on life is key to understanding.

Light shining is key to seeing in a more mundane way as well. Thanks to the Kelley Library Board of Trustees, there is more and better light shining in the Children's Department. Long a place of bright spots and dim spaces, the light now is brighter without being squint bright, and dispersed throughout shedding light on books long lost in the shadows. Who knows what insights, ideas and understanding will be result from some good lighting? And where better to start than with our children?

Stop in and catch some light.

Book: The dog it was that died, and other plays, by Tom Stoppard
Book: Complete lighting design, a practical design for perfect lighting, by Marilyn Zelinsky
Book: Against the machine: being human in the age of the electronic mob, by Lee Siegel
Book: Seeking enlightenment - hat by hat, by Nevada Barr

Have you met Cathy?

Cathy is another 'recent' addition to the staff, having been with the Library about 5 years now. She hails from Rhode Island and got into the library field by way of teaching and working with special needs children. Being the youngest on the staff at the time, she was called to work with the teens and preteens when we decided to ramp up our services to this age group. But most of the time, Cathy can be found in the children's room, ready to help kids of all ages find just what they want - and often something they didn't realize they wanted until they dipped into the book.

Like so many of the people who work here at Kelley, Cathy has a fun sense of humor. However, she takes her job very seriously, carefully considering all the factors when planning a program, selecting materials, and everything else that comes her way. She has an easy manner with everyone who uses the children's room, and is sincerely concerned about the children who come in.

I asked her the famous 5 questions:

1. When I am not at the library, you can find me: In Rhode Island, visiting my family.
2. Describe your perfect day: On the beach, reading a book, followed by a nice dinner and then somewhere afterwards, like a play or Cirq du Soleil.
3. If you had to live somewhere else than NH, where would it be? I want to travel, but I would start with Ireland.
4. What 3 things can you always find in your fridge? Ice cream, salad mix, and turkey.
5. You would be surprised to find out that I: was a party girl in college.

Cathy is all grown up now, and is a very caring person with children. She's another person that makes the staff here so special.

What are those arrows for?

Have you noticed those bright pink arrows that have appeared recently on our website? They look like this:




They are much smaller on the webpage of course, but perhaps you have seen them. We introduced the pink arrow as an indicator for further information. Just click on the arrow and it will lead you to something relevant to the topic.

Right now we are using the pink arrow to lead you to some books and other materials that we think will be of interest to you. These titles are selected by the Kelley Library staff and are chosen to expand on the topic of an upcoming program or provide suggestions for books that are similar in theme or style to the books being read in our various book groups.

But it doesn't stop there. Once you click, check out the various menu entries on the left. This provides you with a wide range of suggested reading, new publications, newsletters that you can sign up for that will come to your email regularly with additional recommendations. There is an Author A-Z that gives a very nice overview of a ton of popular authors.

And the best part? Each of these additional pages includes a Check Our Catalog link and takes you right to our catalog for you to reserve the title you are interested in. If what you are looking for isn't there, let us know and we will be sure to get it for you - just call, stop in, or email us (our addresses are here). Oh and be sure to keep clicking the pink arrow - you never know what treasures or treats it will lead you to.

Book: The Joy of Geocaching, by Paul Gillin
Book: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, edited by Peter Boxall.