January, 2012

Written by Mary R. Braley

Happy New Year from your library. We hope 2012 will be good to all of you. We have high hopes for 2012 for the library, too. It’s our 100th birthday! We hope to have our official “birthday party” sometime in September. We will keep you posted.

We want to remind you all that we will be closed on Monday, January 16th for Martin Luther King Day. Remember that if we have stamped an item to be returned that day, it’s our mistake, and it’s really due on Tuesday the 17th. Any time you stop in to return something and find we’re not open, you can just drop it in the big, gray book box near the back door. The left-hand slot is for books & magazines, and the right-hand one is for movies & audiobooks.

The library trustees will meet on Thursday, January 12th at 7pm here at the library. The Limington Parade Committee will also be there to make plans to have the 4th of July parade theme be our library’s centennial anniversary. This is very exciting for us! As always, people who want to come to the trustees meeting are welcome.

There is something else very new & exciting being planned as part of our 100th birthday. Local, award-winning sculptor, Asherah Cinnamon, is designing & building a sculpture for the library lawn to express the library’s place in the town. The sculpture will be the very first public art in Limington’s history and possibly even for surrounding towns. Ms. Cinnamon feels that though computers are increasingly important in the lives of libraries & everyone else, books are the heart and soul of a library. Her sculpture will show books “blooming” on the library lawn. Her hope is that the artwork will make people smile and think about the importance of books in all our lives. There is a drawing of the sculpture in the library. Since she has been here in Limington for 30 years & is a long-time patron of the library, she is donating much of her time & labor for this project. She is helping with fundraising efforts, as well. Some town businesses have already donated as sponsors for this project, and any other businesses or individuals who want to become sponsors can call the library for details. Sponsors can be acknowledged on a plaque in the library. There’s a public fundraising event planned in a few months. We’ll give you more details as soon as we know them. The sculpture’s unveiling is to be in September at the library’s 100th “birthday party”.

Though we have had an unusually mild, rather un-stormy winter so far, we all know what a Maine winter can be like. So, we want to remind everyone that our general policy on closing in bad weather is to follow the local school district, RSU#6. If the schools close for a storm, we do too. Of course storms on non-school days can’t follow that policy, so we will use our own judgement. If the weather is at all “iffy”, call us. The phone number is on this letterhead. If no one answers during library hours, don’t come. Materials due on storm days are automatically due the next day we are open. Returning books can wait, safety is much more important.

The book display this month is part of our collection of books on health. Since many people’s New Year’s resolutions involve trying to live in a more healthy manner, we thought our patrons might like seeing some of the books we have on the subject.

The Friends of the Library will be meeting here at the library on Tuesday, January 10th at 7pm. They are always happy to welcome new members.

Thanks to Kay’s bargain shopping and some very nice donations, we have a good selection of new movies. Some are very new, such as “The Help”, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”, and the last 2 Harry Potters. Others are “new to us”, including “Hoosiers”, “The Fugitive”, and the James Bond movie “Thunderball”, all oldies but goodies. We just recently got the 1940 movie classic, “Rebecca”. Coincidentally, the Red Tent book group is reading the book “Rebecca” by Daphne duMaurier on which the movie is based, for its February selection. Some people in the group are planning to get together to watch the movie to go along with the book. We also have the audiobook of Rebecca for those who prefer hearing books or like to save time by “reading” during long commutes or lengthy chores. We don’t often have a “triple play” like this but it sure is making it fun for the Red Tent book group.

We want to thank the Christmas decoration “fairies” who came in the library in mid-December and put out red plaid cloths & artificial pine garlands on our tables & mantle to make us pretty for the holidays, and then came back in early this month and put them all away. We don’t know who you are, but we certainly do appreciate what you do.

December, 2011

Written by Mary R. Braley

Happy Holidays from your library. We send our greetings to all our patrons and friends near and far. We want to thank you all for our successful past year. We have weathered our budget cuts with your understanding and support. The large number of donated books from many of you has kept lots of great reading our our shelves without hurting our “bottom line”. We are here to serve you, but we really, truly couldn’t do it without your help. You really made this job a pleasure for us who work here.

We will be closed on Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas, Monday the 26th. It is the custom to close the day after a holiday that comes on a Sunday, like Christmas & New Year’s both do this year. We will also be closed on Monday, January 2nd for the same reason. The town offices are closed those days, and as a department of the town, we usually follow their lead. However, we will be open on New Year’s Eve, December 31st. That is a Saturday when we are open only from 10-1, so those hours won’t interfere with anyone’s New Year’s Eve plans.

Our book display this month is Christmas books, of course, with some Hanukkah books & a Kwanzaa book as well. We have lots of Christmas stories for both adults and kids along with non-fiction book about holidays, too. An old favorite, “The Hundred Dollar Holiday” by Bill McKibben has been more popular than ever in the past few years. We also have a new book called “Christmas in Allagash : the Early Years” full of memories of a small town in northern Maine long ago. Our children’s table and bookshelves are loaded with Christmas books like they are every December. Children just love Christmas books! Look over our Christmas, etc. books when you come in and take some home to help you get in the holiday spirit.

Lots of people in town were disappointed that there was no 4th of July parade this year. Well, we have just learned that there will be a parade here in Limington next year. The parade committee will be coming to the library trustees’ meeting at 7pm on Jan. 12th here at the library. You may be wondering why the parade committee will be at a trustees’ meeting and why this bit of news is in a December library newsletter. The reason is that the parade committee wants the parade theme to be the library’s 100th anniversary! Yes, your library will be a full century old in 2012 and the town parade wants to celebrate that! They are meeting the trustees to share ideas and work out details. We had no idea this was in the works. Needless to say, we are thrilled! One hundred years of providing books, and now many other things, to Limington’s people is definitely worth celebrating.

The Limington Historical Society has some of their 2012 calendars here at the library for people to buy. They are $7.50 each. This year’s calendar features a lot of school pictures, some from Limington Academy and some from the one-room schools that used to be scattered around the town. These calendars make great Christmas gifts. They are fun for old Limington folks who remember those old people and places, and for “newer” folks who want to get a feel for what Limington was like in the “old days” and get in touch with the history of their town. The Historical Society is doing a wonderful job of keeping Limington’s history alive for new generations.

Our food basket has been getting filled pretty regularly this past month. It has been emptied twice and is full again! We are proud of our patrons who pay their overdue “fines” with food items, and those who just bring in things or money from the goodness of their hearts and a desire to do a worthwhile thing. We recently got a very nice Thank You from Tammy Pike who runs the Limington Food Pantry because we’ve collected for them all year. It’s on the bulletin board in the entry for anyone to read. The need goes on all through the year, but it seems more acute around the holidays.

The Friends of the Library group will meet on Tuesday, January 10th here at the library at 7pm for their quarterly meeting. They will be happy to welcome anyone who wants to join.

We will soon have a book of local interest in our collection. It is a combination biography/family history of Manley Brackett, owner of Brackett’s Orchard on Rt. 11 here in town. The book was written as a labor of love by his daughter as a birthday gift & tribute to Manley and his family. They were generous enough to give a copy to the library. Because it is privately printed & irreplaceable, we can’t let it circulate, but it will be on our big table where people can read it whenever they come in to the library. It’s full of things of interest to local folks. We thank the Brackett family for giving us this unique book.

We wish everyone a safe, happy & blessed holiday season.