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Director's
Corner
by Kay Zaharis
The New Year began and a couple of months have
slipped by without reporting our progress to you.
Volunteers and staff are working very hard towards automation
and in implementing changes which, we hope, will provide easier access
to our books. Please
remember to let the staff know of your concerns, questions, and
suggestions. This library
is here to serve you and we aim to provide accurate information with
excellent service.
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Children's Room Notes
The Children’s Room Book Group has been meeting the
last Thursday night of each month since December. We have discussed the Lemony
Snicket books, Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game, and Holes by
Louis Sachar. Ella Enchanted,
Gail Carson Levine’s retelling of Cinderella, will be discussed on March
31st. In celebration of TV Turn-Off Week, we ask that anyone interested bring
their favorite book to our April 28th meeting and be prepared to
convince others how wonderful that book is. Book Group meetings are held in
the Children’s Room the last Thursday of every month at 7:00 pm.
Some new books:
If you have not yet heard, we have the third book in
the Traveling Pants series, Girls in Pants. Scorpia, the newest
Alex Rider adventure by Anthony Horowitz, will be available in March; Alex
Rider has been called the “James Bond of young adult fiction.” April will
bring Princess in Training by Meg Cabot, the latest in her Princess
Diaries series. Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception will
arrive in May. We have recently purchased some new J-level paperback horse
stories and would like feedback from horse lovers about which series they
prefer. The Horseshoe Trilogies – Keeping Faith, Sweet Charity,
and Last Hope – are modern stories,
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Continued
from previous column…
while the four Katie and the Mustang
books of the Hoofbeats series are set in the old west.
Learn how to creatively decorate a
scrapbook during spring break when Valerie Chapman of
“Creative Memories” visits the Children’s Room.
She will be here at 11 a.m. on April 18th, and anyone
ages 7 and up is welcome!
The
children’s Summer Reading Program sign-up will be held in
June on the first Monday after school is finished.
Call the library for more details.
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Annual
Used Book Sale
At
the Salvation Army Building, 138 South Main Street in
Cortland.
Thursday,
April 14, 5-8 p.m.
Friday,
April 15, 12-8 p.m.
Saturday,
April 16, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
We
will NOT accept:
Readers
Digest condensed books
Older
non-fiction
Medical
books
Travel
Guides older than 5 years
Textbooks
Please
do not bring these to us; they do not sell and it will cost
us money to discard them.
You
may bring your donations directly to the Salvation Army on
Wednesday, April 13 from noon until 5 or Thursday from 9
a.m. until 3 p.m.
If
you have any questions, please call the library.
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New!!
Preparing
for electronic access –
As
you see new services being offered in the library, books
moved to new locations, and monthly art exhibits, keep in
mind that behind the scenes there are many people
working to prepare the collection for computerization.
It will take the staff and volunteers several years
to complete the dozens of steps in the numerous tasks before
all the items available in the library can be seen in the
Finger Lakes Library System online catalog.
We are currently entering our new items and deleting
the outdated items in the electronic system, discarding
outdated material from the collection, and updating the card
catalog.
When
you search the Finger Lakes Library System online catalog,
you may notice that a particular book is available at CORT
(symbol for the Cortland Free Library).
Please remember that until we are fully automated,
seeing the CORT after an item merely indicates that the item
is owned by the library; it does not necessarily mean that
the item is available.
Also, because we are not yet automated, patrons
cannot reserve an item, renew an item, or request an
Intralibrary loan through the Cortland Free Library.
Currently, about 37% of our collection can be seen
online.
If
you have any questions about the process, or think you would
like to be involved in helping the library move forward,
please call the director, Kay Zaharis, at 753-1042.
*****
We
have moved the telephone books to the alcove near the copier
machine.
*****
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New!! continued
We have moved the paperback books to
the shelves near the copier machine because we needed more
space.
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We have moved the Large Type books to the aisle near
the periodicals because we added nearly 100 items and needed
more space.
Funding for libraries
Did you know that state funding for
library systems is currntly at the same level as it was in
1994.
The “Love Your Library” license
plate was passed by the New York State Legislature as bill
S.6835/A.9705 sponsored by Senator Farley and Assemblywoman
Galef. The
registration fees for these distinctive license plates will
help support summer reading programs throughout the state.
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Do
you know what’s here?
Local
& State Information - We have a display rack in
front of the Adult Services Circulation Desk with
newsletters, pamphlets, and magazines containing information
on local and state agencies. Feel free to peruse the
material.
We
now have a rotating collection of 45 videos from the Finger
Lakes Library System. Every three months we will receive new
videos consisting of drama, non-fiction, comedy,
children’s, family and mystery.
Upcoming
Events
In
the Art Gallery:
April
– Cortland Art League
May
- Cortland High School art students
June
- Chris Gratz “Fractured Beauty” exhibit.
Each
month, on a Saturday from 2-3 p.m., the featured artist will
give a talk about their work. These events are free and open
to people of all ages. Please call the library for dates.
Newspapers
We
receive the New York
Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor,
Syracuse Post Standard, and the Cortland
Standard regularly.
Because we wish to provide what YOU want, please
let us know if you would like us to receive the Ithaca Journal, Binghamton Press, Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Post,
or USA Today (all
available online).
FINES
$.10
per day per book –Adults
$.05
per day per book - Children
$1.00
per day for BOT
$2.00 per day for VHS
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