Will Harry Potter Die?

J.K. Rowling, the author of the fantastically popular Harry Potter series, says in the seventh and final book two characters will die. She has been very careful not to say who the victims will be but has she hinted. "We are dealing with pure evil. They don't target the extras do they? They go for the main characters, or I do." If you would like to read the complete transcript of the interview, visit the Leaky Cauldron and click on "Transcript of JKR Interview on Richard & Judy".

Who do you think will die?

Are We There Yet?

If you are planning a long car trip with your family make sure to stop in the Children's Room to get recommendations on great audiobooks that will keep everyone entertained.

Summer Reading Begins & Circulation Doubles!

When the Library's summer reading programs began yesterday, circulation doubled! While the average number of items checked out on Mondays in the past four weeks was around 950, staff checked out 1,974 items alone on this particular Monday, June 26. Adults checked out about 220 audios, cds, and dvds, as well as 600 books. Young adults checked out 120 items on the first day of the Teen Reading Program. In the Children's Room the most popular items were picture books with over 300 checkouts and paperbacks with more than 150 checkouts.

DPL Book Club Schedule for 2006 - 2007

We love summer but we love September too because that's when Book Club is back! All titles are available in paperback. For more information about the Book Club call Barbara Winter at 516-6050

September 10 Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
October 22 Boy's Life by Robert McCammon
November 19 The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
December No Meeting - Happy Holidays!
January 21 White Teeth by Zadie Smith
February 18 The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer
March 18 The Music Lesson by Katherine Weber
April 15 The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty
May 20 Are Men Necessary? : When Sexes Collide by Maureen Dowd

When Lightning Strikes

I drove home from the Library through a violent thunderstorm last night. As I watched lightning bolts flash across the panorama of the sky I was reminded of two intriguing novels. The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman tells the story of a librarian who is hit by lightning. She joins a lighting bolt survivors group and falls in love with another victim. The novel details the many bizarre ways lightning can affect people; loss of the ability to see the color red, hearing clicking noises, tree shaped images burned into the skin, are just a few symptoms.

One of my favorite novels by Carolyn Haines is Touched. The story takes place in a small southern town that is shaken up by the arrival of a bold, unconventional woman and her young daughter, Duncan. When Duncan is hit by lightning she gains the ability to foretell the future. The townspeople are convinced that she has been marked by the devil. The novel is reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird in the stifling small town atmosphere and the courage required of a few remarkable characters to do stand against common opinion and do what is right.

Read these memorable books while summer thunderstorms rage overhead!

Donald Hall new Poet Laureate of the U.S.

Librarian of Congress James Billington announced today that Wilmot, New Hampshire's Donald Hall has been named as the new Poet Laureate of the United States. Hall was poet laureate of New Hampshire from 1984--1989 and has authored 15 books of poetry as well as memoirs, essays, and children's books, notably the Caldecott Medal-winning The Ox-Cart Man.

Love our email notices?

If you do, make sure you continue to receive all your notices by keeping your email address updated. Now you can update your address online when you go into the library catalog and sign in to "My Account". Go to "profile" and follow the directions. If our email system is new to you and you'd like to get in on it, you may also sign up for email on the same "profile" page by simply typing in your email address and clicking the appropriate buttons.

Internet PCs update

All the Internet stations are functioning again, although not at peak efficiency. The IT department is still doing battle with the virus that took the system down so we cannot guarantee any work you do on the computers.

An apology

Rarely have I ever felt that I have misspent city-appropriated funds designated for purchasing books for our library. But after seeing Ann Coulter on "The Today Show" last Tuesday, I want to apologize for purchasing Coulter's new book, Godless. After hearing her vile statements about the 9/11 widows ("...reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I've never seen people [actually she called them broads] enjoying their husbands' deaths so much"), I regret having added a few City of Dover dollars to her income stream. Yes, we had requests for her new book and yes, we have all her others, but her venomous and deliberately hurtful diatribe turned my stomach. My best hope is that it was just a shocking ploy to sell books. Regardless whether you are a conservative or a liberal, and you'll find both views represented equally in our collection, a human being with any compassion would never be able to write those words. I find her statements repulsive and her comments indefensible.

Internet still unavailable

Unfortunately the problems with our Internet connection continues. While we are freeing up a couple of machines at a time, access remains unreliable. The situation will probably not be remedied until Monday or Tuesday, June 12-13.

Internet PCs Down

Due to a virus all Internet PCs will be unavailable at least through Wednesday, June 7.
We are trying to rectify the situation as quickly as we can.

Isinglass Award Winner Announced

The Isinglass Award votes have been tallied and the winner is..

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones

Runners up were:
Blood Trail by Nancy Springer
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
A Time for Dancing by Davida Hurwin

The Isinglass Award is an award voted on by seventh and eighth graders in local seacoast communities.

What is all that construction next door?

The large brick building to the right of the Library started out as a High School, become a Junior High School, then a Middle School. It is entering a new phase now. The building has been renamed the McConnell Center and it will serve as a Community Center, where various human service agencies and non-profits will be housed under one roof. Part of the building will be ready in July for occupancy by the Recreation Department and Dover Adult Learning Center. The rest of the project will be ready in the fall.

Before all this happens, the old building must be brought up to code. Plumbing and electrical lines must be replaced or updated, a sprinkler system is being added as well as two new elevators. In addition, water and sewer connections to the McConnell Center and the Library are being upgraded and repaired. Crews will also regrade and repave the driveway entrance to the parking lot, making it wider and safer.

Blueprints for the interior of the building are available for viewing in the Reference Department.

Library Budget FY2007

At Saturday's budget workshop at City Hall on May 22, the Dover City Council tentatively voted to cut the library's proposed FY'07 city appropriation by $25,000. Effects of this further reduction, on top of $17, 294 in cuts made by the City Manager, will affect library staffing and programming. Under consideration are: closing the library one morning per week (which would include elimination of one storyhour session) or the loss of part-time staffing totaling 18.5 hours weekly. The book budget would be level-funded (no increase) and all programming beyond our regular schedule of children's story hours and a basic "no frills" Summer Reading Program would cease. There would be no funds for craft supplies or craft clubs, no reading or book clubs, no school vacation week programs, no automatic holds program, no library newsletter, no film showings, and no public "courtesy" phone.

2006 Award Winning Audiobooks

Announcing the 2006 Winners of the Audies, the award presented by the Audio Publishers Association for excellence in audio publishing.

Audiobook of the Year
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Tertiary Phase by Douglas Adams
(Dover Public Library owns this)

Fiction, Abridged
Q&A by Vikas Swarup

Fiction, Unabridged
A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin
(Dover Public Library owns this)

Nonfiction, Abridged
Luckiest Man by Jonathan Eig

Nonfiction, Unabridged
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
(Dover Public Library owns this)

Biography/Memoir
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
(Dover Public Library owns this)

Humor
The Truth (With Jokes) by Al Franken
(Dover Public Library owns this)

Click here for a complete list (PDF file)

Evening of Poetry a success!

Last night was the library's 4th annual Evening of Poetry and over 100 people were on hand to enjoy the festivities. Approximately 30 young poets shared their work. The library would like to thank our five poetry judges who spent hours reading and re-reading every poem before making their difficult decisions. The judges were Janice Alberghene, John Michael Albert, Maria Faskianos, Joseph Nadeau, and Marsha Pelletier.

Save Your Flood Damaged Books and Photographs

If your books or family photographs were soaked during the recent flooding, you may find these web sites helpful:

Saving Family Treasures

Emergency Salvage of Wet Books and Records

Emergency Salvage of Wet Photographs

Memorial Day Weekend Hours

The Library will be open Saturday, May 27 from 9 to 5. We will be closed Sunday and Monday.

New DPL Canvas Tote - $15

Just in time for that first trip to the beach the Friends of the Dover Library have a brand new book bag for sale. Reminiscent of a popular "boating bag" our large green and white canvas tote features an inside zippered compartment for valuables as well as a top zipper to keep out the elements AND an outside pocket for those all important lists of "books to read." At $15 our tote is a great bargain and benefits a great cause, your library.

An Evening of Poetry

Tuesday, May 23rd at 6:30
All students who participated in the Library’s 4th Annual Poetry Contest, for grades K-12, are invited to come and share their work at our Evening of Poetry. The general public is encouraged to come and enjoy the readings.