News, events, and opinions from the staff of the Dover Public Library in New Hampshire.
Thanks to the generosity of Jason and Kerry Wood, owners of Noggin Factory at 330 Central Avenue in Dover, NH, the Children's Room has a new train set--table and all!
The Iditarod Trail Invitational just wrapped up--this is the bike and run version of the famous sled dog race. The race is billed as "The World's Longest Winter Ultra Race Across Frozen Alaska." Racers can choose the measley 350 mile version or the insane 1100 mile version. Here is the link in case anyone wants to sign up for next year! Above you will find a photo of the Takotna Library in Takotna, Alaska being utilized by the racers. This photo kind of warms my heart.:)
The Ladybug Picture Book Award, a project of the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library, is designed to promote early literacy and honor the best in recent children's picture books. This year's committee (children's librarians from around New Hampshire) has selected the 10 nominees for 2010. During Children's Book Week in November, New Hampshire children from preschoolers to those in third grade will vote to select the award winner.
We are pleased to announced the commencement of the Dover Public Library's 8th Annual Poetry Contest. Eight years--I can't believe it! The contest is for kids in grades k-12 that either have a Dover Public Library card or go to a Dover school (this includes private schools). Prizes will be awarded in 6 different grade categories. Pick up a contest rules sheet at the Dover Public Library, at your Dover School Library, or on our website. Deadline for submission is April 12.
It all started with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Graham-Smith. It seemed like a clever idea at the time, why not mix up classic literary novels with monsters. It was quickly followed by Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben Winters and spawned a whole new genre known as literary mashups. Now Mansfield Parks is mixed up with mummies, Anna Karenina has an android, and Mr. Darcy is a vampire. Enough already. I say to these authors create your own characters and settings; leave the classics alone.
The Children's Room hopes to re-open on Saturday for browsing. You will need to check out any materials upstairs. Currently we have book carts of children's books and DVDs across from the Circulation Desk so even though the Children's Room is closed kids can still find something to read. We also have reserved items from the Children's Room at the Circulation Desk so if you are notified that an item has come in for you, come upstairs to pick it up. 
The Teen Corner is open for business once again! The Children's Room is still closed, but will hopefully be open by weeks end. Come in and check out the new carpeting--we think it looks pretty good.
The small town I live in is still powerless. I am lucky enough to have a small generator which allows us to keep the fridge cool, light three rooms, and run water. One of the rooms has the TV, but cable is also out. The Library's resources have allowed my family to stay entertained. We check out DVDs to play and books to read, passing the night happily. When I get to the Library I have access to the Internet again allowing me to check out PSNH's twitter feed and news update page. I have access to the local papers to see what is going on. I was even able to charge up my cell phone! The Library has made being powerless a little easier.
Please bear with us once again as our library carpeting project continues. Due to manufacturing defects, the carpeting tiles installed in the Children's Room need to be replaced. The Children's Room will be closed March 1-5 while this work is being done.
If you like historical fiction and science fiction, boy, do I have a book for you! I am reading Blackout by Connie Willis. Historians from 2060 are time traveling back to London during World War II. Some are studying how civilians coped with the constant bombing known as the Blitz. Others travel to Dunkirk to watch the heroic efforts of everyday Englishmen who took to the seas in pleasure boats and fishing craft to rescue thousands of troops. They braved mines, attacks from submarines and airplanes. I am not a huge fan of WWII historical fiction and yet I could not keep my nose out of this book. The characters are so engaging you feel like you know them; the mischievous London evacuee children, the brave shop girls, and the Londoners who form impromptu families while they shelter underground from the bombs that dropped every night. It is slow and a little confusing at the beginning, but keep with it, once the historians reach England it becomes simply riveting.
Yesterday I was having a conversation with a woman when it came up that I worked at a library. She seemed surprised and asked "Is it busy? Do people still go to libraries?". I emphatically answered that yes, we were busy. As I look around me now--all of our Internet accessible computers are busy, there are several people using our WiFI, several people reading newspapers, and many general browsers in our book, DVD, and CD stacks, and this is all on a snowy Tuesday morning (not one of our busier times). The woman added "but the library in my town stinks!" (She meant that it had an odor, not that it was a poor quality library.) Another woman standing nearby said that she recently decided that it was ridiculous for her to be buying all of her own books and started using the library. She said she loved the smell of the library because it smelled of old books--a smell she could appreciate. She added that she could never use a hand held device, such as a Kindle, because she would miss that smell. What do you think--pleasantly fragrant or smelly?
The Mango language learning system uses audio, video, and interactive content to make learning a new language easy and fun. Mango uses real-life situations and actual conversations to more effectively teach a new language. By listening to, and repeating after, native speakers’ conversations, you'll not only learn the individual words and phrases, but also know how they're used in practical situations and conversations. A Virtual Tutor guides you through each lesson, so you know what to do each step of the way. You can hover your mouse over a foreign word to see a convenient phonetic spelling or learn how to pronounce words in your chosen language with recording of native speakers. Quizzes are strategically placed throughout the lesson to ensure maximum retention and recall of the material.
Next week is school vacation week in Dover--yahoo! Now what do you do to entertain the kids while not spending a fortune? Hmmm...well you could attend the free happenings at the Dover Public Library. Here is a line up of what we have to offer:All of our events are free and open to the public, and so we hope to see you there.
Poster created by the Skokie Public Library.
I guess I'm having an emotional night....I'm at work, at the library, and a boy, who looked to be about 10 or 11 years old, came up to ask if I knew how to make the computer underline something. So I went over to where he was working, and he showed me the problem-- he was supposed to be underlining items in a bibliography, but didn't know how. I showed him how to highlight an item, and then to find the "U" button to underline, and his whole face just lit up--he was so grateful. Then his mom, who was here with him, just lit up with smiles, too, and was so thankful. I feel quite sure that this family does not have the resources to own a computer. I don't know, it just left me feeling choked up---it's so easy to take everything we have for granted, and to just assume that everyone out there has access to the same things we do. Then you meet a boy, and his mom, who come to the public library so that he can type his papers, and who don't know how to navigate this technological world, and are so grateful for even a tiny little bit of assistance.....let's not forget that these people are out there, and that they depend on their public library...
A local researcher has taken on the ambitious project of scanning the vital statistics information from the City of Dover Annual Reports and indexing it. So far she has completed birth, marriage, and death records for the years 1887 – 1890. Click on vital records and you can search by year and type of vital record- births, deaths, or marriages, or you can search by name. A very useful tool, I can't wait for more years to be added!
not with a bang, but a sneeze? With apologies to TS Eliot.
The Library will be showing Michael Jackson's This Is It Saturday, February 6 at 2pm in the Lecture Hall. All of our movies are FREE and open to the public. The film is is rated PG, and is described as follows: 
When my children were teenagers, they used to tell me to "Get with the 90s!" whenever I said, did or wore anything they considered old-fashioned. I didn't get upset as I knew it was said in jest and it did remind me of my own teen years when Bob Dylan told "mothers and fathers throughout the land" that they'd better get with it because "The Times They Are a-Changin' " . 
All vidoes = $1
Yes, I have a new man in my life and his name is Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier. My husband need not be jealous since he died in 1832, but it seems I can't get away from Cuvier lately. I just finished reading The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott which is a historical novel set during the time of Napolean's exile--highly recommended by the way. The book is about a young man who travels to Paris to work in a coveted research position under his idol Cuvier. Cuvier is a world renowned naturalist who was director of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, which features prominently in the book. While I was still in the process of reading The Coral Thief, I was at work reading Publisher's Weekly magazine, and came across a review of a book about Sarah Baartman, known as the Hottentot Venus. Cuvier's name appears because he visited Sarah, along with other naturalists, for purposes of scientific paintings (the whole story is quite disturbing). Driving home from work a few days later Cuvier's name came up during a story on NPR. I am still waiting to read Tracy Chevalier's new book Remarkable Creatures, in which I will once again be reunited with Cuvier. I'm not sure how long I can keep up this relationship, but he is a fascinating person.
A number of events conspired today to make me think of spring and my sleeping garden. That dratted groundhog said spring wouldn't arrive for another 6 weeks. The brilliant blue sky above seemed to disagree, it had the feel of a day in March. My kitchen compost bucket was overflowing so I took advantage of the springlike temperatures to walk over to my compost heap, blessing my husband for snow blowing me a trail so I didn't have to clamber over snow and ice to reach the compost bins. Then as I got ready for work I saw Margaret Hagen of the UNH Cooperative extension explaining how you could use bins of earthworms inside your house for composting so you don't have to slog out to distant compost bins buried in the snow. If you would like to learn more about using earthworms to compost or composting in general, the Library has a collection of compost books in 631.8. I particularly like The Complete Compost Gardening Guide by Barbara Pleasant. It has a great chapter on setting up and caring for your composting worms. The kids will be intrigued but don't let any fishermen in the family get ideas!
Tuesday night at 6:30 PM, Jon Batson, Master Gardener, will be here to teach you how you can adopt and landscape one of Dover Main Street's Adopt-A-Spots. He will discuss choosing the best plants, adding curb appeal and visibility, and proper care and maintenance of your spot. With this excellent guidance, you may then sign up (optional, of course) to adopt your own spot and help beautify downtown Dover. Sponsored by Dover Main Street.
Do you read the preface of the book you are reading? I always do. Sometimes it is just a dedication to an author's loved ones, or helpful friends. Sometimes it is a bit more intriguing. The most unusual dedication I have come across yet is in the historical novel I just picked up by Jane Borodale, "The Book of Fires," which reads, “with thoughts spared for all those condemned to death by hanging at Tyburn.”
This Saturday, January 23 at 2:00pm the library will be overrun by a pack of armed guinea pigs. We will try to keep them contained to the Library Lecture Hall, but consider yourself forewarned. The guinea pigs, of course, are the stars of our weekly Saturday matinee. G-Force is rated PG, and is described as follows:
It was my good fortune to be working at the Circulation Desk this morning. Two patron comments really lifted my spirits.
The American Library Association recently announced the winners of the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz Awards. Here are the 2010 winners:Randolph Caldecott Medal for most distinguished American picture book for children:
**Winner**The Lion and the Mouse illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
*Caldecott Honor Books*
All the World illustrated by Marla Frazee
Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski
Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:
**Winner**Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Charles and Emma: Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman (on order)
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
Punkzilla by Adam Rapp
Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973 by John Barnes
2-24-15 Lots of exciting events, man stabbed and robbed on Court St back of the Sawyer Farm. Another fellow fell off a team got cut up, took him to hospital hour later he jumped out on them. 9:30 last night another lady had her hand bag snatched from her at Washington and Myrtle St. Matt Towle died last evening. Got up on time, it is lonesome around here. Nibs.
I can't believe it has been 5 years since I read (actually listened to the book on CD) of Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. For anyone who isn't familiar with the book, or now the movie, Julie Powell took on the yearlong task of cooking every recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She chronicled this journey on her blog, and she quickly became an Internet celebrity. The book was hilarious--though I did feel like I gained 10 pounds just listening to the descriptions of meals which all seemed to be dripping in butter. The movie, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, is now out on DVD and we will be screening it for our matinee this Sat., Jan. 16th at 2:00pm in the Library Lecture Hall. As always our movies are free and open to the public. Bon appetit!
Hedwig is delivering this message:
The Library had two of these titles and we've since withdrawn them from our collection!
"Dover Reads" is a citywide reading project, sponsored by the Dover School District Community Involvement Committee, which encourages everyone to read the same book to promote a sense of community and the joy of reading. This year, the committee has chosen Zachary's Ball by Matt Tavaras. In the story, Zachary goes to his first Boston Red Sox game with his Dad where they catch a ball and something magical happens.
Who doesn't need a good laugh this time of year? Craig Ferguson's American on Purpose is just the ticket. You know you are in for an amusing, irreverent ride when the book begins by describing the sighting of Laura Bush's underpants at an official function. "Mrs. Bush was wearing an elegant silky frock, but when she stood with the light behind her you could see her undies. Big comfortable knickers, what are known in enlightened circles as passion killers, in what looked like a floral pattern. Ideal for a long night of smiling and nodding and being a good sport at the annual press, showbiz, and politics bunfight that is the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner." Imagine this all being discussed with a Scottish accent. Craig Ferguson narrates his book on CD and it completely makes the story.
Hope to see you there!
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