Recession Has Many Running For Libraries

February 11, 2010
All of a sudden Americans are discovering their public libraries Jessica Doyle reports. The link to the CNN clip as it appeared on Los Angeles’ KCAL-TV can be found at
http://www.blinkx.com/video/recession-has-many-running-for-the-libraries/RkwBTQNIyMONzrV-FhSMRA

Check this out: Palm Beach County library system adds self-service checkouts

Libraries in county are using do-it-yourself checkout machines

By Lisa J. Huriash | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flplibrary0217pnfeb17,0,7217326.story

A story hour book report for Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast libraries

By AMY ROYSTER

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Saturday, February 07, 2009

If you think librarians are a quiet bunch, then you haven't been to a story hour.

With a crowd of little faces watching intently, area children's librarians overflow with emotion, gesture wildly, and sometimes, they even raise their voices!


Loudest roar
This behavior isn't really out of character for professionals charged with inspiring a love of reading. Susan Harris of the children's library at the Society of the Four Arts says her best advice to parents on how to get kids excited about books is to read aloud to your children "and enjoy the book you are reading."

Not feeling fully committed to voicing Wilbur in Charlotte's Web? Take your children to a story hour (it's free) and let everyone have some fun!


LIBRARY: Palm Beach County Main Library; 3650 Summit Blvd., West Palm Beach; (561) 233-2600

STORY TELLER: Melissa Sunshine, youth services librarian

FAVORITE CLASSIC CHILDREN'S STORY: 'Green Eggs and Ham' by Dr. Seuss

FAVORITE NEW CHILDREN'S STORY: Any from the 'Harry Potter' series by J.K. Rowling.

FAVORITE BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS: 'Tangerine' by Edward Bloor

HOW TO INSPIRE A LOVE OF READING: 'Read your kids books on a topic they are already really excited about. If they like what they hear, they will want to read more.'

CUTEST STORY HOUR MOMENT: A room full of little kids all doing the chicken dance in unison


LIBRARY: North County Regional; 11303 Campus Drive, Palm Beach Gardens; (561) 626-6133

STORY TELLER: Bea Ceruti, youth services librarian

FAVORITE CLASSIC CHILDREN'S STORY: 'Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?' by Bill Martin

FAVORITE NEW CHILDREN'S STORY: 'I'm Not Cute!' by Jonathan Allen

FAVORITE BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS: 'Twilight' by Stephanie Meyer

HOW TO INSPIRE A LOVE OF READING: 'Parents can get their children interested in reading by reading to them every day. Gradually they will start to develop a connection between the pictures they see in the books with the words.'

CUTEST STORY HOUR MOMENT: 'One of our librarians was reading Circus 1-2-3 during circus week. When she pointed to a tiger pictured in the book, she asked 'What is this animal's name?' A toddler in the 13-to-23-months class shouted out "Tiger Woods!" '


LIBRARY: Story in the Garden series; Mounts Botanical Garden, 531 N. Military Trail, West Palm Beach; (561) 233-1757 (registration required)

STORY TELLER: Stacey Burford, Palm Beach County youth services librarian

FAVORITE CLASSIC CHILDREN'S STORY: 'Betsy-Tacy and Tib' by Maud Hart Lovelace

FAVORITE NEW CHILDREN'S STORY: 'Clementine' by Sara Pennypacker

FAVORITE BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS: 'Stargirl' by Jerry Spinelli

HOW TO INSPIRE A LOVE OF READING: 'Introduce children to a good series. I love getting to know characters and following them as they age and have adventures.'

CUTEST STORY HOUR MOMENT: 'I entered a preschool classroom and the teacher said, "Boys and girls, it's time to clean up and come to circle time. The library lady is here." One of the boys was not ready to pick up the trucks he was playing with, so he said, "I don't see any library lady." The teacher pointed in my direction and said, "She's right here." The boy said, "Well, that looks like a teenager to me." '


LIBRARY: Wellington branch; 1951 Royal Fern Drive; (561) 790-6070

STORY TELLER: Amanda Bosky, librarian trainee, and University of South Florida School of Library and Information Science student

FAVORITE CLASSIC CHILDREN'S STORY: 'Through the Looking-Glass' by Lewis Carroll

FAVORITE NEW CHILDREN'S STORY: 'Rules' by Cynthia Lord

FAVORITE BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS: 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak

HOW TO INSPIRE A LOVE OF READING: 'Model the behavior you want to see. Read in front of your children. Talk about books you enjoy.'

CUTEST STORY HOUR MOMENT: 'Once my co-storyteller Myrtle Leone and I were doing a stick puppet version of Little Red Riding Hood. When the 5-inch-tall, very unassuming and unintimidating wolf puppet showed up, one little girl dramatically threw her hands in the air and gasped as if a real wolf had appeared in the room!'


LIBRARY: Southwest County Regional; 20701 95th Ave. S., Boca Raton; (561) 482-4554

STORY TELLER: Andrea Rubin, teen librarian

FAVORITE CLASSIC CHILDREN'S STORY: 'Madeline' by Ludwig Bemelmans

FAVORITE NEW CHILDREN'S STORY: 'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane' by Kate DiCamillo

FAVORITE BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS: 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian' by Sherman Alexie

HOW TO INSPIRE A LOVE OF READING: 'If your child is a reluctant reader, try setting aside a specific time a couple of times a week when you can read together. By creating a special reading time for just you and your child, you may be able to pique their interest in reading.'

CUTEST STORY HOUR MOMENT: 'A toddler once pulled down his pants exposing his Winnie- the-Pooh diaper to the whole audience. He completely stole the show!'


LIBRARY: Bilingual story hour, Palm Beach County Main Library; 3650 Summit Blvd., West Palm Beach; (561) 233-2600

STORY TELLER: Maribel de Jesus, children's librarian

FAVORITE CLASSIC CHILDREN'S STORY: 'Where the Red Fern Grows' by Wilson Rawls

FAVORITE NEW CHILDREN'S STORY: 'El mejor es mi papa' by Georgina Lazaro Leon

FAVORITE BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS: 'Anne of Green Gables' by Lucy Maud Montgomery

HOW TO INSPIRE A LOVE OF READING: 'Always have reading materials such as children's magazines, fiction books and newspapers around the house.'

CUTEST STORY HOUR MOMENT: 'There was a little girl who came to my Tuesday bilingual story time regularly. As I was greeting the parents at the door she sat down in front of the room and selected a book and started our story time. She sang the welcome song and made up a story as she turned the pages of the book.'


LIBRARY: Blake Library, Martin County Library System; 2351 S.E. Monterey Road, Stuart; (772) 288-5702

STORY TELLER: June Overholt, children's librarian

FAVORITE CLASSIC CHILDREN'S STORY: 'Round Trip' by Ann Jonas

FAVORITE NEW CHILDREN'S STORY: 'Lilly's Big Day' by Kevin Henkes

FAVORITE BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS: 'Seedfolks' by Paul Fleischman

HOW TO INSPIRE A LOVE OF READING: 'Attend story times with your children. Story times introduce books in a fun and relaxed environment.'

CUTEST STORY HOUR MOMENT: 'I always end my (baby sign language) story hour with a group activity such as the bubble machine. A few weeks ago, a little girl left the room with her mother to go to the restroom. When she returned, the bubble machine was empty of bubble solution. ... The little girl ran up to the front of the room signing "more," her tiny hands brought together in the appropriate baby sign. The expression on her face was so precious!'


LIBRARY: Society of the Four Arts; 2 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach, (561) 655-2776

STORY TELLER: Susan R. Harris

FAVORITE CLASSIC CHILDREN'S STORY: 'Make Way for Ducklings' by Robert McCloskey

FAVORITE NEW CHILDREN'S STORY: 'Whittington' by Alan W. Armstrong

FAVORITE BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS: 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee

HOW TO INSPIRE A LOVE OF READING: 'Take the time on a daily basis and make the books interesting by using creative facial expressions, changing the pitch and tone of your voice, and enjoying the book you are reading.'

CUTEST STORY HOUR MOMENT: 'Guest author Robert L. Forbes came to our program and read a selection of poems from his new book, Beastly Feasts! We sing songs between story readings ... On this occasion Old MacDonald became 'Old MacForbes Had a Farm.'"

Southwest County Regional library closing for renovations; new branch library to open

By STEVEN BERGER
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 13, 2009

West Boca Raton residents looking to check out a book will have to check into a new library.

On Sunday, the Southwest County Regional library, 20101 95th Avenue South, will be closed for renovations for six to eight months.
The book drop will stay open until Friday, when the brand new West Boca Branch, 18685 State Road 7, opens at 9:30 a.m. The renovations are part of the $55 million bond issue county voters approved in 2002.

The original $70 million estimate to complete all projects proposed in the bond issue has ballooned to more than $130 million, but the only project that has been shelved is the construction of a new main library, said county Library Director John Callahan. Still, circulation has increased by 40 percent in the last 27 months, and the weak economy has lowered contracting costs, he said.

"In a sense, it's a good time to complete these projects," he said.

Evelyn Silverman has used the Southwest County Regional library since it opened in 1975.

"I'm an avid reader so I need books constantly," the Boca Raton resident said, estimating she goes through six to eight a week.

For her, the closure's impact only lasts five days. The new library is about a mile closer to her home, she said.

The renovations to the Southwest County Regional library previously were not scheduled to begin until June, but the county library's expansion plan must remain flexible, said Community Relations Manager Nicole Hughes.

"As soon as we get one that we can go ahead with, we try and get in there right as soon as we can," she said.

The closure helps lower costs. Employees from the Southwest County Regional library are transferred to the new branch, and so no new workers are needed until renovations are completed, Callahan said.

The library system's expansion includes a number of efforts to increase long-term sustainability. Typical renovations to the county's libraries include installing more efficient air conditioning and lighting units, Callahan said.

More than half of the libraries should have an automated return sorting system in place by the end of the year that would allow librarians to handle increasing demand without additional work, he said.

Any other number of factors can also influence the expansion plan's development.

The Loula V. York Branch in Pahokee was not scheduled for renovations until Hurricane Wilma rolled through town, Hughes said.

The North County Regional library's expansion would have started last November, the project needs a permit and any construction is off-limits until gopher tortoises are transported off the property, she said.

1839 Seminole War Map is Gift of History to Library

By David Vest/Newsfeatures Editor/Panama City News Herald

When Ted Rybicki spotted a history-sharing opportunity, he couldn’t pass it up.

As a result, the Bay County Public Library now has a link to Florida of 1839. It’s a copy of a state map commissioned by Army Gen. Zachary Taylor during the Seminole wars of that era.

Rybicki, who lives in Lynn Haven, donated the map to the library’s Local History Room, through the Historical Society of Bay County. He also intends to donate a copy to the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee.

The original is in the 35-story SunTrust Bank Centre in Orlando that was built in the 1980s. Rybicki was a vice president for corporate communications with SunTrust before he retired to Lynn Haven with his wife, Rena, in 1992.

An art collector provided the map along with other works to a committee looking for art to hang on the SunTrust headquarter’s walls. “Most of it was contemporary art,” Rybicki said. But the 1839 map caught his eye.

“I thought it was a shame for it to be in some executive’s office, out of sight of the public,” he said. “So I surreptitiously had a couple of copies made.”

‘Miami was a swamp’

“Old Rough and Ready” Gen. Taylor, who later would become the nation’s 12th president, commissioned the map just after he took command of all U.S. Army troops during the Second Seminole War. It was that era’s equivalent of the Vietnam War, according to “The Seminole Wars” by John and Mary Lou Missal, published in 2004 by the University of Florida Press.

The war lasted seven years and killed 1,500 soldiers and countless people in the Seminole nation. More than 3,000 Seminoles were forcibly removed from Florida. A third Seminole war, just before the Civil War, made a final attempt to remove what was left of the Seminole nation from the Everglades.

This particular map has the Apalachicola river as its western edge, in keeping with a traditional dividing line for West and East Florida. West of Tallahassee and St. Marks, the only significant details are the settlements of Aspalaga and Quincy, near the Georgia border.

Rybicki said what struck him most was that “major towns were not even in existence. Tampa was not even in existence. Miami was a swamp.”

What showed up most on the Florida territory’s map was military outposts. In 1838, Taylor had divided the state into 20-squaremile grids and designated a “fort” in the center of each, says an account in “Seminole Wars.” Many were meager buildings, far from being fortresses.

But all were intended to discourage Indian attacks on white Floridians and settlers moving south from Alabama and Georgia.

The forts especially fired his imagination, Rybicki said. “So many of them are out in the middle of nowhere. They’d be great for students ... to do archeological explorations.”

Showing off history

Rebecca Saunders, the library’s local history specialist, said the 1839 map is a great addition to the Local History Room, which has expanded into much-needed space in the new library.

“I’d have to check whether we have anything that old” in the room’s collections, she said. “But I do know we have Indian artifacts” from far back.

Saunders said the library is gradually doing justice to historical displays that once were in a cramped room in the old building next to City Hall and the Panama City Marina. She’s particularly eager to get picture rails to hang such treasures as Rybicki’s map. “It’s a new building,” she said, “so we hate to put holes in the wall.”

With Panama City celebrating its centennial, she said, the room has lots of resources for research. A street map of St. Andrews in 1877 is of particular interest. So is a book donated by Black Insurance Co., showing details about each land parcel down to building shape and size. It was used by real estate agents and the fire department, and it was updated yearly from 1939 to 1960.

Rybicki is among those especially fond of browsing in the Local History Room. His copy of the 1839 map seemed like a natural addition. “This is just a fascinating place,” he said. “We need to tell the world it’s here.”

Great Wall Street Journal Library Article!

"Folks Are Flocking to the Library, a Cozy Place to Look for a Job
Books, Computers and Wi-Fi Are Free, But Staffs Are Stressed by Crowds, Cutbacks"

- and hey, you know you're getting heard when the WallStreet Journal picks up our story - January 15, 2009

Pinching pennies? Internet, DVDs, books free at library

Deepening recession has people flocking to local public libraries.
By Carole Fader

Increased library use in Duval, Clay and St. Johns counties. Read the full story at http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-02-05/story/pinching_pennies_internet_dvds_books_free_at_library