Allspice, Basil, Cloves...

We took a quick survey at the library. Many of you may suspect that Librarians are fools for organization, but did you know many of us love to cook? Maybe you did after seeing the size of the cookbook collection. Anyway, 75% of Librarians surveyed alphabetize their spices. Another 50% of librarians write the date of purchase on their spices (spices are generally only good for one year). Another 50% put the date on their baking powder too.

How about you, do you alphabetize your spices?


Looking for some new recipes? Try one of our favorite cookbooks; Parisian Home Cooking by Michael Roberts.

Caldecott & Newbery Medal Winners Announced

The Caldecott Medal winner for 2007 is Flotsam by David Weisner. The Caldecott is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. The two honor books in this category are Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet by David McLimans and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Carole Boston Weatherford.

The Newbery Medal winner for 2007 is The Higher Power of Lucky written by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan. The Newbery is awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The three honor books in this category are Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm, Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson, and
Rules by Cynthia Lord.

Our Battered Book Drops

As part of the improvements to the driveway, the Library book drops were moved to the back of the monument so our patrons could drop off books without leaving the car. Since then, several patrons have driven a little too close to the drops resulting in damage to the book drops. The last accident left one of the book drops with torn seams which leak badly. Whenever bad weather threatens we will have to close that book drop or library materials will be soaked. We appreciate your bringing library materials into the library on those days when the bookdrop sports a sign indicating it is closed.

We have ordered replacement book drops, which we hope will be here within six weeks. We don't want you to have to get out of your car every time the weather is bad! The new book drops will be easier to use, you won't need to pull a flap down to put your books in, you will just drop them down a chute.

The new book drops will look like this

Speaking Librarianese

Librarians have their own jargon, like any other profession. We use “jobbers” to order books, we “circulate” library materials, perform “ILL”, create “MARC” records, and provide “ready reference”. One term that has been a bone of contention for years is what to call you, dear readers! Are you a client, a customer, a user, or a patron? Some librarians say that “client” and “user” are too cold and dehumanizing. Others point out that “customer” is inaccurate; you aren’t buying anything. We use the term “patron” here; it seems to harmonize with our century-old, traditional library building, and we appreciate your esteemed patronage. A few librarians protest that this is much too stuffy a term. So what about it? Do you consider yourself a client, a user, a customer or a patron of the Dover Public Library?

Library Hours for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

The Library will be open Saturday 9 - 5, and Sunday 1 - 5. We will be closed Monday, January 15th for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Excerpt from Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail — April 16, 1963

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was "well timed," according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "wait" has almost always meant "never." We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

Book 4 in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series is Here!

Forever in Blue: the fourth summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares has just been released. There is high demand for this title so place your hold today. The Traveling Pants have gathered quite a following and so New Hampshire libraries have acquired there own set of Traveling Pants that will be making appearances at local libraries. The Pants will be at the Dover Public Library from March 25th through the 31st--look for events and give aways that week.

What We Are Listening To Now

Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen (Book on CD)
Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier (audiobook download)
On and On by Jack Johnson (music CD)
The Vanished by Celia Rees (Book on CD)
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (audiobook download)
The Castlemaine Murders by Kerry Greenwood (Book on CD)
Cafe Roma 2: An Italian Jazz Lounge Experience (music CD)

Free Entertainment at the Dover Public Library

Are you feeling broke after the holidays? Is it going to take a few months to pay off those credit card bills? Have no fear the Dover Public Library is your source for free entertainment. In the month of January we are offering Saturday matinees at 2:00pm in the Lecture Hall, a monthly Wednesday evening movie, monthly Friends of the Library lectures, as well as Children's Room programming--and yes it is all free. Click here to see a complete list of our events. Hope to see you there!

Judging a Book by its Cover

At the end of the year everyone creates of lists of bests and worsts; some lists are more interesting than others. (Do we really need a list to tell us Britney Spears doesn't know how to dress?) Two lists that we librarians found interesting were Favorite Book Cover Designs and Worst Book Covers of 2006 . Being the opinionated bunch we are, we disagreed with their choices and came up with our own list of Most Appealing Book covers.

I Like You by Amy Sedaris












Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen










Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessi












A Good Dog by Jon Katz










How about you? Do you know of a 2006 book cover that you think was particularly outstanding?

The Catalog Will be down Friday, January 5

The online line catalog will be down this Friday for several hours starting at 9:00. We will be able to check out books for you in person if you have your library card with you but you will not be able to place holds or renew your books online. Thank you for your patience!

P.D. James Book Made into a Movie

The movie Children of Men opened recently starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore. What you probably won't know from the advertising is that it is based on the book of the same name by P.D. James. (It always irks me that the original author gets so little respect.) Children of Men was not one of P.D. James usual mysteries featuring Adam Dalgliesh or Cordelia Gray, actually it was not much like P.D. James at all. Here is the description of the book:

The human race has become infertile, and the last generation
to be born is now adult. Civilization itself is crumbling as suicide and despair
become commonplace. Oxford historian Theodore Faron, apathetic toward a future
without a future, spends most of his time reminiscing. Then he is approached by
Julian, a bright, attractive woman who wants him to help get her an audience
with his cousin, the powerful Warden of England. She and her band of unlikely
revolutionaries may just awaken his desire to live . . . and they may also hold
the key to survival for the human race.

As a P.D. James fan I felt compelled to read Children of Men and found myself fascinated with it. So if you go to see the film and enjoy it, go to your local public library and get the the book--it's worth reading.

New Year's Weekend hours

The Library is open from 9-5 Saturday. We will be closed Sunday and Monday. Happy New Year to you all!

What We Are Reading Now

American Skin by Ken Bruen "an overlooked author, quite Irish, quite noir"
Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Just Listen by Sarah Dressen
The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory "Jane Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and Anne of Cleves have their stories told by the incomparable Philippa Gregory"
The Uses of Enchantment by Heidi Julavits "The best writing I have read in a long time, this book has everything; abduction, amnesia and witchcraft"
The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr

Holiday Hours

The Library will be closed Sunday, December 24 and Monday, December 25.

Librarians' Favorites of 2006

Make sure to check the Library's wiki- The Rabid Reader for a list of your Librarians' favorite books, audiobooks, and DVDs of 2006.

The Final Harry Potter Book has a Title

The title of the last book in the Harry Potter series has been released by J.K. Rowling. It will be called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The author has said two characters will die in this book. There is no publication date for the novel yet. You won't get your next Harry Potter fix until this July when the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is released.

Best of the Web

U.S. News has chosen 30 web sites to represent the best of the web and organized them into the following catagories; Shopping, Photo & Video sharing, Travel, Entertainment, and Health. Take a look, you may find something useful.

Looking for unique Dover gifts?

Finish your Christmas shopping at the Library. We offer an assortment of gifts unique to Dover.

Dover Public Library Bookback. The latest design of our popular bookbags has a zippered pocket inside, handy for keys and library cards, as well as a pocket on the front of the bag. $15.00

Birds Eye View of Dover 1888, a poster sized map from the Friends of the Library.$5.00

Notepaper featuring five historic scenes of Dover. $4.00

The Port of Dover: Two Centuries of Shipping on the Cochecho by Robert Whitehouse and Cathleen Beaudoin. $25.00

Factory on Fire! Cocheco Mill Blaze of 1907 Revealed DVD. $20.00

The Great Blaze: A Look Back at Dover's Deadly Mill Fire DVD. 12.95

2007 Dover Desk Calendar featuring historic Central Avenue photographs. $10.00

Come on in and see what else we have to offer!

Eragon in Theaters Dec. 15th!

I am very excited to see the movie Eragon based on the book of the same name by Christopher Paolini. I loved the book (epic fantasy including dragons), but I also love the author's story. He grew up in Montana and was home-schooled by his parents. One of his favorite pastimes was reading, and he spent much of his time at the local public library (I did not make that up!). At the ripe old age of 15 he started writing what would become Eragon. In 2002 his family decided to self-publish Eragon, and visited 135 public libraries, schools, & bookstores to do promotion. Did I mention that he attended these events in medieval costume? In the summer of 2002 Carl Hiaasen, whose step-son had read the book, brought the book to the attention of publisher Alfred A. Knopf. Knopf published Eragon and book two in the Inheritance Trilogy, Eldest. These books have been New York Times #1 bestsellers, New Hampshire 7th & 8th graders gave Eragon the Isinglass Award in 2005, and Eldest won a Quill Award. So by all means see the movie, but don't forget to also read the books.

Are libraries at the bottom of the food chain?

An article entitled "Book donations made easier" appeared in our local paper recently. Three Rockingham County towns have signed on with a bookseller called Got Books. The company, a for-profit business based in Massachusetts, places containers for donated books near landfills or recycling centers. Their trucks collect the contents weekly. A used book sale is then held every Friday and Saturday at their warehouse in North Reading. 50% of each weekend's sale profits go to a variety of non-profit organizations in the area. I congratulate the Got Books people for an innovative, and apparently successful, business endeavor.

What bothered me in the article was the sentence that said, "Books not sold in the book sales are given away to schools and libraries ..." So in Step 1, the book was so used, so outdated, or so unwanted that the original owner dropped it in the Got Books bin to get rid of it. In Step 2, the book was not even interesting enough to sell for a discount at a warehouse sale! So, its next evolution is to offer it to schools and libraries? Since when did we become the book home of last resort? Why would anyone think that we would want third-hand leftovers? Why would anyone assume that a library would be happy to accept scraps? Our customers want new titles, the hot DVDs, current music, and the latest bestsellers on audio and tape.

Here in Dover, we encourage you to donate your used books directly to the library. Yes, we do get plenty of clunkers (like the four boxes of '80s management textbooks that came on Monday) that go directly to our next booksale or to the recycling center, but on Saturday we also got a wonderful donation of the two brand new novels by Robert Parker and Michael Connelly! We have about a dozen people waiting to read these two books, so we will gratefully add them to our collection.

Twice a year we have fantastic booksales, sponsored by the Friends of the Library. By the time of the next sale in April, those two Parker and Connelly novels will probably be past their height of popularity and we can take those extra copies and put them in the sale. $4.00 for the Friends! The Friends of the Library make thousands of dollars at our sales; funds that go right back into programs and services and equipment for the library. Did you know that all of our family museum passes are purchased for us by the Friends? That service alone costs over $2000 annually.

So while I wish Got Books the best of luck in their business--- they've seen a niche and are acting on it, I still prefer the direct-to-the-library route for your book (and media) donations.

Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled volumes yearning to breathe free...! We'll keep what we need, sell the rest, and use the profits to purchase more library stuff you really want. Let's not use the middleman!