The Library Will Be Closed This Weekend

The Library will be closed Sat. Aug. 31 through Monday, Sept. 2 for the Labor Day weekend.  Last chance to finish your summer reading! 
 

Full-day Saturdays (9-5) and Saturday matinees (2pm) start on Sept. 7. See movie schedule here: http://library.dover.nh.gov/movies.htm

Dover Public Library Book Group

The Dover Public Library is starting a new book group for all interested readers.  The group will meet the third Monday evening of each month, starting in September.  If you are interested in participating, join us in the Trustees Room on Monday, September 16 at 6:30pm to discuss “The Age of Miracles” by Karen Thompson Walker.  In this novel, Earth’s rotation has begun to slow, and days and nights are growing longer and longer. More ominously, people start getting sick and acting out. Crops begin to fail, the oceans rise and flood waterfront homes, and food and water are hoarded. There is talk about the end of the world. The story of this unfolding catastrophe is told from the perspective of 12-year-old Julia. Her voice and her struggles make this coming-of-age story into a hauntingly moving tale that blends the real and surreal, the ordinary and the extraordinary with stunning results. The library has 15 copies of the book ready for borrowing (including one large print edition) so get your copy soon! “The Age of Miracles” is also available on audio CD, or patrons may borrow it through the NH Downloadable Books Consortium as a audiobook or eBook download through the library’s website http://library.dover.nh.gov.

      In October, the book group will be reading Maria Semple’s hilarious “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”, a Dover Library staff favorite.  From that point on, the members of the book group then will suggest titles for future meetings and the group will make collaborative choices for reading in 2014. For more information, call Denise LaFrance at 603-516-6082.

Dog Lovers, Don't Miss These Terrific Books!

I read two wonderful books about dogs lately, the best I have come across in years. The first is The Possibility Dogs: what a handful of "unadoptables" taught me about service, hope and healing by Susannah Charleson. The very first chapter made me tear up several times reading about the deep connection between an injured firefighter and the dog that helps him with his Post Traumatic stress disorder. The book revolves around the author's search though jam packed shelters for dogs that have the abilities necessary to become an assistance dog, in particular a psychiatric service dog. Will a starved and abandoned pit bull puppy be a worthy candidate? Charleson's previous book about training a Golden Retriever puppy to become a Search and Rescue dog, Scent of the Missing, is also an excellent read. This book left me wondering if people are rescuing dogs, or are dogs rescuing us? 

The second book is Dogtripping: 25 Rescues, 11 Volunteers, and 3 RVs on Our Canine Cross-Country Adventure by David Rosenfelt. Yes, that Rosenfelt, the mystery author. Apparently he and his wife were so enamored of their first Golden Retriever, (well really, who could blame them?) that they started rescuing Goldens from crowded Los Angeles shelters. His wife is such a soft touch that she starting bringing home any dog that was soon to be euthanized, regardless of its breed. This led to the Rosenfelt's having 26 dogs in a typical suburban house, a situation the neighbors were not pleased about. They decided to build a house in the wilds of Maine where they and their 26 dogs could live undisturbed. This led to an epic voyage across the country in the aforementioned RVs. There is plenty of humor in the book, and stories of the move are interspersed with short chapters describing the dogs, and their stories. It was hard to set this one down!

Hear Beethoven August 20 at our Family-Friendly Classical Music Concert!

On Tuesday evening, August 20 at 6:30pm, the Dover Public Library will host the fourth in a series of free classical music concerts for families, featuring live performances of well-known musical masterpieces. This month’s concert will feature some familiar works by the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770—1827). Music to be performed by tenor Andrew Sokol, violinist Sally Wituszynski, and pianist Naho Bessho   will include “Adelaide”, “Für Elise”, the piano sonata known as “Appassionata” and the violin sonata “Spring”.  The concert’s length is just 40-45 minutes, so that children may attend and enjoy the music too. The performers’ goal is to encourage classical music appreciation among all ages.

Andrew Sokol  graduated from UNH, where he studied under Dr. Jenni Cook and received his Bachelor of  Arts in Music Performance.  Andrew has been an active performer both onstage and in concert throughout New Hampshire and beyond, and has given performances in the US, Canada, and the Czech Republic. He will be a featured artist in the St. John’s “Concerts On The Hill” series, where he will be performing two concerts of English Art Song this fall.

    Sally Wituszynski earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Viola Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music,  where she studied with Heidi Castleman and Marcus Thompson. She has also completed a Master’s degree in Music Education from UNH. Sally has played in many ensembles, including the Vermont Symphony, the Hanover Handel Society, the Granite State Symphony, and the New Hampshire Philharmonic, and she is an active freelance performer throughout New England. Next season she will be the principal violist for the Lakes Region Symphony Orchestra. She recently completed her twentieth year as Berwick Academy’s Orchestra Director. Sally currently teaches strings at Berwick Academy, Tri-City Christian Academy, and at her home studio, and she is the Master Teacher for the UNH String Project. She lives in Somersworth, NH.

   Naho Bessho, concert organizer, was born in Japan and is now a concert pianist in Dover. At age 19 she won the highest award at the Japan Classical Music Competition. She graduated from Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music with a Master of Music degree.  She has played with Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland, and in 2001 won 2nd prize at Yangtze-River-Cup International Competition in Osaka. She came to the US in 2002, graduating from Boston University with a Performance Diploma in 2006. She has given many piano recitals throughout New England. In 2010, she released her first CD, "Invitation", and this April she released her second CD “Spianato”.  She gives private lessons in Dover, NH.

       Please join us at the Dover Public Library for this wonderful opportunity to enjoy, listen, and learn more about classical music! For further information, call the library at 603-516-6050.

Thank you Mr. Carnegie

There is a very interesting article on the NPR web site about Andrew Carnegie "Turning His Fortune into a Library Legacy."  The Dover Public Library was lucky enough to be one of the the 1,689 libraries that Mr. Carnegie helped to fund. The following is from the history of the Dover Public Library section of our web site.
"Librarians, citizens, and trustees recognized the need for a separate building as the Library continued to grow. These interested people appealed to philanthropist Andrew Carnegie for funds to construct a new facility. Mr. Carnegie responded with this offer, "If the City of Dover pledges itself by resolutions of councils to support a free library at a cost of not less than $3000 a year, and provide a suitable site, I would be pleased to furnish $30,000 for the erection of a free public library building."  The building was completed in June 1905 at a cost of $29,675. Shelving, furniture and architects fees added an additional $9500 to the final price. The building, housing 33,000 volumes, was formally dedicated on July 19, 1905 with a speech by the Mayor and delivery of keys to the chairman of the building committee."

Say hello to "Koha"!

On Monday, August 26, the Library will be “going live” with “Koha”, our new Dovernet Integrated Library System. Dovernet comprises the public library and the five Dover public school libraries, and we’ve shared a library system since 1995. Koha will be the newest iteration of that long-standing and rewarding partnership.

For you, our customers, the major change you will see will be in the appearance of the online catalog. Your library card will still work to check out and to place holds:  no re-registration is necessary. (And yes, the fines you owed in the old system will also carry over to the new! Sorry!)

Koha is an open-source ILS (Integrated Library System) hosted by ByWater Solutions on their secure servers in the virtual networking “cloud”.  There will be no servers on site at our library, saving us considerable purchasing costs. Regular maintenance, daily back-ups, software updates, and OS upgrades will be handled remotely and automatically, saving system administration time formerly spent on handling these tasks on site. Be assured that your own personal information is held very securely behind data encrypted transmissions, firewall and VPN protections, safeguarded logins, and physical security at the host site.

As always with change, there will be a learning curve for all of us. We do ask for your patience for a few weeks as we get accustomed to the new system ourselves! Over the coming months, we will be working hard to further customize the Koha “look” and “UX” (library lingo for “user experience”) and implement new features so that you will get the fastest, easiest, most user-friendly access to our materials and resources whether you’re searching from a computer , a cell phone or your mobile device. 

Koha originated in New Zealand and is a Maori word that stands for “a gift that comes with expectations”. We hope we can exceed your expectations as our new open-source library system matures and progresses!  Be sure to give us your input and suggestions!