Welcome
to the
August
2007
In
This Month’s Edition
News
and Programs for the Month
What’s
Hanging in the Galleries
Web
Picks: Cool Stuff on the Web
The Hall
County Library System will be closed Monday, September 3 for Labor Day.
Get
Booked for
Fun! This new
blog, set up and
operated by Hall County Library staff members, invites individuals from all
walks of life to share their views (and reviews) on exciting books from all
genres. Library staff will periodically post reviews on books they have read and
liked...or disliked. Readers are invited to add comments about the books and, if
they choose, to post their own reviews.
Through
PINES, the
library offers amazing opportunities to access new reading material, so dive in
and find some great books. And don't forget to share your suggestions with
others!
All Day
Scrapbooking Session
Join
us Saturday, August 18th from 10am to 5pm at the Blackshear
Place Branch for fun stamping and
scrapbooking. Enjoy spending time with other scrappers and have
room to spread out. The cost is $20 per person and includes a scrapbook kit,
stamps, lunch, and snacks. For more
information please call: 770-532-3311 ext.
151.
The
Hall County Library System, a cooperating collection with the Foundation Center
of New York, is pleased to announce a one day Foundation Seminar to be held on
September 13, 2007. The Atlanta
Foundation Center and the North Georgia Community Foundation Center will each be
conducting mini-workshops. “How
the Foundation Center Resources at the Gainesville Public Library Can Help Your
Nonprofit!” will
be taught by Kayron Bearden of the Atlanta Foundation Center. Angel Randolph of the North Georgia
Community Foundation Center will conduct a workshop entitled Grant Writing Basics. The one day seminar will be held
at the downtown Gainesville branch of the Hall County Library System from 10:30
a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The seminar is free and a list of suggested local lunch
locations will be provided. Space
is limited to 30 participants and registration is required. For more information call 770-532-3311
ext. 114 or email ljames@hallcountylibrary.org.
What’s
Hanging in the Galleries
The Gainesville
Branch will be featuring the art of Tina Carlson and Greg Allen throughout the
month of August.
Tina Carlson –
Pastels
Tina
Carlson is creative director and executive vice president of Morton Vardeman
& Carlson, a strategic marketing, advertising and public relations agency in
Gainesville. Prior to joining the agency in 1980, Ms. Carlson was a writer
and feature editor with The Times
newspaper. She also worked with the Chamber of Commerce and as a freelance
writer.
Greg Allen –
Photography
Greg Allen is a
free lance photographer and graphic artist. Mr. Allen’s photomontages and DVD
presentation subjects include African-American history, particularly events,
leaders and personalities of Hall County. Mr. Allen’s photomontages are
exhibited currently at the Beulah Rucker Museum and Education Center.
The
library system offers free computer classes including Introduction to
Email, Introduction to the Internet, Advanced Email, Introduction to MS PowerPoint, Word Processing
Basics and Introduction to MS
Publisher. Classes are taught by trained library staff and
are free to the public. Classes will be held in the computer training labs at
the Blackshear Place Branch. For
class details and times, click here or
contact the library at 770-532-3311.
The
Gainesville Branch will also be offering Senior Online
Sessions (S.O.S.) to any senior citizen who would like basic instruction
in the use of a personal computer.
S.O.S. class size will be limited to ten students so that each student
can receive a high level of personal attention. Curriculum in the class will focus on
logging onto a library computer, the parts of the PC and their functions, how to
customize a computer’s display options to suit the needs of the user and
more. The S.O.S. class will also
learn the basic use of an internet browser. There will be ample opportunity and
encouragement during class for asking questions. To register, contact the
library’s computer services department at 770-532-3311 ext.
124.
The next
pajama storytimes will be held at
6:30 p.m. at the Gainesville
Branch (with Sheriff
Steve Cronic as guest reader) on August 6 and at the
Blackshear
Place branch on August
14. Everyone is welcome. Children may wear their jammies and bring their
favorite bedtime buddy.
There will be a
mini-session of Baby Steps lapsit storytimes and preschool storytimes at the Gainesville
and Blackshear Place branches during August. For the schedule, click on the link
above or go to the library
website, or call
Gainesville Youth Services (770-532-3311, ext. 129) or Blackshear Place
(770-532-3311, ext. 151) for more information.
The Fall Session of all storytimes begins the week of October 8, 2007. Storytimes will be held at the Gainesville, Blackshear
Place, and Murrayville branches.
Schedules are available in all branch locations and complete information is on
the library
website. You can also call
the branch for more information.
Jump Start Reading
Club (for children who
cannot read on their own) and Reading Patch
Club (for K-5 students
who can read on their own) are on hiatus until the day after Labor Day in
September. There are new guidelines for participation in Reading Patch Club so
be sure to click on the link to check them
out.
Reading Patch Club
participants can finish reading for a patch they did not finish during the last
school year and receive their patches when the club begins again. Students
entering 6th grade may finish a patch started last year but may not
read for another. Click on the links above, visit the library
website, or call
770-532-3311, ext. 129 for more information.
Vacation Reading
Program 2007 ended on July 31.
Over 2,900 children, teens, and parents
participated. A good time was had by all. If you’d like to see some of that fun,
click
here for this year’s
photo page
New
titles for children and teens:
Through Georgia’s
Eyes by Rachel
Rodriguez
With
quiet simplicity this story tells the story of artist Georgia O'Keefe as she
grows up and grows old, expressing herself through her art, showing her bond
with the land in New Mexico. (EFC)
My Mei Mei by Ed
Young
Antonia gets her
wish when her parents return to China to bring home a Mei Mei, or younger sister, for her.
(EFC)
Cyberpals
by Dian Curtis
Regan
Kaley is struggling with
a Language Arts assignment to correspond via email with overseas "cyberpals" and looking for a nickname. As usual, the
assignments provide entertainment for Mr. Serrano as he grades them.
(JFC)
Al Capone Does My
Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
Leaving his friends
behind in San Francisco, 12-year-old Moose Flanagan moves to Alcatraz Island
with his family when his father accepts a higher paying job as a prison guard so
that his autistic sister Natalie has the chance to get into a special
school. When Natalie is
rejected by her new school, Moose feels it's up to him to get her accepted. (J
Audio—Playaway*
format)
Eragon by Christopher
Paolini
In Alagaesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called
Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life
into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons,
elves, and monsters. (YA Audio—Playaway*
format)
Hoot by Carl
Hiaasen
Roy, who is new to
his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a
colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site. (YA Audio—Playaway* format)
*Playaways are books on MP3 players dedicated to a particular
story. They come ready to listen to, with earbuds and
a battery.
New
titles in the adult area:
Killer
Weekend by Ridley
Pearson
“A
local sheriff struggles to protect a controversial politician from the elegant
plan of a hired assassin.”
In the
Woods by Tana French Available on Unabridged
CD
“After a 12-year-old Irish lad and his two pals fail to return from a day
in the woods, searchers find only the terrified sixth grader—with blood-filled
shoes and no memory of what happened. Now 32, the tragedy’s sole survivor Rob
Ryan is a detective on Dublin’s Murder Squad. A current investigation takes Rob
to the exact site of his childhood trauma. With the present case chillingly
similar to his 20-year-old nightmare, Rob hopes to unlock the shrouded secrets
of his past.”
Invisible
Prey by John Sandford
“On a deceptively quiet Minneapolis evening, Detective Lucas Davenport is
summoned to one of the most heinous homicide scenes he’s ever encountered. Two
elderly women have been brutally bludgeoned inside their home, with only a few
valuable yet common stolen items indicating the killer’s sinister
motives.”
The New American
Story by Bill
Bradley
Bill Bradley is not only the author of five books but an Olympic Gold
medalist, Rhoades scholar and former Senator from New Jersey. He writes this
book from the perspective of a private citizen and asks the question, “What will
it take to make
Lois on the
Loose by Lois
Pryce
“One woman, one motorcycle, 20,000 miles across the
Lois, a career woman with the BBC in London, gave in to her wanderlust
and love of motorcycles and went looking for adventure. She found it on her motorcycle trip
starting in
At the Center of
the Storm: My Years at the CIA by George Tenet,
with Bill Harlow
This book recounts
Tenet’s time in the CIA during one of the most challenging times in American
history. Tenet provides a revealing
look at the inner workings of the CIA as well as its attempts to prepare the
Donating
a book to the library in honor or memory of a loved one is a great way to show
affection. Titles of suggested book donations are listed on the library’s
Amazon.com Wish List. For the price
of a book, anyone can help the library keep the most current materials
available. To view the list, see the library
website and
follow the link to amazon.com. Book
donors may request that a commemorative plate be placed inside the front cover
of the book in recognition of a loved one or to honor a special occasion.
The Hall County Library System is a non-profit government agency and a
charitable 501(C) (3) organization; therefore, all donations are tax
deductible. The library is pleased
to announce that it has now received 200 plus books through this
program.
Dear
Patron,
Have you ever
wondered how your local library system is funded? I know you are going to say
property taxes and that is mostly correct but not all library revenue comes from
the local property owner. For our library this year it accounts for 80% of our
funding. So if local taxes account for just a part of the revenue where does the
rest come from?
The State of
Georgia provides a significant amount of revenue. Most years the state provides
20% but this year it is actually closer to
15%.
The library derives
a fair amount of unanticipated revenue from grants and gifts every year. Last
year we received $80,000. The library could not budget for these expenditures
since it did not know if the funds would be available. Staff used the grant
money to purchase newer computers and improve services to our special needs
patrons. The library bought books and hired outside programmers for the vacation
reading program with the gift money. We will do the same this fiscal
year.
The library did
anticipate some revenue from fines, fees and copying that was used to offset
some of the property taxes used to operate your library. Library staff is
conservative in anticipating this revenue since the sale of photocopies is a
shrinking source of money as more and more people use the Internet and e-mail to
save paying for printing. Patrons in Hall County have also become better about
returning their materials so revenue from fines and fees has also been
declining. Library staff believes that our turning over delinquent accounts to a
collection agency has played a role in encouraging better
use.
This year we have
three unusual sources of funding. The library system will receive $500,000 from
Impact Fees to purchase new materials for the new South Hall Library. It will
also spend $4,000,000 from SPLOST and another $2,000,000 from the State of
Georgia to build the new library. Library staff expects it to open in April
2008.
So, almost
$2,700,000 will be spent on operating the library system in Hall County in this
fiscal year - which runs from July 1st to June 30 - and another $6,000,000 will
be spent building a new library branch. It sounds like a lot of money and it is
but the $2,700,000 spent on operating is actually a little less than the current
state average of $16 per capita.
So the sources of
library revenue for this year are property taxes, state income tax, Federal LSTA
funds, Impact Fees, sales tax, Capital Improvement funds, state bond money,
public and private grants, local gifts, book sales, and the Universal Service
Fund. You might say money comes
from a lot of different places and just think, each one
of these places has its own rules and procedures to follow to account for how
the funds will be spent. Sometimes I wish I just had a good book to
read.
I hope to catch you
in the stacks reading.
Sincerely,
Adrian
Mixson
Library
Director
PS This year we
actually have money to purchase books so tell us if you cannot locate your
favorite author.
To get
more information on your library account, please call the library’s Circulation
Manager at 770-532-3311 ext. 110 or visit the library
website and enter your account through the library's
catalog. You will need your library card and pin number, which may be
obtained by visiting any library branch. You may also email the
Circulation
Manager for
additional information.
Web
Picks: Cool Stuff on the Web
Hot Dogs as
America This small
presentation highlights some of the hot dogs served in different cities and at
baseball stadiums in the U.S., including New York deli and street cart dogs, the
"Chicago Red Hot," the "Dodger Dog," the "Fenway Frank," the Texas corn dog, and
others. Part of a larger past exhibition about baseball held at the American
Museum of Natural History.
This site provides a
survey of the arts in connection with food. Themes include food in movies,
music, literature, and art. Includes short essays on topics such as the movie
"Like Water for Chocolate," food in Puccini's opera "La Bohème," Hemingway and food, poverty, and still life
paintings of food. From the London Food Film
Fiesta.
Editors
For more
information please call (770) 532-3311 ext. 134 or visit our website at
http://www.hallcountylibrary.org/
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