The Food-Fine-Forgive Connection

This is the week of the Norwich Lions' food drive on behalf of the Haven, and NPL is playing a modest role as drop-off point for contributions of comestibles.

We're kicking up our commitment to the drive with this offer: in return for an item of food from the Lions' recommended list, we'll waive a fine on an individual item.

What items are recommended? Juices top the list as most-needed. Also on the list:
cereal
jelly
pasta
Mac&Cheese
rice side dishes
canned fruit
canned vegetables
baked beans
canned beef stew
canned chili
peanut butter
instant mashed potatoes
tuna
canned tomatoes
baking mixes
baby formula

So drop by with your items. The donation box is set up by the circulation desk. Give us a heads-up, and we'll remove a fine on an item for you. Bring in two recommended items, and we'll remove two fines, three and we'll remove three fines, and so on.

Thanks in advance. In these times your generosity is especially appreciated.

The New Year's Must-Have Accessory

It's great to have a secret pal, especially one with special powers.

Ours has the power to send sweet-faced people bearing tidy little sums of money into the library.

The Norwitch, as s/he signs on the local list serve, has launched a campaign of unity and good will that includes the library. Request one of the keen bumper stickers, and the Norwitch will slip over to the main post office at White River Junction, someone told me, the better to keep his/her identity secret. The request? Walk into the library and give 'em five bucks for each sticker.

We have nothing to do with the production and distribution of the sticker, but we seem to be beneficiaries. How nice is that?

And so this week we have have the pleasure of a variety of patrons walking up to the Circulation Desk, bearing the cash that corresponds to the number of bumper stickers sent their way.

The Norwitch is a sort of post-holiday Secret Angel. Someone out in the vast tracts of Norwich's lovely and lively acres has figured out a way to bring a smile to our little librarians' lips.

Who is our benefactor? It's as much fun to guess as it is not to know. After all, not knowing makes everyone a potential library supporter. I do have my suspicions, but they are all I have.

The generosity of the Norwitch and the willingness of holders of the bumper sticker to carry the kindness forward certainly send us into 2010 with a spring in our step.

Just another reason that this non-resident holds this community close to her heart.

A One-of-a-Kind Gift

At the risk of sounding a little "too, too--" I have to say that for those of us of modest means, it's a challenge to find a one-of-a-kind gift for a special someone.

Here's a great opportunity for the bookish person in your life: the raffling off of an altered book in the form of a handbag.

Nothing says Christmas like Dickens, and here he is in a stylish purse, ready to make any number of fashion statements. Dickens, of course, made many statements, fashionable and otherwise, in the course of his rich, creative life.

This little number will be raffled off tonight at Norwich Night, that frisky celebration of the frolics and foibles of one of the Upper Valley's most interesting towns.

Chances are a dollar apiece, or 6 for five dollars.

Who will win this wonderful bag?

Book Bags at Last!

They've been a long time coming--book bags to serve the needs of local reading clubs.

It's as I told the Mascoma Foundation when I wrote the original grant application: members of a book club adopt a title for reading and discussion, then they fan out to their library, hoping to be among the first to check it out. A hold queue forms, with six-seven members, all waiting for their turn at the book. Patrons who are waiting then wonder whether they will attend their next meeting with the book unread.


We haven't been the first to identify and tackle this community need: the Howe Library in Hanover deserves that credit. Their Books To Go program is the inspiration for ours. Our more modest effort is launching with several initial offerings, with more to come, thanks to the Mascoma Foundation and NPL's own Friends of the Library.

Our book bags come with discussion and resource guides. Our bag for Loving Frank includes a set of discussion questions and a resource guide of homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Our bag for the Geography of Bliss has lots of fun material from the International Center for the Study of Happiness in the Netherlands on how one determines one's level of happiness--on a national level!

Other bags include one on Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick (just in time to revisit the first Thanksgiving) and The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz, last year's Pulitzer Prize winner.

At your next book club meeting, share this information with your members, and then see if 10 copies of a book, plus a discussion guide and resource materials won't increase the enjoyment and decrease the logistical headaches of your next get-together.

P.S.: We're planning to increase our book bag collection and welcome your suggestions.

Reveling in Story Time

One our regulars came in today, and leaned forward. "What are all the cars doing here?" she whispered. "What's going on?"

It didn't seem like such a deal to me, but I'm used to Fridays. "It's Lunch at the Library," I said. "Story time and a craft."

Children's librarian Beth Reynolds really packs them in.

You can count on a cluster of topic-related children's books and a craft to follow, once your bag lunch is consumed. Participants have made everything from paper flowers to bats to donuts. Lunch at the Library is best suited to children between 3 and 6 years old.

For the younger set (infants to age 3), there's Word Play. That's on Wednesday mornings at 10:30. As I sit and type the songs rise from the Community Room and bless this space. Beth offers stories and songs and other forms of word play for developing little talkers. Recently they've also had a chance to offer sneak previews of their Halloween costumes.

Working in a library has no shortage of pleasurable moments--delightful patrons, fascinating volunteers, amiable colleagues, numerous books. But for jaw-dropping awww, nothing beats the children coming in and out for story time.

In the Mood to Circulate? We need you at the desk.

The seasons change. Volunteers come, some of them go.

Repetition is the rhythm of the universe.

At NPL we find ourselves at a crossroads of sorts. We've lost a couple of Saturday volunteers and are in the market for new people to staff the circulation desk.

What's involved? For most people one Saturday (or fraction thereof) per month. Our Saturday hours are 10-3. Some volunteers split Saturdays, one working 10-12:30, the other taking the 12:30-3 shift.

For October we're covered, but come November, we're going to need some new (fill in the blank--talent? blood? energy?)--all of the above.

Give us a call at 649-1184 if you can help out. To work at the desk you should not get a case of the vapors from being around computers. (We can otherwise train you). You should like people and present a friendly face to the world.

It's actually a lot of fun, according to our volunteers. You see the people you know (in Norwich, a generally delightful experience), get sneak previews of our latest books, CDs, and DVDs, are in on the scuttlebutt of our current programs, activities, and general mischief. We work hard, but we do laugh a lot here. In addition, we ply you with your choice of freshly brewed coffee or tea. You, in turn, develop a sense of indispensability, for volunteers are the life blood of this library.

Interested? Call Stephanie Smith at 649-1184. She will thank you kindly.

Calling All Artists, Young and Old(er)

NPL is in search of a few good library cards.

Okay-- that statement doesn't exactly conjure up images of Tom Cruise throwing out his chest, resplendent in uniform, but the sentiment remains true.

As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of NPL's expansion, we find ourselves in our usual state of growth. That's what working with the L-Team of Lucinda and Lisa brings: lots of learning--these women have definite pioneer tendencies. NPL is the first library in the state to go over to the state-of-the-art web-based Koha software, the benefits of which I will extol in a future blog. For now, suffice it to say that this milestone calls for another creative effort from our amazing community.

So it is that NPL launches its library card design contest. Shiny new software fairly begs for a great new card, or two.

The contest calls for two new cards: a Youth card (to age 15), and an Adult card (ages 16 and over).

Deadline for submissions is September 1. Entries will be displayed at our Tenth Anniversary Party September 12, and the public will have a chance to vote on the entries till October 1.

We're hoping for lots of entries. Guidelines are available at the circulation desk.

Please take your best shot at a modest form of immortality and think about how the phrase "My Library" resonates for you.