What is all that construction next door?

The large brick building to the right of the Library started out as a High School, become a Junior High School, then a Middle School. It is entering a new phase now. The building has been renamed the McConnell Center and it will serve as a Community Center, where various human service agencies and non-profits will be housed under one roof. Part of the building will be ready in July for occupancy by the Recreation Department and Dover Adult Learning Center. The rest of the project will be ready in the fall.

Before all this happens, the old building must be brought up to code. Plumbing and electrical lines must be replaced or updated, a sprinkler system is being added as well as two new elevators. In addition, water and sewer connections to the McConnell Center and the Library are being upgraded and repaired. Crews will also regrade and repave the driveway entrance to the parking lot, making it wider and safer.

Blueprints for the interior of the building are available for viewing in the Reference Department.

Library Budget FY2007

At Saturday's budget workshop at City Hall on May 22, the Dover City Council tentatively voted to cut the library's proposed FY'07 city appropriation by $25,000. Effects of this further reduction, on top of $17, 294 in cuts made by the City Manager, will affect library staffing and programming. Under consideration are: closing the library one morning per week (which would include elimination of one storyhour session) or the loss of part-time staffing totaling 18.5 hours weekly. The book budget would be level-funded (no increase) and all programming beyond our regular schedule of children's story hours and a basic "no frills" Summer Reading Program would cease. There would be no funds for craft supplies or craft clubs, no reading or book clubs, no school vacation week programs, no automatic holds program, no library newsletter, no film showings, and no public "courtesy" phone.

2006 Award Winning Audiobooks

Announcing the 2006 Winners of the Audies, the award presented by the Audio Publishers Association for excellence in audio publishing.

Audiobook of the Year
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Tertiary Phase by Douglas Adams
(Dover Public Library owns this)

Fiction, Abridged
Q&A by Vikas Swarup

Fiction, Unabridged
A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin
(Dover Public Library owns this)

Nonfiction, Abridged
Luckiest Man by Jonathan Eig

Nonfiction, Unabridged
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
(Dover Public Library owns this)

Biography/Memoir
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
(Dover Public Library owns this)

Humor
The Truth (With Jokes) by Al Franken
(Dover Public Library owns this)

Click here for a complete list (PDF file)

Evening of Poetry a success!

Last night was the library's 4th annual Evening of Poetry and over 100 people were on hand to enjoy the festivities. Approximately 30 young poets shared their work. The library would like to thank our five poetry judges who spent hours reading and re-reading every poem before making their difficult decisions. The judges were Janice Alberghene, John Michael Albert, Maria Faskianos, Joseph Nadeau, and Marsha Pelletier.

Save Your Flood Damaged Books and Photographs

If your books or family photographs were soaked during the recent flooding, you may find these web sites helpful:

Saving Family Treasures

Emergency Salvage of Wet Books and Records

Emergency Salvage of Wet Photographs

Memorial Day Weekend Hours

The Library will be open Saturday, May 27 from 9 to 5. We will be closed Sunday and Monday.

New DPL Canvas Tote - $15

Just in time for that first trip to the beach the Friends of the Dover Library have a brand new book bag for sale. Reminiscent of a popular "boating bag" our large green and white canvas tote features an inside zippered compartment for valuables as well as a top zipper to keep out the elements AND an outside pocket for those all important lists of "books to read." At $15 our tote is a great bargain and benefits a great cause, your library.

An Evening of Poetry

Tuesday, May 23rd at 6:30
All students who participated in the Library’s 4th Annual Poetry Contest, for grades K-12, are invited to come and share their work at our Evening of Poetry. The general public is encouraged to come and enjoy the readings.

Poetry Contest Winners Announced

Dover Public Library’s

4th Annual Poetry Contest

The Dover Public Library would like to announce the winners of our 4th Annual Poetry Contest. Over 600 entries were received and we would like to congratulate all who entered. We would like to thank our judges: Janice Alberghene, John Michael Albert, Maria Faskianos, Joseph Nadeau, and Marsha Pelletier.

Category 1:

1^st Place: Spencer Wirth, Grade 2, Portsmouth Christian Academy

2^nd Place: Kieran Lombard, Grade 2, Horne Street School

3^rd Place: Camden Patten, Grade 1, Saint Mary Academy

Honorable Mention: Adam Slater, Grade K, Horne St. School (tie)

Ellen Blezinsky, Grade 1, Horne St. School (tie)

Category 2:

1^st Place: Erin Robert, Grade 4, Saint Mary Academy

2^nd Place: Samantha deJong, Grade 4, Woodman Park School

3^rd Place: Emily Wynne, Grade 4, North Hampton School

Honorable Mention: Annie Batchelder, Grade 3, Garrison School

Category 3:

1^st Place: Myles Chalue, Grade 6, Dover Middle School

2^nd Place: Eric Wilson, Grade 5, Saint Mary Academy

3^rd Place: David Lombardi, Grade 6, Dover Middle School

Honorable Mention: Robert Valarese, Grade 6, Dover Middle School

Category 4:

1^st Place: Jillian Niler, Grade 8, Dover Middle School

2^nd Place: Hannah Allen, Grade 8, Oyster River Middle School

3^rd Place: Jasmine Zhou, Grade 8, Dover Middle School

Honorable Mention: Marena Hoogeveen, Grade 8, Dover Middle School (tie)

Kenny Lavallee, Grade 8, Dover Middle School (tie)

Category 5:

1^st Place: Alycia Schramm, Grade 9, Portsmouth Christian Academy

2^nd Place: Timothy Cilley II, Grade 10, Saint Thomas Aquinas

3^rd Place: Julia Huggins, Grade 9, Dover High School

Honorable Mention: Sara Smith, Grade 10, Dover High School

Molly Hearn, Grade 10, Cocheco Arts & Technology Academy

Category 6:

1^st Place: Abigail Thornton, Grade 12, Portsmouth Christian Academy

2nd Place: Samantha Lee, Grade 11, Dover High School

3^rd Place: Brittany Taylor, Grade 11, Portsmouth Christian Academy

Honorable Mention: Nicole Loring, Grade 11, Dover High School

Matt LeMoyne, Grade 12, Dover High School

Da Vinci Code Readalikes

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown was the second most popular fiction book in the Library last month. This month is following the same trend with all of the Library's many copies checked out. If you have read the book, seen the movie, and still want more; pick up our If You Liked the Da Vinci Code bookmark here at the Library. Some of the recommended titles include
The Amber Room by Steve Berry, The Confessor by Daniel Silva, The Eight by Katherine Neville and An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears. You can also look under the Readers' Choices tab in the online catalog then choose New Items & Suggestions to get the complete list without visiting the Library.

The Normal Rockwell Code

A famous museum... a shocking murder... a distinguished symbologist... an alluring cryptologist... secrets written in code.
No, it's not that "other" story. Inspired by The Da Vinci Code, local attorney Alfred Thomas Catalfo created a 35 minute film parody. The trailer for the film is garnishing quite a bit of attention, it will even be featured on the ABC World News Tonight this Thursday. If you don't see it on the News tonight, you can watch it on the internet.

2006 "Pre-school Education in Dover" is now available

PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION IN DOVER is an alphabetical listing of those nursery schools and kindergartens whose directors have provided us with information about their schools. In April 1977 when the staff of the Dover Public Library's Children's Room started to create a list of area preschools, we were pleasantly surprised by the abundance of valuable information we received in response to our questionnaire. We decided not to try to condense or edit replies, but to include them, as written, in a booklet. The "Pre-school Education in Dover" booklet is updated yearly and nine copies are made available for borrowing.

The 2006 updated "Pre-school Education in Dover" booklet is now available for downloading (PDF format):

Wireless just got easier!

The Library has installed 6 new outlets in the Addition to make life easier for our laptop WiFi users. Each is conveniently located by a study carrel.

Kiwi-Limey Pie has been cancelled

The Friends of the Library presentation of Kiwi-Limey Pie: Or, a mixture of impressions on a visit to New Zealand by Sheila Bolsover has been cancelled and will not be rescheduled. The lecture was to have taken place Wednesday, May 17tth.

Factory on Fire Reading List

If you are planning on attending “Factory on Fire” with your family, you may want to look at the reading list the Children’s Room has created. You will find many intriguing books on what life was like for young girls in who worked in the mills.

The Library also has scanned many historical photographs of the Dover mills, as well as the fire that will be depicted in “Factory on Fire”. http://images.dover.lib.nh.us/mills.htm If you would like to know the history of the Dover mills, the famous strike of the mill girls, and the fire, take a look at http://www.dover.lib.nh.us/DoverHistory/cityof.htm

For those of you who don’t know, “Factory on Fire! The Cocheco Mill Blaze of 1907 Revealed” is a historic reenactment of Dover’s disastrous mill fire of January 26, 1907 and the court trial that followed. It is an event not to be missed!

Flume Award 2007 Nominees

The Flume: NH Teen Reader's Choice Award Committee has announced its 2007 Nominees. This award is for teens in grades 9 -12, and voting will take place in April of 2007.

Tithe by Holly Black
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Haunted by Meg Cabot
The Truth About Forever by Sara Dessen
Powder Monkey by Paul Dowswell
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Geography Club by Brent Hartinger
Velocity by Dean Koontz
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon
The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp by Rick Yancey
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Readers' Choices

Just added to our booklists posted for your enjoyment: "tales from the harem" and "post apocalyptic fiction". Simply click on the linked title of this post which will take you to our reading suggestions in more than 15 categories.

Aeon Flux at the Library this Saturday

Saturday is going to be wet and dreary, why not come to your warm library and enjoy a free movie? Aeon Flux is being shown in the Lecture Hall at 2pm. Aeon Flux, starring Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand, takes place 400 years in the future. Earth's population has been decimated by a mysterious virus; all the survivors now live in a walled city in the middle of the jungle. Citizens keep vanishing while the tyrannical government insists all is well. Aeon Flux belongs to a group of rebels seeking to overthrow the government. When she is sent to assassinate the leader, many mysteries come to light.

Display your art at the Library

If you live in the area and would like to display your artwork, whether as a professional or amateur, please consider exhibiting at the library. We offer display space on a monthly basis, free of charge. You can choose to sell your work or just to exhibit. We ask that you reserve ahead of time, and that you hang your own collection. Currently we are in need of exhibitors for June, July, and/or August.
Contact the main desk at 516-6050.

Seacoast Jazz Society Lecture

The Seacoast Jazz Society 2006 Lecture Series continues this Tuesday night, May 9th, at the DPL. Jazz journalist Len Weinstock will trace the origins of jazz during the formative years of the late 19th and early 2oth centuries. The lecture is free and will be held in the Library Lecture Hall beginning at 7:30pm. Following the lecture there will be free refreshments and a chance to talk with the speaker and other jazz afficianados. If you love jazz, love to listen to jazz, and love to talk about jazz, the Library is the place to be this Tuesday night!

New magazines available!

The Library has started receiving several new magazines recently:

AMC Outdoors
Betty Crocker Recipe Magazine
Boston Common
Cruise Travel
Domino
Everyday with Rachel Ray
Islands
Make- Technology on your time
Mental Floss
Old House Journal’s New Old House
Portland Magazine
Readymade
Wizard Magazine

Bags & Boxes of BOOKS FOR $1

Beginning Friday morning at 9 am, the books left from the mini sale this week are only $1 a bagful or boxful. The "all-for-a-dollar" sale will continue on Saturday and Sunday. The library is open Friday until 5:30, Saturday 9-5, and Sunday 1-5.

The Opal Mehta controversy

I happened to be in the middle of reading "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" by Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan just when the news hit that many passages had been plagiarized from other recent novels. I hadn't read the others so the book felt fresh to me. However, it never should have been marketed as an adult novel: it's aYA book, through and through. Perfect for high school girls, but a bit cartoonish and name-dropping for my tastes. Now it sounds like Kaavya got caught up in a publishing whirlwind with Alloy Entertainment which co-holds the book's copyright and is in the business of "packaging" teen novels. I wonder just how much writing Katya did and how much was done by committee...a committee which may have pilfered similar words and ideas from other popular Young Adult novelists' works. So if you're an adult who's put this book on hold, just be aware that you may be disappointed in the fluffiness of it all. And since the book is being pulled from bookstore shelves and won't be re-issued, I wonder if libraries' copies will become collector's items or go for big bucks on eBay?

Gardening Know-It-Alls

We have so many new gardening books at the library there is no excuse for a sorry looking yard. The Best Garden Plants for New England by Thomas Mickey and Alison Beck and the New England Gardening Almanac from the Boston Globe's garden columnist Carol Stocker will help you choose plants that can survive the unpredictable New Hampshire weather. Making the Most of Shade by Larry Hodgson will show you how to have a nice garden even if your home is in a wooded area. If your yard is in need of an extreme makeover you might try Instant Gardens: high impact makeovers that look great now! Check out our Know and Grow display and find the answers to all your gardening questions. Soon your yard will be the talk of the neighborhood but in a good way.

Booksale

The Spring mini sale continues today with prices drastically reduced! Lots of books left priced from 10 cents to $1.00.

Flume: NH Teen Readers' Choice Award winner chosen

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is the winner for the first ever Flume: NH Teen Readers' Choice Award! The Da Vinci Code received the most votes from NH teens around the state. Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper and Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time placed second and third in the vote tally.

Click here for Oscar nominated DVDs at the Library!

Have you caught up on all the Academy Award winning films yet? Many of them are available on DVD at the Library. Some of the films the Library owns are Crash, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Junebug. You can check out three DVDs for up to two weeks.

You may also want to look at the lists of Sundance Film Festival and Golden Globe nominated films.

Classic Rock albums for sale at the book sale!

We have classic rock albums, from Chuck Berry to Blondie and U2 available for sale very reasonably at our first ever Spring book sale.

We also have copies of recent books in excellent condition for sale. Prepare for your summer vacation by getting a stack of great books to read!

Dover Public Library Photograph

The Library is a 100 year old Carnegie Library.

Most popular fiction books at the Library in April were:
1 At First Sight by Elizabeth Chandler
2 Blue Smoke by Norah Roberts
3 The House by Danielle Steel
4 A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve
5 The Camel Club by David Baldacci
6 Just Rewards byBarbara Taylor Bradford
7 Chill Factor by Sandra Brown
8 No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark
9 Sweetwater Creek by Anne Rivers Siddons
10 True Believer by Nicholas Sparks