Litchfield Independent Review
June 2, 2011 edition
By Jan Pease
Did you know that April 25th of this year was a momentous day? Two important events happened that day.
First, since April 25 would have been Minnesota author Maud Hart Lovelace’s birthday, the winner of the 2011 Maud Hart Lovelace Award was announced. According to the Maud Hart Lovelace Award website,
The Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award is a children's choice book award. The purpose of the award is to encourage recreational reading among school age children. Nominated titles are works of fiction of recognized quality selected by independent regional reading groups.
Students in grades 3-5 who have read or listened to at least three titles from the Division I nominee list and students in grades 6-8 who have read or listened to at least three titles from the Division II nominee list are eligible to vote for the Maud Hart Lovelace Award.
Students vote for a favorite title in March, and ballots are submitted to the Minnesota Youth Reading Awards by April 1st. At our library, both the After School Book Club and the Middle School Book Club read nominated books and voted on their favorite choice. It was interesting for us to read books that we often would have passed over. I enjoyed the book discussions, especially as the club members began to express their own opinions.
The winning book in both divisions is Deep and Dark and Dangerous, by Mary Downing Hahn. Our book club members didn’t like this book! That’s the fantastic part of being in a book club, as members form their own opinions and express them. Learning to disagree without being disagreeable is a skill we all should develop.
What else happened on April 25th? My world was rocked when I went to the clinic because of an odd-looking sore on my leg which had gotten larger and more angry-looking throughout the day. My doctor sent me straight to the hospital, where I was a patient for over a week. Even with antibiotic treatment, the infection in my leg got worse and worse, with my leg looking like badly-done special-effects makeup for one of those movies where an alien spore pops out of someone’s body. Thanks to the great care of the doctors and nurses at Meeker Memorial, I still have my leg and all my toes and am now growing new skin on my battered leg.
I miss working at my favorite place in Litchfield! I hoped to be back at work sooner, but I realize that it will take some time. My co-workers have gone above and beyond in filling in for me as the school field trips take place. So if you have wondered where in the world is Mrs. Pease, the answer is, sitting with her leg elevated! The good side of all this is that I discovered a new author, a mother and son team who write under the pen name of Charles Todd. There’s always a silver lining, even if the cloud looks pretty dark. See you, soon, at the library!
PLEASE VISIT THE LITCHFIELD LIBRARY WEBSITE. THIS BLOG IS NO LONGER UPDATED AS OF JUNE 2020. Visit www.litchfield.lib.mn.us for library news and links.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
June Events Brought to You by the Library
by Mary Hansen and Beth Cronk, Litchfield library staff
5/26/11
As summer approaches quickly, the Litchfield Public Library has programming planned for all ages.
Minnesota author Mike Roberts will be at the library on June 2nd. Mike will speak about his experiences as the last lighthouse keeper at Split Rock Lighthouse and his work with the U.S. Coast Guard. The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the library meeting room. Mike lives in St. Cloud and is the author of the book The Last Keeper at Split Rock.
On June 7th the Litchfield Library will be hosting the event “Most Haunted Locations of Minnesota”. Join us and find out where you can supposedly see possessed statues come to life, pick up a phantom hitchhiker, encounter a ghost train, enjoy a play in a haunted theatre, or have your car pushed by spirits. This presentation will be given by Chad Lewis. Chad is a paranormal researcher and author for Unexplained Research, L.L.C. He holds a Master's of Science degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Chad has trekked across the world in search of the paranormal. He has been featured on the Discovery Channel’s “A Haunting,” ABC’s “World’s Scariest Places,” and hundreds of radio interviews, TV appearances, and newspaper articles. Chad is the author of the Hidden Headlines series and also the co-author of the Road Guide to Haunted Locations book series. Chad has presented at hundreds of libraries, universities, schools, and private functions for crowds of 7 to 700.
The kick-off for the summer reading program, One World, Many Stories, will be on Thursday, June 9th, at the Dassel, Grove City and Litchfield Libraries. Musician Dennis Warner will entertain us with music related to the theme for this year. Dennis is a folk/Americana singer and songwriter from Minnesota who performs all over the country and has recorded eight albums. He accompanies himself on guitar and is known for humorous, family-oriented concerts. He has been featured on National Public Radio and has performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Grove City Library’s kick-off event begins at 10:00 a.m., with Dennis performing at 11:00. Dennis will perform at the beginning of the Dassel Library’s event at 3 p.m. The kick-off will run from 6 - 8 p.m. at the Litchfield Library, with Dennis performing at 6:30.
The Minnesota Historical Society, along with the Litchfield Public Library and the Litchfield Opera House Association, will be sponsoring a concert called “Happy Days are Here Again” at the Litchfield Opera House on June 12th at 1 p.m. This free concert features Rhonda Laurie, a former New Yorker and now a Twin Cities jazz and cabaret singer, who is known for her sophisticated but warm voice and stage presence. Rhonda has performed at The Dakota, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Lake Harriet Bandshell, and the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, as well as many other venues. This Greatest Generation show is a musical journey with songs and stories from the 1930s through the 1950s. It should be fun for all ages.
You don’t need to sign up or pay admission to attend any of these programs. Just mark your calendars and come join us for some entertainment and culture to start off your summer!
5/26/11
As summer approaches quickly, the Litchfield Public Library has programming planned for all ages.
Minnesota author Mike Roberts will be at the library on June 2nd. Mike will speak about his experiences as the last lighthouse keeper at Split Rock Lighthouse and his work with the U.S. Coast Guard. The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the library meeting room. Mike lives in St. Cloud and is the author of the book The Last Keeper at Split Rock.
On June 7th the Litchfield Library will be hosting the event “Most Haunted Locations of Minnesota”. Join us and find out where you can supposedly see possessed statues come to life, pick up a phantom hitchhiker, encounter a ghost train, enjoy a play in a haunted theatre, or have your car pushed by spirits. This presentation will be given by Chad Lewis. Chad is a paranormal researcher and author for Unexplained Research, L.L.C. He holds a Master's of Science degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Chad has trekked across the world in search of the paranormal. He has been featured on the Discovery Channel’s “A Haunting,” ABC’s “World’s Scariest Places,” and hundreds of radio interviews, TV appearances, and newspaper articles. Chad is the author of the Hidden Headlines series and also the co-author of the Road Guide to Haunted Locations book series. Chad has presented at hundreds of libraries, universities, schools, and private functions for crowds of 7 to 700.
The kick-off for the summer reading program, One World, Many Stories, will be on Thursday, June 9th, at the Dassel, Grove City and Litchfield Libraries. Musician Dennis Warner will entertain us with music related to the theme for this year. Dennis is a folk/Americana singer and songwriter from Minnesota who performs all over the country and has recorded eight albums. He accompanies himself on guitar and is known for humorous, family-oriented concerts. He has been featured on National Public Radio and has performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Grove City Library’s kick-off event begins at 10:00 a.m., with Dennis performing at 11:00. Dennis will perform at the beginning of the Dassel Library’s event at 3 p.m. The kick-off will run from 6 - 8 p.m. at the Litchfield Library, with Dennis performing at 6:30.
The Minnesota Historical Society, along with the Litchfield Public Library and the Litchfield Opera House Association, will be sponsoring a concert called “Happy Days are Here Again” at the Litchfield Opera House on June 12th at 1 p.m. This free concert features Rhonda Laurie, a former New Yorker and now a Twin Cities jazz and cabaret singer, who is known for her sophisticated but warm voice and stage presence. Rhonda has performed at The Dakota, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Lake Harriet Bandshell, and the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, as well as many other venues. This Greatest Generation show is a musical journey with songs and stories from the 1930s through the 1950s. It should be fun for all ages.
You don’t need to sign up or pay admission to attend any of these programs. Just mark your calendars and come join us for some entertainment and culture to start off your summer!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Thinking Spring
by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
5/19/11
Spring is starting so slowly this year that we’re all getting impatient to get in the garden, in the fields, or just outside in the yard. While you’re waiting for the weather to cooperate, check out some books from our library that can help you plan for the warm weather ahead.
Homegrown Harvest: A Season-by-Season Guide to a Sustainable Kitchen Garden is a new book from the American Horticultural Society. Like the title says, it gives the gardener tips and to-do lists for each season, from early spring to late winter. It’s a beautifully-photographed and practical gardening book.
River Cottage Every Day will motivate you to get creative with farmers’ market offerings and your garden produce when it becomes available. This book is written by British farmer/cook/cookbook author Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, with a focus on using fresh, local, seasonal foods to cook family meals.
If spring means construction to you, the new book Framing a House may be useful. Former Fine Homebuilding editor and builder Roe Osborn created this comprehensive book that’s full of detailed photographs. It covers everything from the planning process and framing the first-floor deck to framing interior walls and installing exterior trim.
The New Backyard Idea Book is full of up-to-date ideas for porches, patios, outdoor rooms, sheds, and pools. If you’re dreaming of a new outdoor space, perhaps a well-organized potting shed or a cozy furnished porch, you’ll be inspired by this book.
If you’d like to do something new with your yard but you want to be frugal or environmentally-conscious, check out The Revolutionary Yardscape: Ideas for Repurposing Local Materials to Create Containers, Pathways, Lighting, and More. You’ll get ideas for turning your old junk into garden décor or junkyard or thrift store finds into pathways, garden lights, or arbors. The reader is encouraged to think outside the box and find creative uses for found objects.
Another do-it-yourself book for improving your outdoor spaces is Landscaping with Stone: A Sunset Outdoor Design & Build Guide. This book gives step-by-step instructions and hundreds of photo examples for using stone to create paths, walls, patios, and other yard and garden enhancements. It also covers plants that complement stonework.
If you’re a real do-it-yourselfer and you enjoy fishing, take a look at Making Wooden Fishing Lures: Carving and Painting Techniques That Really Catch Fish! This book provides patterns and step-by-step instructions for creating over 20 lures, covering surface, floating, diving, and sinking types.
If you’re planning summer travel and you’re over 50, you may find Discounts, Deals, and Steals: For Those Over 50 Who Don’t Want to Pay to Play useful for keeping expenses down. This guide from Readers’ Digest includes tips on getting low rates at hotels, rental car companies, museums, theme parks, and many other venues, travel-related or not.
Finally, if you’re coaching a kids’ baseball team this spring and summer, check out Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Baseball. This new book covers drills for developing fielding, outfield, throwing, pitching, and hitting skills, as well as basics on organizing your team and understanding your role on game days.
Whatever spring and summer activities are occupying your mind, I hope you’ll be able to find something useful about it at the library.
5/19/11
Spring is starting so slowly this year that we’re all getting impatient to get in the garden, in the fields, or just outside in the yard. While you’re waiting for the weather to cooperate, check out some books from our library that can help you plan for the warm weather ahead.
Homegrown Harvest: A Season-by-Season Guide to a Sustainable Kitchen Garden is a new book from the American Horticultural Society. Like the title says, it gives the gardener tips and to-do lists for each season, from early spring to late winter. It’s a beautifully-photographed and practical gardening book.
River Cottage Every Day will motivate you to get creative with farmers’ market offerings and your garden produce when it becomes available. This book is written by British farmer/cook/cookbook author Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, with a focus on using fresh, local, seasonal foods to cook family meals.
If spring means construction to you, the new book Framing a House may be useful. Former Fine Homebuilding editor and builder Roe Osborn created this comprehensive book that’s full of detailed photographs. It covers everything from the planning process and framing the first-floor deck to framing interior walls and installing exterior trim.
The New Backyard Idea Book is full of up-to-date ideas for porches, patios, outdoor rooms, sheds, and pools. If you’re dreaming of a new outdoor space, perhaps a well-organized potting shed or a cozy furnished porch, you’ll be inspired by this book.
If you’d like to do something new with your yard but you want to be frugal or environmentally-conscious, check out The Revolutionary Yardscape: Ideas for Repurposing Local Materials to Create Containers, Pathways, Lighting, and More. You’ll get ideas for turning your old junk into garden décor or junkyard or thrift store finds into pathways, garden lights, or arbors. The reader is encouraged to think outside the box and find creative uses for found objects.
Another do-it-yourself book for improving your outdoor spaces is Landscaping with Stone: A Sunset Outdoor Design & Build Guide. This book gives step-by-step instructions and hundreds of photo examples for using stone to create paths, walls, patios, and other yard and garden enhancements. It also covers plants that complement stonework.
If you’re a real do-it-yourselfer and you enjoy fishing, take a look at Making Wooden Fishing Lures: Carving and Painting Techniques That Really Catch Fish! This book provides patterns and step-by-step instructions for creating over 20 lures, covering surface, floating, diving, and sinking types.
If you’re planning summer travel and you’re over 50, you may find Discounts, Deals, and Steals: For Those Over 50 Who Don’t Want to Pay to Play useful for keeping expenses down. This guide from Readers’ Digest includes tips on getting low rates at hotels, rental car companies, museums, theme parks, and many other venues, travel-related or not.
Finally, if you’re coaching a kids’ baseball team this spring and summer, check out Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Baseball. This new book covers drills for developing fielding, outfield, throwing, pitching, and hitting skills, as well as basics on organizing your team and understanding your role on game days.
Whatever spring and summer activities are occupying your mind, I hope you’ll be able to find something useful about it at the library.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Storyteller Bob Gasch performing Friday 5/13
For our final story hour of the season, professional storyteller Bob Gasch has kindly volunteered to perform this Friday, May 13th. Our preschool story hour begins at 10 a.m. and ends around 11. Bob will tell farm stories and lead the kids in songs. Come join us for some fun!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Minnesota Book Awards 2011
by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library announced the winners of the 2011 Minnesota Book Awards on April 17th. We have many of them available to check out at the Litchfield Public Library.
My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall won the award for children’s literature. This is a brightly-colored picture book in which the animals are made from heart shapes. It covers emotions, shapes, and colors, in addition to animals. We have this book in our picture book section.
The award for genre fiction went to Wendy Webb for her novel The Tale of Halcyon Crane. It’s been praised as a creepy, modern gothic novel that readers can’t put down. A copy has been ordered for our library, and it’s currently available to order from another library in Pioneerland.
Another winner we’ve ordered is Carrier: Untangling the Danger in My DNA by Bonnie J. Rough. It won in the memoir and creative non-fiction category. Rough writes about her experience as a carrier of a rare genetic condition as she and her husband consider having a baby and as she researches her family’s experience with the disease. The “creative” part of her non-fiction comes in writing in the voices of her mother and her late grandfather, one a carrier and one a sufferer of hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia.
The Minnesota Award goes to a non-fiction book on Minnesota history, nature, social customs or nostalgia. This year’s winner is North County: The Making of Minnesota, by Mary Lethert Wingerd. It’s described as a comprehensive look at how this area became the state of Minnesota. We have this book in the collection, but it’s frequently checked out. We can help you request it if you don’t find it on the shelf when you stop in.
The award for young adult fiction went to Blank Confession by Pete Hautman. This realistic fiction novel covers bullying and drug dealing with what has been described by reviewers as a simple but gripping story with good character development. Hautman is a past winner of the National Book Award. You’ll find this book in our young adult hardcover section.
We have some of the other nominees for the Minnesota Book Awards available in our library, as well. A Night on the Range by Aaron Frisch was nominated for the children’s literature award. This picture book shows the imaginative cowboy adventures of a little boy and his dog when they camp out in the back yard.
The Assassination of Hole in the Day by Anton Treuer is a non-fiction book for adults on Ojibwe culture and tradition and the events leading up to the 1868 killing of an Ojibwe leader by his own people. Treuer is a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University.
Silencing Sam is a mystery by Julie Kramer. It’s the third book in the series which includes Stalking Susan and Missing Mark. Television reporter Riley Spartz is a suspect in the murder of a gossip columnist in the Twin Cities and secretly investigates the case. Kramer is a past Minnesota Book Award winner and freelance news producer who made an appearance at the Dassel Library as part of our Pioneerland authors tour last year.
If you’d like to check out these honored books written and/or illustrated by Minnesotans, stop in at our library and we’ll be glad to help you find them.
The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library announced the winners of the 2011 Minnesota Book Awards on April 17th. We have many of them available to check out at the Litchfield Public Library.
My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall won the award for children’s literature. This is a brightly-colored picture book in which the animals are made from heart shapes. It covers emotions, shapes, and colors, in addition to animals. We have this book in our picture book section.
The award for genre fiction went to Wendy Webb for her novel The Tale of Halcyon Crane. It’s been praised as a creepy, modern gothic novel that readers can’t put down. A copy has been ordered for our library, and it’s currently available to order from another library in Pioneerland.
Another winner we’ve ordered is Carrier: Untangling the Danger in My DNA by Bonnie J. Rough. It won in the memoir and creative non-fiction category. Rough writes about her experience as a carrier of a rare genetic condition as she and her husband consider having a baby and as she researches her family’s experience with the disease. The “creative” part of her non-fiction comes in writing in the voices of her mother and her late grandfather, one a carrier and one a sufferer of hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia.
The Minnesota Award goes to a non-fiction book on Minnesota history, nature, social customs or nostalgia. This year’s winner is North County: The Making of Minnesota, by Mary Lethert Wingerd. It’s described as a comprehensive look at how this area became the state of Minnesota. We have this book in the collection, but it’s frequently checked out. We can help you request it if you don’t find it on the shelf when you stop in.
The award for young adult fiction went to Blank Confession by Pete Hautman. This realistic fiction novel covers bullying and drug dealing with what has been described by reviewers as a simple but gripping story with good character development. Hautman is a past winner of the National Book Award. You’ll find this book in our young adult hardcover section.
We have some of the other nominees for the Minnesota Book Awards available in our library, as well. A Night on the Range by Aaron Frisch was nominated for the children’s literature award. This picture book shows the imaginative cowboy adventures of a little boy and his dog when they camp out in the back yard.
The Assassination of Hole in the Day by Anton Treuer is a non-fiction book for adults on Ojibwe culture and tradition and the events leading up to the 1868 killing of an Ojibwe leader by his own people. Treuer is a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University.
Silencing Sam is a mystery by Julie Kramer. It’s the third book in the series which includes Stalking Susan and Missing Mark. Television reporter Riley Spartz is a suspect in the murder of a gossip columnist in the Twin Cities and secretly investigates the case. Kramer is a past Minnesota Book Award winner and freelance news producer who made an appearance at the Dassel Library as part of our Pioneerland authors tour last year.
If you’d like to check out these honored books written and/or illustrated by Minnesotans, stop in at our library and we’ll be glad to help you find them.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Small Changes at the Library
By Beth Cronk, head librarian
We’ve had a few small changes at the library recently that I’d like to share with you. The first is temporary, but it will be obvious: we’ve got road construction. Marshall Avenue in front of the library is being blocked off as I write. Most likely it will be a beautiful stretch of street again by mid-summer, and in the meantime you can reach the library by Third Street and get into our parking lot. It’s Minnesota; road construction doesn’t surprise us.
Another change is online. We have a new blog. You can find it at http://litchlibrary.blogspot.com. When you go there, you’ll see a beautiful photo of the library that we’re using through a Creative Commons license. You’ll see a list of our hours. And you’ll find the library columns that we publish in the newspaper. If you ever read one that you want to share, there are built-in options to email an article, share it on Facebook or Twitter, or choose another option to share our blog posts with others.
In the bar on the right side of our blog, you’ll find links to the Pioneerland library catalog, to our Litchfield Public Library Facebook page and Twitter account, and to MnKnows, the Minnesota digital library I mentioned in my last article. I hope that having these links handy on the top of our blog will make it a one-stop shop you can go to for library information, the way our former website was. Below those links, you can participate in an American Library Association/public radio survey on your use of the library, subscribe to our blog posts, search the site, and find basic information about the library: our address, phone number and email address. It will all need some tweaking to improve the layout, but Google makes it so easy to create a blog that we were up and running within an hour.
If you go to our former address, http://litch.com/library, you’ll be re-directed to http://litch.com/living-in-litchfield/library. This is our Chamber of Commerce page, where you can still find our contact information and a link to the Pioneerland catalog. Whether you go from the Chamber’s page or our Litchlibrary blog, you can get to the catalog to search or to sign into your account.
Here’s another small change, this one a physical change inside the library: we’re in the process of separating our DVDs from our VHS tapes and our CDs from our cassettes. The largest sections, the movies and audio books on the adult side, are done. The rest will shift as we have time. We’re preparing for an inventory later this year which will require the formats to be separated. I think it’s a positive change that I plan to keep permanently. We’ve had requests in the past to separate the audio books this way so that patrons can look for just the format they can use. I hope that this will help you if you only have a DVD player or a VCR and not the other, so that you can browse the format you’re using.
We’ve also started adding “new” stickers to the newest movies and audio books on the adult side so that you can spot new releases, or at least new additions to our collection. I’ve added some classics, and we’ve gotten many wonderful donations recently, so some of those will be tagged as new items, as well.
One last change that I hope you’ll enjoy is the addition of a few popular music CDs to our mostly-classical CD collection. I’ve started working from lists of core music collections for small public libraries, adding just one a month. You’ll find two significant Beatles albums on our shelf now – without the CDs themselves, which are stored behind the desk like DVDs. Recently someone donated a Jonas Brothers CD, so that’s been added for a little bit of recent music.
I would be thrilled to accept donations of music CDs that you no longer want. We can’t accept cassettes or vinyl records, and we can never promise to add donations to our collection until we’ve had a chance to review them. But I would love to grow our music collection faster than our budget will allow, and your music donations could be great assets to the library. Please keep in mind that if you’ve copied a CD onto your MP3 player, you should keep the original instead of giving it to us. Copyright law forbids copying music that belongs to someone else, and if the library owns the CD, it’s illegal to make a copy of it for yourself. But if you don’t listen to it anymore or you’ve gone to all iTunes, all the time, we’ll be glad to receive it.
With a new manager, there are always some changes, and other changes are driven by outside forces. My goal is to keep our library running as smoothly as ever and to adjust things to serve the public better whenever I can find a way. I hope the small tweaks in how we’re doing things will help you find what you’re looking for at the library.
We’ve had a few small changes at the library recently that I’d like to share with you. The first is temporary, but it will be obvious: we’ve got road construction. Marshall Avenue in front of the library is being blocked off as I write. Most likely it will be a beautiful stretch of street again by mid-summer, and in the meantime you can reach the library by Third Street and get into our parking lot. It’s Minnesota; road construction doesn’t surprise us.
Another change is online. We have a new blog. You can find it at http://litchlibrary.blogspot.com. When you go there, you’ll see a beautiful photo of the library that we’re using through a Creative Commons license. You’ll see a list of our hours. And you’ll find the library columns that we publish in the newspaper. If you ever read one that you want to share, there are built-in options to email an article, share it on Facebook or Twitter, or choose another option to share our blog posts with others.
In the bar on the right side of our blog, you’ll find links to the Pioneerland library catalog, to our Litchfield Public Library Facebook page and Twitter account, and to MnKnows, the Minnesota digital library I mentioned in my last article. I hope that having these links handy on the top of our blog will make it a one-stop shop you can go to for library information, the way our former website was. Below those links, you can participate in an American Library Association/public radio survey on your use of the library, subscribe to our blog posts, search the site, and find basic information about the library: our address, phone number and email address. It will all need some tweaking to improve the layout, but Google makes it so easy to create a blog that we were up and running within an hour.
If you go to our former address, http://litch.com/library, you’ll be re-directed to http://litch.com/living-in-litchfield/library. This is our Chamber of Commerce page, where you can still find our contact information and a link to the Pioneerland catalog. Whether you go from the Chamber’s page or our Litchlibrary blog, you can get to the catalog to search or to sign into your account.
Here’s another small change, this one a physical change inside the library: we’re in the process of separating our DVDs from our VHS tapes and our CDs from our cassettes. The largest sections, the movies and audio books on the adult side, are done. The rest will shift as we have time. We’re preparing for an inventory later this year which will require the formats to be separated. I think it’s a positive change that I plan to keep permanently. We’ve had requests in the past to separate the audio books this way so that patrons can look for just the format they can use. I hope that this will help you if you only have a DVD player or a VCR and not the other, so that you can browse the format you’re using.
We’ve also started adding “new” stickers to the newest movies and audio books on the adult side so that you can spot new releases, or at least new additions to our collection. I’ve added some classics, and we’ve gotten many wonderful donations recently, so some of those will be tagged as new items, as well.
One last change that I hope you’ll enjoy is the addition of a few popular music CDs to our mostly-classical CD collection. I’ve started working from lists of core music collections for small public libraries, adding just one a month. You’ll find two significant Beatles albums on our shelf now – without the CDs themselves, which are stored behind the desk like DVDs. Recently someone donated a Jonas Brothers CD, so that’s been added for a little bit of recent music.
I would be thrilled to accept donations of music CDs that you no longer want. We can’t accept cassettes or vinyl records, and we can never promise to add donations to our collection until we’ve had a chance to review them. But I would love to grow our music collection faster than our budget will allow, and your music donations could be great assets to the library. Please keep in mind that if you’ve copied a CD onto your MP3 player, you should keep the original instead of giving it to us. Copyright law forbids copying music that belongs to someone else, and if the library owns the CD, it’s illegal to make a copy of it for yourself. But if you don’t listen to it anymore or you’ve gone to all iTunes, all the time, we’ll be glad to receive it.
With a new manager, there are always some changes, and other changes are driven by outside forces. My goal is to keep our library running as smoothly as ever and to adjust things to serve the public better whenever I can find a way. I hope the small tweaks in how we’re doing things will help you find what you’re looking for at the library.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
What Would You Like to Do Today?
Litchfield Independent Review April 28, 2011
News from the Litchfield Library By Jan Pease
What would you like to do? Build a backyard fort? Recycle old cds into a craft project? Learn words in Chinese? Draw dinosaurs? Books that show how to do all of these projects have arrived at Litchfield library.
First, I should give you a little history. Way back when we were working on the concept of the new library building, our collection was evaluated by a professional. He stated that we had too much juvenile fiction (I mentally answered, too bad, because we have some awesome young readers who love fiction, and it isn’t going to change!) He also stated that we needed to weed and upgrade our nonfiction collection. We weeded and weeded. Pioneerland library system also had us evaluate our collection by age, and although we weeded and weeded again, the nonfiction collection still needed some work. I usually purchase a few nonfiction titles each month, to fill holes in the collection and add new books, but I decided to go for broke (perhaps literally). I’ve invested 25% of the entire 2011 children’s book budget in some incredible nonfiction books.
If you’re a girl and wonder about serving our country in one of the branches of the armed forces, look for titles in the Women in the Armed Forces series, like Women of the U.S. Marine Corps: Breaking Barriers, or Women of the U.S. Air Force: Aiming High. These books contain information about the history of women serving the branches of the armed services, as well as stories of women today following their dreams.
Green Projects for Resourceful Kids teaches us how to make crafts by recycling cds or using materials found in nature. The projects are easy, and colorful pictures illustrate each step. Written by various authors, these books even make me feel like trying to make something.
Build Your Own Fort, Igloo, and Other Hangouts has great ideas for making a hut, an umbrella tent, a colorful snow castle, and other backyard getaway places. Tammy Enz gives great instructions and step by step pictures that make it look easy. If we have another snowy winter, we could all make igloos in our yards, just for fun.
If you would like to improve your drawing skills, look for the You Can Draw series. Whether you want to draw vehicles, pets, zoo animals or monsters, these books will get you started on the basics. The books are written by various authors, but all give beginning artists an idea how to start with shapes and fill in the details.
My First Book of Mandarin Chinese Words, as well as other books in the series, teach simple words for everyday objects. Katy R. Kudela wrote the books, using translator.com as her source for the translations. Each book follows the same format, even using the same pictures. While no one will learn to speak another language with these books, they are a great introduction to the concept that people just like us in other places speak a different language.
Easy Magic Tricks is a series that does just that. Steve Charney learned to do magic tricks as a child, and he still performs more than 100 times a year. Many children are fascinated by magic and card tricks, and these books will enable them to master some simple tricks and amaze their friends and family.
Origami seems magical to me, and the instructions usually mystify completely. Our Easy Origami series, by Christopher L. Harbo, uses careful steps and colorful pictures to show even a young artist how to make lovely projects. These and other fantastic nonfiction books are waiting for you in the Children’s Department at Litchfield Public Library. See you there!
News from the Litchfield Library By Jan Pease
What would you like to do? Build a backyard fort? Recycle old cds into a craft project? Learn words in Chinese? Draw dinosaurs? Books that show how to do all of these projects have arrived at Litchfield library.
First, I should give you a little history. Way back when we were working on the concept of the new library building, our collection was evaluated by a professional. He stated that we had too much juvenile fiction (I mentally answered, too bad, because we have some awesome young readers who love fiction, and it isn’t going to change!) He also stated that we needed to weed and upgrade our nonfiction collection. We weeded and weeded. Pioneerland library system also had us evaluate our collection by age, and although we weeded and weeded again, the nonfiction collection still needed some work. I usually purchase a few nonfiction titles each month, to fill holes in the collection and add new books, but I decided to go for broke (perhaps literally). I’ve invested 25% of the entire 2011 children’s book budget in some incredible nonfiction books.
If you’re a girl and wonder about serving our country in one of the branches of the armed forces, look for titles in the Women in the Armed Forces series, like Women of the U.S. Marine Corps: Breaking Barriers, or Women of the U.S. Air Force: Aiming High. These books contain information about the history of women serving the branches of the armed services, as well as stories of women today following their dreams.
Green Projects for Resourceful Kids teaches us how to make crafts by recycling cds or using materials found in nature. The projects are easy, and colorful pictures illustrate each step. Written by various authors, these books even make me feel like trying to make something.
Build Your Own Fort, Igloo, and Other Hangouts has great ideas for making a hut, an umbrella tent, a colorful snow castle, and other backyard getaway places. Tammy Enz gives great instructions and step by step pictures that make it look easy. If we have another snowy winter, we could all make igloos in our yards, just for fun.
If you would like to improve your drawing skills, look for the You Can Draw series. Whether you want to draw vehicles, pets, zoo animals or monsters, these books will get you started on the basics. The books are written by various authors, but all give beginning artists an idea how to start with shapes and fill in the details.
My First Book of Mandarin Chinese Words, as well as other books in the series, teach simple words for everyday objects. Katy R. Kudela wrote the books, using translator.com as her source for the translations. Each book follows the same format, even using the same pictures. While no one will learn to speak another language with these books, they are a great introduction to the concept that people just like us in other places speak a different language.
Easy Magic Tricks is a series that does just that. Steve Charney learned to do magic tricks as a child, and he still performs more than 100 times a year. Many children are fascinated by magic and card tricks, and these books will enable them to master some simple tricks and amaze their friends and family.
Origami seems magical to me, and the instructions usually mystify completely. Our Easy Origami series, by Christopher L. Harbo, uses careful steps and colorful pictures to show even a young artist how to make lovely projects. These and other fantastic nonfiction books are waiting for you in the Children’s Department at Litchfield Public Library. See you there!
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