Exciting News: Borrow a Kindle from the library!

The library has been circulating e-books for four years now, but our borrowers have had to use their own e-readers to access this service. Now, thanks to a generous $1000 gift from the Friends of the Library, we have six (6) Kindles, loaded with e-books, for our patrons to borrow for a 3-week period!

Here’s how it works:

You may borrow a Kindle if you’re a patron in good standing (no fines/fees owed) and have a good track record of returning what you’ve borrowed! Fines are $1.00 per day after the 3-week loan period (note: there is no maximum accrual limit) and the Kindles cannot be renewed. A borrower who fails to return a Kindle will be charged the full replacement of the unit and its accessories.  Kindles must be returned to the main circulation desk, never left in the book drops!

Each Kindle comes with instructions, a cord for re-charging the reader, and a carrying case. Kindles can be reserved, just like you’d place a hold on a book (search for “Kindle” under Title or Keyword). Patrons will not be able to purchase additional titles, but may choose from among these popular pre-loaded titles:

Alex Cross run / James Patterson

Angel fire / Courtney Allison Moulton

Beautiful ruins / Jess Walter

Casual vacancy / J.K. Rowling

Catching fire / Suzanne Collins

Elsewhere / Richard Russo

End of your life book club / Will Schwalbe

Forgotten / David Baldacci

Francona, the Red Sox years / Terry Francona

Game change / John Heilman

Gone girl / Gilliam Flynn

Guilt / Jonathan Kellerman

Hobbit / J.R.R. Tolkien

Homeland / Cory Doctorow

Hunger games / Suzanne Collins

Just one day / Gayle Forman

Mockingjay / Suzanne Collins

Mouse and the motorcycle / Beverly Cleary

Notorious Nineteen / Janet Evanovich

Perfect hope / Nora Roberts

Prodigy / Marie Lu

Racketeer / John Grisham

Round house / Louise Erdrich

Secret keeper / Kate Morton

Shoemaker's wife / Adriana Trigiani

Sins of the mother / Danielle Steel

Tenth of December / George Saunders

Thomas Jefferson / Jon Meacham

Twelve tribes of Hattie / Ayana Mathis

A Wrinkle in time / Madeleine L'Engle

The Library will add new titles in demand and as new books are published throughout the year.

Our purpose in lending Kindles is two-fold:

1.)    To encourage borrowers who are “on the fence” about e-readers to try one out!

2.)    To supplement, electronically, our print copies of popular titles with long waiting lists.

We thank the Friends of the Library for their generosity in helping us provide this new service for our patrons! Please give it a try; we think you’ll “kindle” to the idea!

Morningstar Investment Research Center

We are testing a database for the Morningstar Investment Research Center. Please take a look and let us know what you think of it. Dover Public Library card required.

Morningstar Investment Research Center is an interactive investment database with information on more than 30,000 stocks, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds. It combines cutting-edge technology with Morningstar's investment know-how to give your patrons a one-stop investment site. Designed specifically for libraries, it provides independent analysis, industry information, stock charts, portfolio building tools, and investment education.

Author Visit at Dover Library February 25: New book on Dover Architect Fred Wesley Wentworth

One of New Jersey’s most influential architects, Fred Wesley Wentworth, hailed from Dover, NH. The Dover Public Library is pleased to host, on Monday, February 25 at 7pm, Richard Polton, the author of a new book about this forgotten architect who is buried at Pine Hill Cemetery in Dover.  Polton’s new book is entitled  “The Life & Times of Fred Wesley Wentworth: The Architect Who Shaped Paterson, NJ and Its People”.

Wentworth, born in 1864, attended Dartmouth College and became a highly influential architect in Paterson. However, very little has been publicly known about him until now. Wentworth designed approximately 40 buildings in Paterson from 1890 through 1940 — everything from hospitals, schools, hotels, beautiful homes and commercial buildings to original, groundbreaking designs for the burgeoning movie palaces of the era. During this time, Paterson was a place of movers and shakers — it was home to a vice president of the United States, a governor who became U.S. Attorney General, manufacturing and retail entrepreneurs, innovators, and captains of industry — and they were all clients of Fred Wesley Wentworth.

“If you lived in Paterson during the 20th century, you lived in a city built by Wentworth,” says Polton, who grew up in Paterson. “Yet I had never heard of him until I stumbled across a book of his on eBay. The more I researched his life and work, the more I was fascinated by the breadth and quality of his career, the relationships he formed with his clients, and the enormous changes he witnessed in Paterson during his lifetime.”

Born in Boxborough, Mass. in 1864, Wentworth was raised and educated in Dover. His father, William Trickey Wentworth, was born in Hiram, Maine in 1822, but spent most of his adult life in Dover. He owned Long Hill Farm, a successful dairy farm a mile outside of town. The elder Wentworth was active in politics, serving as selectman,  school commissioner, councilman, alderman and state legislator. Fred Wesley Wentworth’s mother was Lucinda Phipps (MacDonald) Wentworth, born in New Hampshire and from a well-established local family.

Early in his career, Wentworth designed the Lucius Everett Varney residence on Arch Street in Dover, which still stands today. Built in 1905, it is among the grandest homes in Wentworth’s portfolio. Lucius was a classmate of Wentworth’s at Dartmouth and practiced patent law in New York City, but called Dover home. Both men were members of the Casque & Gauntlet Society at Dartmouth, and both are buried in Pine Hill Cemetery in Dover.

Among Wentworth’s most significant clients was Jacob Fabian, a Jewish entrepreneur and entertainment industry mogul. Together the two men pioneered the design of movie palaces, building six in New Jersey, including the Stanley Theater in Jersey City, still intact today. Their longstanding collaboration also resulted in a major synagogue and social buildings that formed Jewish life in Paterson in the early 1900s, helping a generation of immigrants become the Americans they yearned to be.

Author Richard Polton, who lives in New Jersey, is a founding principal of Value Research Group, a real estate valuation and consulting firm and specializes in issues of affordable housing and urban redevelopment. He studied American history at Columbia, architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and city planning at MIT. He is also on the board of trustees of the Hamilton Partnership for Paterson, a non-profit organization helping to launch the Paterson Great Falls National Park.

With more than 130 photos detailing Wentworth-designed buildings and events during his lifetime, “The Life and Times of Fred Wesley Wentworth” uncovers a forgotten history of one of the most overlooked, but influential, architects in New Jersey’s past.

  This program is free and open to the public. Copies of Mr. Polton’s book will be available for sale. Please call the Library, 516-6050, for more information.

Dover Mill Girls

Think your job is difficult? Read on:

Advertisement from the Strafford Register August 12, 1822:

Wanted to Hire: At the Dover Cotton Factory, Upper establishment, 50 smart, capable girls between 12 and 25 years of age to work in the factory to whom constant employment and good encouragement will be given.

The work was hard and the pay was low. Girls were given $ .47 cents a day plus room and board. In 1828 the mill changed hands and the new owner reduced female workers wages by $.5, but not men. Talking was not permitted, not that it would be heard above the rumble and clatter of the machinery. The eleven hour workday was ruled by a system of bells. Workers who were late would be locked out and subjected to a 12 1/2 cent fine.

The work was also dangerous. Newspaper accounts frequently reported accidents such as a woman's hand being mangled in machinery, or a girl losing her scalp when her hair became stuck in the looms.

The mill girls were finally driven to rebellion, enacting the first women's strike in the United States. On December 30, 1828, about half of the 800 mill girls walked out. They marched around the Mill with signs and banners and even ignited two barrels of gunpowder. The Dover mill girls were forced to give in when the mill owners immediately began advertising for replacement workers. Striking workers returned to work January 1, 1829 at reduced wages.  To read more follow this link. 

The Library Will Be Closed On Monday

Monday, February 18, the Library will be closed in honor of Presidents' Day.

New eBooks Available Only to DPL Cardholders

As we mentioned previously, the Dover Public Library has joined a special program called Overdrive Advantage to cut down your waiting time for popular downloadable books. We are ordering additional copies of popular titles that will be available only to Dover Public Library cardholders. Just make sure to log in to NH Downloadable Books before you begin searching the site. If you don't log in, you won't be able to find the DPL Overdrive Advantage titles. Any titles that are exclusively owned by the Dover Public Library will have an adjacent symbol that indicates Overdrive Advantage. 

So when you see that The Twelve Tribes of Hattie has 35 holds on 9 copies, in actuality, Dover has an additional copy and only Dover 2 patrons are on the reserve list so it will not be much of a wait at all.
These are the Advantage titles we have available so far: 


Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain eBook
Walflower in Bloom by Claire Cooke audiobook
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins audiobook
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins  audiobook
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins  audiobook
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn  eBook
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn  eBook
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith eBook
The Racketeer by John Grisham eBook
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James eBook
Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James eBook
Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James eBook
Defending Jacob by William Landay  eBook
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin eBook
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin eBook
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin eBook
A feast of Crows by George R.R. Martin eBook
Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin eBook
Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis V
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern eBook
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen  eBook
Elsewhere by Richard Russo eBook
Criminal by Karin Slaughter eBook
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed eBook

Salt River concert on Tuesday, Feb. 19!

On Tuesday evening February 19 at 7pm, the Friends of the Dover Public Library will present a concert by folk group Salt River in the library’s Lecture Hall. These “folk singers in the purest sense” (Face Magazine), are Lee Hosack, Mike and Bev Rogers, and Cathy King. They are based in the seacoast area of Maine and perform traditional and original music reflecting the lifestyle and people of New England. Their folk/blues style is accented by their vocals and Mike’s signature harmonica. 
Much of the group’s material is original, but heavily influenced by the acoustic folk music of the 1960s. The group’s close friendships and love of music are reflected in their performances and on their CDs.Salt River was selected as the sole representative for the State of Maine at the New England Artists' Congress held in Woodstock, Vermont. More recent venues include: Prescott Park Arts Festival  Market Square Day, First Night Portsmouth, Hamilton House Series (So Berwick), and Chautauqua in Keene and Portsmouth, NH.

             Friends of the Library programs are always free and open to all. For more information, please call the Dover Public Library:  603-516-6050.

The Library will be Closed due to the Snow Storm

The Library will be closing at 1pm today, and we will also be closed on Saturday due to the snow storm. You have a few hours to run in and stock up on books. If you can't make it in you can download books and audiobooks from the NH Downloadable Books Consortium. http://nh.lib.overdrive.com/

Blind Date With a Book

Want to try something new? How about going on a blind date...with a book. Choose a wrapped book from the display by the Circulation Desk to borrow. You won’t know what it is until you get it home! If you don’t enjoy the book you can bring it back with no awkward questions asked (unlike a real blind date).