Richards Free Library Blog

It's almost time! Join us Tuesday, June 25th to kick-off the summer reading program. Activities include: Register for the reading program, Grow a Garden In a Bag, a Rock Swap, (bring a rock to swap), and a special performance at 11:00 with Mike Bent, storyteller and magician. Performance will be held at the Library Arts Center. See you there!

These Friends of the Library are busy assembling the annual membership mailing.  The Friends do so much for the library.  They underwrite all the supplies and performers for the children and adult programs.  They purchase databases like Ancestry. com.  They pay our membership dues in the audio and e-book lending consortium and they buy books!

Won't you join?

Thursday evenings in March were extremely busy with the annual Project R.A.B.B.I.T.
(read a book because it's terrific!) events. The Richards School PTO hosts this program here at the library and at the school every year. Members of the Newport community are guest reader's who read to the children and their families. Pictured here is this year's Winter Carnival Queen, Malia King. Other reader's were Becky Merrow, Jason Avery, Jim Burroughs and Hillary and Glen Halleck. Thank you to all for another successful year!

Thanks to the Friends of the Library, we now have a Nook e-reader available to check out.  We have loaded several titles on the device so that you can see what an e-reader looks and feels like. 

"Wow is that ours?", and "How do we cash that?", were the exclamations heard by our young patrons as Leighann King and Tina Blythe from the Sugar River Bank walked into the library carrying an oversized check for $1000.00. Our teens participated in an interactive curriculum last spring on budget management at the Sugar River Bank which was a big hit with everyone. The program won an award from the America banking Association. The bank graciously donated the money to our library and new books on budget management, tips for successful interviews, and how to survive in college are being purchased. Accepting the check were Janice Brehio, Kathie Sarles, Aaron Carroll and Jacob Harvey. We look forward to another Money Matters program this spring. Thank you Sugar River Bank!

Three days after our last LEGO event we were pleasantly surprised by the arrival of a LARGE box of LEGO's.  We now have enough LEGO's to offer two monthly LEGO events. Join us the third Thursday of the month at 5:00 or the third Saturday at 11:00 for LEGO fun. On behalf of the library staff and the children of Newport we want to express our appreciation to such a thoughtful and generous gift to the community. A big thank-you to the anonymous donor!

Lego Night was a huge success.  The library was filled with Lego engineers and was captured on the front page of the Valley News.

On January 10th Adam Boyce  demonstrated old time fiddle playing during his talk on old time fiddling contests to a standing room only crowd.  He was joined by Newport's own Jane Orzechowski on her fiddle.






Photo courtesy of Ann Stout

How much do you know about your family history? Is your family new to New Hampshire, or have you been here for decades—or even for centuries? Where did they come from originally? When and where were they born? What did they do for a living?

Now you can find out.

Through a program initiated by the New Hampshire State Library, public libraries throughout the state, including Richards Free Library, now have access to Ancestry.com’s Library Edition, which includes more than 7,000 databases that deliver billions of records using censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, maps and more.

Ancestry.com’s Library Edition is available only at participating libraries; you cannot log in from home. Patrons with laptops can access the information on site at libraries with wireless internet access.
The service is easy to use: to get started, all you need is a name. Ancestry.com’s Library Edition then searches its databases to find everyone with that name, or even names that are similar. The more information you have—country, state, year of birth, etc.—the more Ancestry can filter its databases to help you narrow down your search.

You can learn not only about people’s birth, marriage and death dates, but also their jobs, how long they went to school, who lived with them and other interesting facts. You can even view enlistment records and, in some cases, find the streets they lived on or learn their phone numbers.

New content is always being added, so you can keep coming back to discover more about your ancestors—or even others.
To date, more than eighty New Hampshire public libraries are using Ancestry.com’s Library Edition through the group organized by the New Hampshire State Library. As more become interested, they will be able to add this service.

After-School Fun!
Children were busy at the library today creating their own gingerbread houses to take home.
Lots of sweet sampling!

June Pera is the 2010 Library Volunteer of the Year and winner of the Pamela Gay Award for Volunteerism. Ten years ago, the trustees established the Pamela Gay Award for Volunteerism to recognize our volunteers. Pam Gay personified volunteerism.  Each year the library staff selects a volunteer for recognition which is announced at our annual Volunteer Tea in December.
June came to the library after retirement and learned how to mend books.  Now, each week she takes tired books off our mending shelf and with her magic makes them circulation ready.  Not only does she repair old books, she also prepares every new book that comes into the library for circulation.  June is integral to our technical services department.  Congratulations to June!

       Our first Apples to Apples tournament of the Fall season had 14 participants and two winners!  Everyone played with enthusiasm, which was heard throughout the library!  OOPS! Congratulations to Mike Paquin and Nathan Stark; enjoy the subs guys.  Next month everyone will have a new chance to win.  
 

The Newport High School football team makes it annual trip to the library to help get ready for the book sale. The team makes a human chain from the tent outside up to the third floor moving a year's supply of books. Thanks guys!

Children this summer had the opportunity to meet many exotic creatures from Rainforest Encounters. One of our many summer events. A special thank-you to the O'neill family!

The Friends of the Library have created a gorgeous batik quilt to raise money for the library.  Fabrics were purchased at Quilters Workshop.  The Disappearing Nine Patch was assembled by the Newport Bee that meets monthly at the library, and was professionally quilted by Nancy Graham.
Raffle tickets are available at the library and at the Newport Farmers' Market.  The winning ticket will be drawn on August 28, 2010 at the Library Festival.

Newport's very own Anne Mitts visited the library for Children's Book Week to share her new book, The Candle. Not only did she write this story but she illustrated it as well. Congratulations Anne and thanks for visiting the library!

Today was the final Apples to Apples tournament for the school year.  Alicia won the grand prize while Harley won second!  There will be a feast tonight.   It was great fun.  See you next year!

The Children's section celebrated Cinco de Mayo on May 5th.  This holiday commemorates the Mexican victory over the French at the battle of Puebla.  But at the library, it just means salsa, Mexican hats and a little bit of Spanish.  Jaclyn and Sandy read Where the Wild Things Are in both Spanish and English.  Thanks to Jaclyn for knowing Spanish!

The National Endowment for the Humanities selected the Richards Library to receive  a We The People Bookshelf.  This is a collection of 19 hardcover books along with the DVD edition of Ken Burn's Civil War documentary.  The books all follow the theme of "A More Perfect Union", and the selection includes both children, young adult, and adult books. 
The Bookshelf is part of NEH's We the People program which supports projects that strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture. 
For the month of May, 2010, the books will be on display on the mantle in the children's room.  Stop by and pick out a few to read!

Miss Sandy and friends planted pansies and  Ivy for Earth Day
despite the rain and snow that was falling!

Thanks to the great instruction of Amanda Hanson and Leighann King seven teenagers now know how to write checks and reconcile their accounts.  We learned about debit cards vs credit cards and found out the magic age is 18 for having an individual checking account and using an ATM card. 
Come join the fun next week, when we go to the bank  to learn more about budgeting money. 
April 15th at 3:30.  Come here first and we will walk over.