Library Hours for the Thanksgiving Weekend

We're closing at 5:30pm this Wednesday, then closed Nov. 23 & 24 for the Thanksgiving holiday. Open as usual on Saturday the 25th from 9-5, then closed on Sunday the 26th for Dover's Holiday Parade!

The Library Will be Closed December 8th

The Library will be closed Friday, December 8th, for a staff development day. We will be open as usual on Saturday.

Cookbook author and podcaster Kathy Gunst---Tuesday, November 21 at 7pm

     The Friends of the Dover Public Library are pleased to present renowned chef and author Kathy Gunst for a talk on Tuesday, November 21 at 7pm about the slow food movement, cooking with locally- grown ingredients, and her preference for fresh and simple components in her dishes. Kathy says, “I understand the art of simplicity and how the very best meal really relies on ingredients. And the best ingredients you can find are the ones closest to home.” 

     A resident of South Berwick, Maine, Kathy Gunst is the Resident Chef on NPR’s “Here and Now” podcast. She won the 2016 IACP Award for Best Culinary Audio and is also a James Beard Journalism award winner in the Home Cooking category. Kathy has written numerous articles for newspapers and periodicals, among them The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Newsweek, Yankee Magazine, and Eating Well.

       “Soup Swap: Comforting Recipes to Make and Share” (Chronicle Books, 2016) is Kathy Gunst’s newest cookbook. It grew out of a monthly gathering of her friends and neighbors who come together for winter suppers and good company. Each guest brings a pot of soup to share with the group. The host provides a side dish or two, along with bread and a simple dessert. Leftovers are divvied up and everyone gets a sample of each soup. Whether taken to a party or savored at home, this delicious collection of soup, stew, and chowder recipes will be sure to satisfy all year long.

       This program is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Library at 603-516-6050. Library hours are Monday-Wednesday 9am-8:30pm, Thursday-Friday 9am-5:30pm, Saturdays 9am-5pm and Sundays 1pm-5pm.

The Library Will Be Closed Friday, in Celebration of Veterans Day

The Library will be closed Friday, November 10th, in honor of Veterans Day.

We are open on Saturday, make sure to come for the 2pm free matinee. We will be showing Cars 3.

Try the Consumer Reports Database

Thinking about buying new appliances before Thanksgiving? Planning to do some research on those expensive gifts your kids are asking for?

We can help! The Library now offers free access to the complete Consumer Reports database. It actually has more information than Consumer Reports magazine does. In addition to product ratings and reviews, users will find in-depth advice, tips, frequently updated articles, blogs and video content. Best of all, you can access it from home. Just go to the library website , click on the Learning and Research tab, and then choose Consumer Reports and enter your barcode.

Booksale begins October 27 for Cardholders; October 28 for General Public

Doors open at 9am on Friday, October 27 for the Friends of the Library’s annual, two-week-long, gigantic fall booksale at the Dover Public Library. Only library cardholders will be able to purchase items on the first day of the sale so be sure to bring your Dover borrower’s card with you on the 27th! The sale opens to non-cardholders and the general public at 9am on Saturday, October 28.

Thousands of paperbacks, hardcover books, and media items for all ages will be available at prices from $.50 to $2.00. Many of the sale items are books donated to the library, while others are items discarded from the library’s collections. Booksale prices will be further reduced on Wednesday, November 1, and during Week #2 of the booksale, November 6-12, the remainder of the items will be sold for the bargain price of just $1.00 per bag or boxful. Any leftover books will be given away for free beginning Monday, November 13.

The library requests that no further book donations be made at this time. Donations will again be accepted after November 19.

All proceeds benefit the Friends of the Library, a 501(c)3 charitable organization which last year donated over $15,000 to the library for museum passes, children’s and adult programs, furnishings and equipment. Applications to join the Friends of the Library are available at the library’s circulation desk.

Membership is $10 annually or $7 for seniors. Friends who work at the booksale receive a 50% discount on purchases.

For more information, please call the Circulation Desk at 603-516-6050.

The Final Girls by Riley Sager

 It’s October! So begins the season of falling leaves, all things pumpkin and sweater weather. October also happens to be my favorite month literary-wise. It’s the perfect excuse to curl up under a warm blanket with a book that scares you so much you won’t be able to sleep a wink. October is the one month where my obsession with true crime and serial killers is accepted and doesn’t make me look like a crazed lunatic. It means I can watch as many horror films as I want and – you know what? It’s okay. 

But I’m not here to talk about how October finally makes me look like a normal person. I’m here to share with you a little gem of a book that, if you’re like me, might make you excited for October, too. 

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Final Girls by Riley Sager since I turned the last page. It is everything I could have ever wanted for a Halloween read and if you’re a fan of slasher flicks then you might also get a kick out of this book.

The title of the book gets its name from an “exclusive” club that the main character Quincy and two other girls (Lisa and Sam) are part of. It’s definitely not a club you want to be a member of. All three girls were victims of a mass murderer and were the only ones to come out of it alive. Lisa lost nine sorority sisters after a man wielding a knife came into their home; Sam barely escaped “Sack Man” who attacked the Nightlight Inn during her evening shift; and Quincy lost her friends after a man brutally stabbed them at their cabin getaway in the woods.

Due to their similar experiences, the media dubs these three the “Final Girls”. Years later Lisa, the first Final Girl, has decided to use her experience to helps others and acts as a sort of mentor to the other girls, although they never meet; Sam has gone off the grid and no one knows her whereabouts; and Quincy, the reluctant Final Girl, has moved on to a fairly normal life, which is aided by the fact that Quincy can’t remember much of what happened that night. 

Then one day the peace Quincy finally feels suddenly ends. Lisa has died. The authorities suspect suicide, but Quincy knows better. Sam does, too. Not long after Sam shows up on Quincy’s doorstep in the hopes of solving Lisa’s murder, and getting Quincy to accept her place as a Final Girl.

I can’t tell you how hard this book was to put down. I thought I had a pretty good idea what the plot was going to be when I started this story, but it kept changing into unexpected territories. It’s a tale of not just being a survivor, but also the importance of remembering and coming to terms with the good and evil in your life. Not to mention there are some crazy thrills along the way. 

The ending was so unexpected to me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for like a week after. I finished the last page and then kept repeating over and over again in a zombie-like trance, “Oh my god. What? I can’t. I just can’t.”

 My fiancé then told me it was late and I needed to go to bed, which I tried to do until five minutes later I heard him mumble, “You’re still thinking about it aren’t you?”

“Yes…”

Final Girls is that kind of book.

What I particularly like about this story is how it merges the horror and psychological thriller genres. As Quincy starts to remember things we get flashbacks that read like a campy horror film. Yet the rest of the plot is spent exploring her life after that infamous day and how becoming a Final Girl has impacted her life. It’s great if you like a little bit a scare, but also want to be able to sleep at night.

So if you’re like me and really enjoy your horror films and serial killer stories then add Final Girls to your list. It’s the perfect Halloween read you won’t want to miss out on.

Salem Witch Trails program October 17 @ 7pm

     The Friends of the Dover Public Library are pleased to present an intriguing program about the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-93. Through a grant from the New Hampshire Humanities Council, the Friends will welcome Margo Burns to speak about “The Capital Crime of Witchcraft” on Tuesday, October 17 at 7pm in the library’s Lecture Hall.    

     During 1692 and 1693, nineteen people were hanged and one crushed to death in Salem, Massachusetts. Margo will explore the Salem prosecutions from formal complaints to arrest warrants, to indictments and death warrants, and the rescinding of excommunications years after the fact. The witchcraft trials might seem to have been nothing but a free-for-all, fraught with hysterics, but in fact, the documents demonstrate how methodically and logically the Salem Court worked. Margo will also speak about variety of other cases against women in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

      Margo Burns is the Project Manager and Associate Editor of “Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt”, (Cambridge University Press, 2009), the definitive transcriptions of the legal records of the period. Burns has appeared in a film for the National Geographic Channel, has been featured in the film which screens daily at the National Park Service Visitor Center in Salem, and with actor Scott Foley on TLC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?”, recounting the story one of his ancestors who was executed in Salem in 1692..

       Margo is herself is a descendant of Rebecca Nurse, who was also hanged in 1692. This past summer, she spoke at “Salem's Trials: Lessons and Legacy of 1692, A Symposium Commemorating the 325th Anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials” at Salem State University.

      She is a seventh-generation New Hampshire native, with two master’s degrees from UNH. She currently works at St. Paul's School in Concord as the Director of The Language Center.

     This program is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Library at 603-516-6050. Library hours are Monday-Wednesday 9am-8:30pm, Thursday-Friday 9am-5:30pm, Saturdays 9am-5pm and Sundays 1pm-5pm.

Who lived on your street in 1956?

You can find out who lived on your street, or in your house from 1830-1956 by looking at Dover City Directories Online.  The directories are fully key word searchable; you can search by a person’s name, address, street, or business. Find out how many people with your surname lived in Dover in 1840, and what they did for work.

 

 You can search here at the Library, or at home. You don’t need a password. Just go to the library website library.dover.nh.gov, click on the Learning and Research tab, and then choose Dover City Directories.

 It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s loaded with information!

Censorship Trivia: Can You Beat the Librarians?

Think you know more about censorship than a group of librarians? Join the Dover Public Library on Wednesday, September 27 at 7 PM for a Censorship Trivia where groups will compete against Dover Public librarians for the top prize.

Emceed by Tish Sims, the game will feature censorship questions focused not only on books, but television, music and other areas of popular culture. The trivia is geared towards ages 16 and older with teams being made up to six people. It will last approximately an hour and a half, and prizes will be awarded for first, second and third places.

The American Library Association proudly sponsors “Banned Books Week” annually during the last week of September, celebrating the freedom to read, and the value of free and open access to information. Some of the most frequently challenged books in the U.S. include John Green’s “Looking for Alaska”, E.L. James’s  “Fifty Shades of Grey” and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon. This year Banned Books Week takes place from Sunday, September 24 to Saturday, September 30.

Making Good on the Great War: Woodrow Wilson and the Decision to Take the United States into WWI

One hundred years ago, President Woodrow Wilson faced a monumental dilemma about how to respond to the war in Europe, which had been raging for more than two years.  In this illustrated talk at the Dover Public Library on Monday September 25 at 7pm, Kurk Dorsey, Professor of History at UNH and a specialist on US foreign policy, will describe how Wilson tried to make something good from the Great War, first by trying to mediate a peace without victory and then by choosing to intervene in the war on the Allied side.  His decisions continue to reverberate today, as the United States tries to figure how and whether to, among other things, make the world safe for democracy.

Kurk Dorsey holds the Class of 1938 Professorship at UNH, where he has taught History since 1994.  His research interests include US foreign policy, and US environmental history.  He is the author of The Dawn of Conservation Diplomacy: US-Canadian Wildlife Protection Treaties in the Progressive Era and Whales and Nations: Environmental Diplomacy on the High Seas.

“Preserving Your Family Heirlooms” Workshop

The Friends of the Dover Public Library are pleased to present a highly recommended presentation on “Preserving Your Family Heirlooms” by Lori Fisher on Tuesday, September 19 at 7pm in the library’s Lecture Hall. 

Are you the defacto family historian? Do you wonder how to preserve and care for all of the precious photos, memorabilia, and objects that illustrate your family’s history? Get a jump start on that project with lots of helpful information.

Closed Labor Day weekend

We'll be closed for the Labor Day weekend, Sept. 2--4. Full Saturdays (9-5) start on Sept. 9 and Sunday afternoon hours (1-5pm) begin on Sept. 10. Have a great holiday weekend!

Job Opening: Library Page

The Dover Public Library has an immediate opening for a 16- 17 hour per week Library Page.
 
Weekly hours rotate among afterschool shifts 2:30-5:30pm, evenings 5-8:30pm, and some Saturday or Sunday hours. Rate of pay is currently $10.92 per hour.

Library pages are responsible for reshelving all of the books, paperbacks, magazines, etc. that get returned to the library each day. Pages also empty the outside bookdrops so must be able to lift and carry heavy bags of books. Pages will be trained in the Dewey Decimal system and must be able to work efficiently, accurately and independently. This position is open until filled. 

More information on the job and a link to the application is available here.Candidates must be 16 years of age and may submit a cover letter with resume and/or cover letter with City of Dover Employment Application.  Interviews will be scheduled shortly.You may email your materials to jobs@dover.nh.gov or mail to

EMPLOYMENT
City of Dover288
Central Avenue
Dover, NH 03820

Interviews will be scheduled shortly.

The Gifts your Animals Bring to You

How do your animals share messages with you? Find out from Michele Lowry, the author of "Hindsight is 20/20: the Gifts your Animals Bring to You", at the library on Tuesday, July 18th at 7pm. She will present an informative talk about Nira, her Rhodesian Ridgeback who brought her 12 years of undeniable lessons and experiences. Michele will share some of these mind and heart connections and will read a section from her book.
Michele's business, Nikoe Natural Therapies, offers an alternative approach to wellness for you and your animals. She works with each animal and their caregivers independently, bringing resolution and clarity to everyone. Her techniques include animal communication, Reiki, Shamanism, improved nutrition, essential oils and gem stones. This program is free and open to all!

We're now a Passport Acceptance Facility! Apply for your U.S. Passport @ the library!

     The Dover Public Library is pleased to announce that it is now an official Passport Acceptance Facility for the U.S. Department of State. Dover is the first public library in New Hampshire to offer this convenient new service. It is available to everyone, not just Dover or NH residents.

        The service is for new adult passports, any child passport, and for expired passports issued more than 15 years ago. Per Department of State regulations, the service is not available for passport renewals: these may be completed online at travel.state.gov.

      The library offers passport processing services every day that we are open, including evenings and weekends, but appointments are required.  No appointments are scheduled during the last 90 minutes before library closing. Call the library at 603-516-6050 to schedule an appointment at a time convenient for you.

           The passport application process will take from 20-60 minutes per applicant and we highly suggest, to save time, that all your application forms be filled out, legibly and completely, before your appointment. Don’t forget to bring your regulation passport photos, your required citizenship and ID documents and photocopies, and your checkbook! The library does not take passport photographs; many area retailers can supply these for you before you arrive for your appointment.

     For detailed information about fees, photos, online fillable forms, U.S. citizenship, and acceptable proof of identity documents, please visit the Dept. of State website:  https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports.html, or call the National Passport Information Center at 877-487-2778.

      The execution fee for each passport, payable to the Dover Public Library, is $25. Fees payable to the Department of State will vary, dependent on a variety of factors. See https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/information/fees.html for more details on the cost of a passport.

      For additional information, you may also visit the Dover Public Library’s website at

http://bit.ly/2hO9g8e for library appointment hours, and quick links to the State Department’s downloadable application forms.

     Routine passport application processing, after mailing, takes 6 to 8 weeks, so plan well ahead of your trip!  Library staff can answer many of your questions about the application process and advise you about the forms, photographs, documents, and fees that must be supplied when you come. Please call us for more information.