Trick or Treat

If you're out "trick or treating" on Monday night, Oct. 30, stop in and show us your costume. Staff at the adult circulation desk will have treats for your goodie bags!

BOOKSALE

Helpers of all ages were setting up for the Library's big FALL BOOKSALE this week. The sale starts Saturday, October 28, at 9am for Dover Public Library cardholders only. The general public is welcome Sunday, October 29 at 1pm. There will be thousands of hardcover books, paperbacks, and AV materials for children and adults available with prices ranging from 50 cents to $2. In addition, these prices are reduced every few days. The sale continues through Sunday, November 12.

OverDrive is Not Just for Adults

By now you have probably heard that the library has access to OverDrive, a service that allows our patrons to download audio books to an MP3 player for free. But did you know this service is not just for adults? There are plenty of titles of interest to teens such as Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, Maximum Ride by James Patterson, Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot (as well as other titles by Meg), and Eragon by Chris Paolini. Listening to a book, even if you have already read the book, can be fun. A good reader can bring characters to life and make you look at the book in a new light. Give it a try; go to the library's web site and click on "Download Audio Books".

When Dover had the Flu

In 1918 Dover experienced the horrors of the Spanish Influenza epidemic. Over 2000 people were sick, a fairly significant figure when you consider the population was only 13,000. Wentworth Hospital was full to capacity. There weren't enough doctors and nurses to provide medical care, and no cure for the illness. In many households entire families lay sick in bed, untreated. Undertakers were swamped also, as deaths occurred hourly. It is a frightening glimpse at what can happen when disease overwhelms a small American town.

Friends of the Library Lecture

John Olszewski lecturing on "Imprisoned Artists", on Wed., Oct. 18 at 7:00pm, in the Dover Public Library Lecture Hall.

Take a fascinating and psychological look at the artwork of infamous convicted murderers drawn right from the news headlines. Criminal justice lecturer John Olszewski will be exhibiting art he has collected from personal interviews with murderers, and discussing the backgrounds of these individuals behind the art. Click here to see a complete listing of Friends of the Library events.

Downloading Audio Books Just Got Easier!

A new OverDrive console is available that will allow you to transfer audio books from the console directly to your MP3 player! No need to go through Window Media Player anymore. Go to the NH Downloadable Audio Books software page and click on the blue button that says OverDrive Media Console V 2.1. It will download the software right over the older version. Any books that you have on the old version will stay there. It's easy to install, and even easier to put books on your MP3 player.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

The pounding of the rain and the distant rumble of thunder on a dark October night got me thinking about one of the most terrifying books I have ever read. I read Richard Matheson's Hell House years ago and I can still remember the sensation of the hair lifting off the back of my neck as I read it. It was that scary. Hell House is a mansion haunted by an evil, sadistic spirit and the souls of others he tormented. Any attempts to explore Hell House have led to murder, suicide or insanity. A physicist, his wife, a psychic, and a previous survivor of Hell House are hired by a dying millionaire to investigate the mysteries of Hell House, regarded as the "Everest of haunted houses"and to determine whether there is life after death. It will frighten you with psychological suspense, not blood and gore. Are you brave enough to dare the horrors of Hell House?

The Trouble With Harry

This beautiful autumn weekend reminded me of one of Alfred Hitchcock's more charming movies. The Trouble with Harry takes place in a lovely little New England town during the height of the foliage season. This black comedy revolves around the trouble with Harry, which is that he is dead. Half the town seems to think they are responsible for his death; they take turns burying, digging up, and moving poor Harry. Shirley MacLaine makes her film debut as a pert young woman who has many rapid fire humorous exchanges with John Forsythe, Jerry Mathers, (AKA the Beaver) is her funny little boy, and Mildred Natwick and Edmund Gwen are a hoot as the elderly lovers. It's not the usual Alfred Hitchcock film, but this unusual little gem should not be missed. Make sure to place a reserve on this DVD!

Curious George is receiving a lot of attention lately!

We have a new, animated movie about a rather curious monkey showing Sat., Oct. 7, at 2:00pm in the Library Lecture Hall. If you are curious, come and see it!

The Curious George books have sold millions of copies, and yet for the war-time escape of the authors, H.A. and Margret Rey, the story of the adventurous monkey might never have been. This dramatic story is revealed in the book; The Journey that Saved Curious George: the True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey, written by Louise Borden and illustrated by Allan Drummond. This compelling biography for all ages is located in the Children’s Room.

Pick out a Curious George book and this biography and enjoy together!

Friends of the Library Annual Fall Booksale starts October 28th

The Friends of the Library Annual Fall booksale will start Saturday, October 28, at 9am for Dover Public Library cardholders only. The general public is welcome Sunday, October 29 at 1pm. There will be thousands of hardcover books, paperbacks, and AV materials for children and adults available at great prices. Sale ends November 13.

Downloadable Audiobooks Now Circulate For 7 Days

Downloadable audiobooks can be checked out for 7 days now. This means a shorter waiting period for audiobooks you want to listen to. Just be sure to transfer those books on to CDs or your MP3 player before the 7 day period is up.

Audiobooks that you already have checked out will still have a 14 day circulation period.

Also, keep in mind that you can only have 3 titles checked out at a time. If you put an audiobook on reserve, don't check out more than 2 books or you will not be able to download your reserved title when it becomes available.

What does this say about our community?

For years now, we've had to stash the annual Swimsuit Issue of Sports Illustrated behind the Circulation Desk. Not because we wanted to censor it: we would hand it over to anyone who asked to see it; but because if we left it on the shelves displayed alongside other magazines' current issues, it would somehow disappear! Year after year, we would lose the SI swimsuit issue within days of receiving it. Then we wised up and starting protecting the bathing beauties behind the desk.

This year, no one asked to see the Swimsuit Issue. Not one person. The lovely models languished unseen, between the library pamphlets and the reserve bookshelf. However, stealth still has its place in the library. This year, we began a subscription to Everyday with Rachael Ray, a new cooking magazine produced by the exuberant "please don't call me a chef"/talk show/travel show/Food Network host. Every Rachael Ray magazine has been stolen! Gone, all of them, every issue!

I'm no psychologist or demographer, but what does this say about our Dover patrons? Cooking now trumps sex? I'm stumped. What can I tell you except that Sports Illustrated is now on the magazine shelf and the newest (and only) issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray hides behind the Circulation Desk. Your comments and analysis are welcome...

Free Movies at the Library

The Library has a full slate of movies planned for this fall; to see a full listing click here. There is something for all ages from Disney movies to documentaries. Our next one is Curious George: Show Me the Monkey on Saturday, Oct. 7th at 2:00pm in the Lecture Hall.

Free and open to the public. BYOP(popcorn)!

Library Trustee Needed

The Library Board of Trustees will have a vacant seat as of November. This is a 5 year term, and the Board meets monthly, except July and August, on the first Thursday of the month at 1:00. If you have an interest in helping the library support its mission, please visit the city website to download an application.

Download Audiobooks free from home!

Picture this: it's the night before a business trip or vacation when you realize you don't have any new audiobooks to listen to. No problem; you go to the Dover Public Library web page, click on Download Audiobooks, chose three titles out of the hundreds available, and download them to your computer. You can then either burn them to a CD or transfer them to an MP3 player. Sound like Science Fiction? It isn't!

In partnership with the New Hampshire State Library, the Dover Public Library is offering this new service to cardholders. We hope you will be as excited as we are by the huge variety of interesting books to listen to like Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, The 5th Horseman by James Patterson, and David Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall. In fact, three Librarians ran out and bought MP3 players just so we could make full use of this program. Another really cool thing about downloading audiobooks; you never have to return them and there are never late fees!

Movie Night @ the Library

Our Foreign Film Series will resume this Wednesday night, September 6th at 6pm with a showing of the South African film Tsotsi. This compelling story of desperation and hope won countless awards around the world including the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

On the edge of Johannesburg, Tsotsi's life has no meaning beyond survival but after a carjacking goes bad, and he is left to care for his victim's infant son, his life takes a sharp turn towards redemption.

This film is in Afrikaans and English with English subtitles and is rated "R" for violence and language. Tsotsi starts at 6pm in the Library Lecture Hall and admission if FREE!

Yo-ho-ho!

The Children's Room Summer Reading Program: "Treasure Reading" was a huge success this year. The kids loved the pirate theme. Our room was decorated like a pirate's lair, we had pirate crafts and displays, and our prizes were piled in a pirate's treasure chest.

This year, 513 children registered to read books and earn prizes. That is the highest number of sign-ups ever for our summer programs.

Our drop-in story hour had 409 children and parents visit over the summer, and 142 children and parents came to our summer movies. Our pirate-themed crafts were huge this year- 1,818 crafts were made! That is 700 more than last year. On a beautiful day in August we held our summer party on the front lawn, and 139 people enjoyed the weather, the party food, the raffles, and our children's entertainer, Stephen Blunt.

It is gratifying to see so many kids involved in reading over the summer- we wish them all the best for the coming school year.

Search the World's Card Catalog!

If you look at the library's Interlibrary Loan page on our website, you'll see that a new little search box has been added. It's small, but extremely powerful! This is our quick link to the tremendous resources of OCLC's WorldCat database. Enter a title, a subject or a person into the search box and WorldCat will hunt through its 1.3 billion records of items in 10,000+ libraries worldwide. Use the database to locate libraries which have the books you want to borrow, then fill out an Interlibrary Loan Request form and we'll ask the owning library to loan it to the Dover Public Library, and thence to you! By entering your zipcode, you'll get a list of the nearest libraries which have the materials and links to the libraries' online cataloging records. The world's largest card catalog...give it a try!

Teen Summer Reading Program Announces Winner

The Teen Summer Reading Program is officially over for this summer, and the lucky winner of the iPodNano is Patrick Jencso. Congratulations!

This Teen Summer Reading Program has been our most successful ever with twice as many kids participating as last year. The participants wrote 86 books reviews and read for a combined total of 925 hours. I am happy to report that reading is alive and well in Dover.

Growing pains

Sometimes, working with modern collections in an old library necessitates fitting a round peg into a square hole.
Yesterday, the 2nd hottest day of the year, we reconfigured two rooms on the main floor of the library, moving heavy furniture and several collections. Our 101-year old Carnegie building was never constructed to hold our ever-growing collections of DVDs, music CDs, and audiobooks in various formats. In 1905, the library opened with sturdy oak built-in bookshelves, only bookshelves. Who could have imagined anything else? Well, 100 years later, we had pretty much stuffed our Browse Room, the "happenin'" place for new books, with all kinds of multimedia and the storage units that hold them. Patrons could hardly move around in there without bumping into free-standing shelving units or other people!
Alternately, our bigger Reference Room was growing smaller, print-wise. So many reference sources are now accessed online that our physical collection of non-circulating books was growing smaller. Hence, the move!
We consolidated and shifted and were able to empty almost 1/4 of the reference shelves. Yesterday, the DVDs, the music CDs, and the movies on video took their new place in the front left of the Reference Room. (By the way, feel free to ask our adjacent reference librarians about any of these items: the librarians there can answer all questions about all collections, not just ones that strictly use reference books!)
Back in the now-spacious Browse Room, we moved the "New Mysteries" and "Fast Reads" sections, the "New Biographies", the audio books, and positioned a table for six in the middle.
New signage is our next project, but in the meantime, just ask!