Worlds Connect @ Your Library!

Thinking Library!
Carole Stanger
April 4, 2009

New Books Upstairs @ the library!
Long Lost by Harlan Coben
Body Broken by Lynn Greenberg
Malice by Lisa Jackson
Love to Last Forever by Traci Peterson
Lavender Morning by Jude Deveraux
Still Life by Joy Fielding
Diary by Eileen Goudge
Dare to Die by Carolyn Hart

Coming Events @ the Library!
Library Hours!
Monday – Friday 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesday 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Sundays—closed.
The library will be closed Monday, May 25 for Memorial Day

Preschool Library Story Time—Please send a backpack with your child!
Wednesdays or Thursdays 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. – 3, 4 or 5 year olds
No registration—just show up! Parents may stay with child, but will be required to participate!
Apr. 22/23 How Does Your Garden Grow?

National Library Week: April 12-18 “Worlds Connect@Your Library!

Cass Co. Conservation Program—“Composting”: Wednesday Apr. 22 6-8 pm Library Meeting Room

Friends of the Atlantic Public Library Book Sale will be held Friday, May 29 and May 30 in the Library meeting Room!


Did You Know…the library has a nice collection of video cassettes and dvd’s both upstairs and down for checkout? These are now checked out for a week, so you have a little longer to enjoy a night at the “movies” at home!

Behind My Desk… I have this idea for National Library Week. Want to help? The theme for this week would be “Worlds Connect @ Your Library.”
The library has a great many patrons who are from and/or have visited many different locales around the world. Would you be interesting in bringing one or two pieces of something from another country or another part of this country to display? You can contact me (Carole) at 712-243-5466 with any contributions or questions. Things don’t have to be expensive, just different!

Julie is lining up programs and ideas for this summer’s library/reading programs. Stay tuned for more information. We get to “Be Creative” this summer!

It’s spring cleaning time at the library. Diane started doing our annual weeding of magazines, so starting April 6 we should have some past issues available for the taking.

Last week I made a trip to the Capitol in Des Moines to discuss with our legislators about library issues. This session is wrapping up very soon and the money outlook is not good. Libraries are one of those public services that are desperately needed in tough times and we tried to make that case. It won’t be long and we will know how things turned out. We will do the best we can with what we have.

Keep Thinking Libraries!

=SUM(N4:N33)

Thinking Library!
Carole Stanger
March 21, 2009

New Books Upstairs @ the library!
True Colors by Kristin Hannah
Max by James Patterson
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani
Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian
Pursuit by Karen Robards
Three Weeks to Say Goodbye by C. J. Box
Take One by Karen Kingsbury

Coming Events @ the Library!
Library Hours!
Monday – Friday 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesday 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Sundays—closed.

Preschool Library Story Time—Please send a backpack with your child!
Wednesdays or Thursdays 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. – 3, 4 or 5 year olds
No registration—just show up! Parents may stay with child, but will be required to participate!
Apr. 1/2 Egg-citing!
Apr. 22/23 How Does Your Garden Grow?

National Library Week: April 12-18 “Worlds Connect@Your Library!

Cass Co. Conservation Program—“Composting”: Wednesday Apr. 22 6-8 pm Library Meeting Room


Did You Know…it’s about time to be thinking about the Spring Used Book Sale that the Friends of the Atlantic Public Library sponsor? It will be in May, so start sorting through those books on the shelves! We request that they be in good to excellent condition for resale. More information will be available in April as to the exact date.

Behind My Desk… Reports are a fact of life for libraries—for just about everyone, I suspect. I need all sorts of reports. This week I needed a report for the Atlantic City Council to show what the library does for the community and the tax payers. I needed another report for the county libraries so we could combine our information for the Cass County Board of Supervisors. The library board likes to see a report for the monthly meetings. Then, there is the State annual report. It’s a good thing I have learned the basics of Excel for spreadsheets.

The reports are one thing, but the setting up is quite another. It takes time—and patience—to put together an accurate report. I am in the process of trying to set up next fiscal year’s reports. I tend to go a bit overboard on this. I would rather give more information than not enough. As a result, I do reports of reports. Does this sound a bit obsessive/compulsive to you?

I think I have reached my saturation point for a little while. I’m not done, by any means, but it’s coming along better than last year at this time. When I start dreaming spreadsheets in my sleep, it’s time to back off.

In the mean time, enjoy the sights, smells and sounds of spring and…
Keep Thinking Libraries!

A Special Gift

Thinking Library!
Carole Stanger
March 7, 2009

New Books Upstairs @ the library!
Nemesis: the Final Case of Eliot Ness by William Bernhardt
Cream Puff Murder by Joanne Fluke
Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child
Love Mercy by Earlene Fowler
Boca Nights by Steven Forman
Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
Dragonheart by Todd McCaffrey

Coming Events @ the Library!
Library Hours!
Monday – Friday 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesday 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Sundays—closed.

Preschool Library Story Time—Please send a backpack with your child!
Wednesdays or Thursdays 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. – 3, 4 or 5 year olds
No registration—just show up! Parents may stay with child, but will be required to participate!
Mar. 11/12 Lucky Leprechauns!
Mar. 25/26 Spring is Here!
Apr. 8/9 Egg-citing!
Apr. 22/23 How Does Your Garden Grow?

Cass Co. Conserv. Program “Alaska” March 14 from 3-5 p.m.

Did You Know… the Cass County Genealogical Society has a new project? They are collecting copies of the Atlantic High School’s The Needle. They will be preserving them by having them bound together. If any of you have some copies of the Needle and would like to donate them to the Genealogical Society, they would be extremely grateful for any donations for this project.

Behind My Desk… We have just added a new service to the library webpage. It’s called NoveList. You will need to pick up the user name and password at the upstairs checkout desk so you can use this at home on the Internet...or use it on one of our public access computers here at the library. NoveList can:

Give you suggestions of similar authors
List award winner authors and books
Give information and suggestions for books discussions
List series in order
Give you reviews about new books

Take a look at it. The same user name and password that is used for EBSCOhost will be used for NoveList. I hope it will be useful for you!

Speaking of books…a book can be such a special gift. Sometimes you have no idea how special. I learned of one such gift a couple years ago. A gentleman whose wife has Alzheimer’s Disease asked me about a little children’s book. He knew I was the library director and wondered if I knew of the title. No, I wasn’t familiar with it, but that wasn’t the real purpose of the question. He proceeded to explain that he had been visiting his wife and there was a children’s book about a cow. He had tried all sorts of things to connect with his wife who had slowly lost her way in life. But that special day she noticed the book and began to read from it. She continued for a couple more days to read it over and over. He got to see (maybe one last time) a spark of her that still remained. There were tears in that gentle man’s eyes as he told me that book was worth more than money could buy. I totally agreed. You just never know…

Keep Thinking Libraries!