National Library Week - What to Read?

As a lifelong fan of reading, I can't say enough about libraries. As a child, my favorite summer days were the ones when the bookmobile would visit the small town in which I lived. How gratifying to see the same joy on the faces of my customers at Socastee Library!

When I first began working in the public library, I had been a school librarian for 30 years with the last 24 of those years in elementary schools so my knowledge of adult books was rather limited. While I could easily recommend books by Clive Cussler as an author of great suspense novels and Michael Palmer for medical mysteries, I frequently found myself receiving reader guidance rather than offering it.

Thanks to the patron who insisted I read by Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn as well as the lovely lady who sang Kristin Hannah's praises as she returned Between Sisters. I hope this week you will treat yourself to a trip to Socastee Library. I'll be one of the workers at the circulation desk and will be glad to help you find a great read. - Debbie

National Library Week - About Reading

You sometimes hear authors being described as "writer's writers." These are the writers who can pick the perfect word or turn a phrase like no one else, writers whom other writers read out of admiration, or out of jealousy. They're not always the most popular writers, but are among the most respected and lauded.

Although he's certainly a great writer with a style all his own, I think of Pat Conroy as a "reader's writer" -- someone who understands exactly why we read, and writes exactly that. My Reading Life is Conroy's love letter to the books and people who shaped him. Going through My Reading Life, you don't just learn why Gone With the Wind or Look Homeward, Angel are great books, you learn a little bit about the kind of person reading these books makes you. If you're a Conroy fan, My Reading Life will enrich your experience of all his books, but it's worthwhile for any lover of reading.

During National Library Week we celebrate all that libraries offer. We often say that the library has something for everyone, but the deeper truth is that the library has something for every person that you'd like to be. As Conroy illustrates, reading transforms a person, and the tools to "create your own story" are right here!

Click here to request My Reading Life in print, large print, or as an audiobook read by the author.

-Alan

National Library Week - Library Workers Day

What I really like about Socastee Library is the professional, friendly, and courteous staff. They are all so willing to help people find books that interest them and find answers to questions. It truly is a great place to visit when you know such welcoming people are inside. Remember them on National Library Workers Day on Tuesday, April 12. One of my favorite characters is Odd Thomas of the book of the same name by Dean Koontz. In fact, if you like him in the first book, you'll enjoy the rest of the series about him. He's the kind of guy you wish was your best friend. Now, he does have some different (or odd!) talents, but those just make the story interesting. Give him a chance to be your friend by reading the book! ~Sharon

National Library Week - A World of Possibilities for Life Enrichment

Libraries are so inviting! There’s something for everyone at your local public library! What better place to spend a quiet afternoon in a cozy corner working on your laptop, or reading from a good book you’ve just found in the fiction section? Are you the type who likes to catch up with the latest news? If you are, you can find a variety of local newspapers and news-related magazines at the library. Why bother to pay for them when you can look at them in the library for free? Would you like to learn about a foreign country, begin learning a new language, perfect your talent for baking, drawing, sewing, or perhaps make your new pet behave better? You can find this information at the library. And while you are there, you can sign up for a computer class or any number of other programs being offered at the library. You can also check out movies, music cds, Playaways, and use the computers to access the Internet or do research.

Children, too, have access to thousands of children’s books, children’s dvds, cds, reference materials, and children’s computers. At the Socastee Library programs are designed especially for children; programs such as Baby Lapsit, Preschool Storytime, and a monthly Saturday Family Movie- snacks included. And then there’s the annual Summer Reading Program….all for free.

Membership at the library offers a World of Possibilities to all who walk through the door. Why not visit regularly and see for yourself how you can enrich YOUR life. While you are visiting the Children’s Room you may want to look for some of the books chosen by the Association for Library Services to Children for their 2011 list of Notable Children’s Books for younger readers. Three titles from the list are included below: We Are in a Book! By Mo Willems. Elephant and Piggie discover that someone, the reader, is looking at them in this hilarious, interactive story about the joys of reading and being read. Geisel Honor Book In the Wild By David Elliott. Illus. by Holly Meade. Candlewick. A joyful collection of brief poems paired with dynamic woodblock prints celebrates favorite animals from every continent. Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. By Salley Mavor. Illus. by the author. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Familiar and lesser known nursery rhymes, illustrated with superb needlework and appliqué, create a charming dollhouse of a book. Find the complete list at: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/notalists/ncb/index.cfm

-Linda

National Library Week, pt. 1

"Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation." -Walter Cronkite

National Library Week began in 1958 as a way to celebrate and appreciate our nation's libraries. This year's theme is "Create your own Story @ your library," and we'll have some special blog posts throughout the week about our own library stories. So check back throughout the week! In the meantime, here are a few titles that any library lover will enjoy:

• This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson -- We're here to help.


• Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles -- A surprising and lively history of libraries, from Alexandria to the present day.


• Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert -- You'd be surprised...

-Alan

Adult Summer Reading Program

Have you entered the Adult Summer Reading drawing yet?
If not, be sure to pick up your Tic-Tac-Toe entry form at Socastee Library today and enter to win! All you need to do is fill in three across, three down, or three diagonally, and write your name and a contact phone number on the form. Just cut out the form and drop it in the entry jar at the library's main desk for your chance to win great prizes such as tickets to Le Grand Cirque, Carolina Opry, movies, and gourmet reading lover's baskets. Last chance to enter is Saturday, August 14, 2010. You must be age 18 or older to win. ~Sharon

How Libraries Stack Up

If you read this blog often, you've heard about the wide range of programs and materials we offer. But a new report from OCLC helps to put libraries' value in perspective. Did you know that:

• 12,000 public libraries (including HCML) offer free Wi-fi? That's 1,000 more locations than Starbucks and over 10,000 more than Barnes & Noble and Borders.
• Every day libraries lend out more DVDs than Netflix, and a million more DVDs than Redbox?
• Every day U.S. libraries circulate as many materials as FedEx ships packages worldwide?

Read the full (2-page) report at: http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/214109usf_how_libraries_stack_up.pdf

If you're interested in helping us provide these services, visit our monthly Friends of Socastee Library meeting at 1:00 on Thursday, May 6. And tell a friend!

-Alan

The FroggyOne Ribbits

Can you imagine a world without libraries? I shudder to think of such a possibility for libraries have always played an important role in my life. As a child in a very small S. C. town, I remember my excitement the day the bookmobile was scheduled visit. Years later when my hometown rated a small branch in the Aiken-Bamberg-Barnwell-Edgefield Regional Library System (SC), I was a constant customer. In high school I was a member of the Library Club, at college I worked as a student assistant in the college library, and the summer after my sophomore year, I served as a library intern in the ABBE system. How appropriate it was one week to ride the bookmobile route as a librarian-in-training and see that same joy I’d felt years ago on the face of others.

The dictionary defines a library as a place set apart to contain books, periodicals, and other material for reading, viewing, listening, study, or reference. But it is so much more. It’s a refuge for many – a place where fears and hardships can be temporarily forgotten as well as the place where solutions can be found, where a newcomer can feel ‘at home,’ a second home to someone whose home life is unhappy. It’s a place to stay in touch with the world through newspapers and the Internet. A library can be a child’s first step towards recognizing there’s a big, big world around them, a calm place to complete an assignment, the location of a special program to enhance your life, the opportunity to see a movie when your wallet is wearing thin, an island of sanity in a crazy world.

So when you’re having one of those days when it seems you’re not making a difference and all the questions seem to be more than a little off-beat and no one seem to appreciate your efforts, remember you are part of a very vital institution of our society. As Germaine Greer said “Libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace and wit, reminders of order, calm and continuity, lakes of mental energy, neither warm nor cold, light nor dark. The pleasure they give is steady, reliable, deep and long-lasting.”