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Tis the season of Christmas songs, and if you are like me, one is always playing in the back of your mind. As we slip and slide our way through another holiday season, I would like to draw your attention to a certain tune that comes with a little local history. The composer: Benjamin Hanby. The place: New Paris, Ohio. In 1864, Hanby made a bold decision to leave the ministry and set out on a new career path: he wanted to make a living in the music industry. He worked for a Cincinnati music publisher and had started a singing school in New Paris that ministered to children. That winter, he brought his “singing church” to perform at a Christmas party for a group of poor children in Richmond, Indiana. This marks the first performance of the song he called “Santa Claus,” and it is said that they received wild cheers and applause. His brother Will (whose name is used in the song) even came from his home in Westerville to hear the live performance in Indiana. The next year Hanby published “Santa Claus” with Root and Cady in Chicago. He had achieved his goal, however briefly. Hanby died in Chicago in 1867; Root and Cady was lost to the Great Chicago Fire four years later. But Hanby’s song lives on today, and all kids know it as “Up on the Housetop.” This year, as you sing it with your loved ones, remember that the man who wrote the words and melody had the courage to follow his dream. I hope this inspires all of us to reach from small town Ohio to the stars, and in 2015 may we all find what makes us truly happy.

You can visit Westerville’s Hanby House where he lived from 1853-1858.

– Claire Kandle

Local History & Genealogy Librarian

As I write this on Thanksgiving Eve, I can’t help but ponder the blessings in my own life. My mother always said Thanksgiving was her favorite holiday because it is about being grateful for what we have: family, faith, friends, community. There is no gift-giving nor any retail bonanza; it is simply about breaking bread with family and being grateful. We have all noticed the Christmas displays at retail stores since before Halloween. It has always saddened me that such a humble and meaningful holiday such as Thanksgiving is lost year in and year out because of the spectacle of the modern Christmas. In protest, I challenge you to pause and to take stock of the blessings in your life. I mentioned family, faith, friends, and community but would like to add my library family–those men and women who I am blessed to work with nearly every day of the week. I am grateful to share their passion for the library and its meaning in the community. The library is not just a job but a passion for us. So when we say grace tomorrow at the supper table I will pray with a full and content heart to bless my library family in all that they do. I will thank God for blessing me with a group of complete strangers who over the last 5 years have become family.

-Jim Gill, Director

This is one of my favorite times of the year, because the new Christmas Fiction books are starting to come in.  They are usually inspiring, feel-good stories that leave you with that warm fuzzy feeling.  If you need help getting in the Christmas mood, they will do it.  They are also great books to read before you go to sleep.  They will lull you into peaceful, sweet dreams.  If you are having a bad day, just pick-up one of Debbie Macomber’s “Angels” books with Shirley, Goodness & Mercy in it.  These Angels are always getting in trouble for some of the shenanigans they pull.

There are many popular authors with Christmas series.  Karen Kingsbury has the Red Glove series, Donna VanLiere, author of “The Christmas Shoes” has several books.  If you want to read a series based on certain Towns, Thomas Kinkade has a series on a town called “Cape Light” and Susan Mallory has one on a town called “Fools Gold”.  If you like to read about beach towns, Sherryl Woods has a series called “Chesapeake Shores” and Susan Wiggs has a series called “Lakeshore Chronicles”.  If you like to read about cowboys, Janet Dailey has a Christmas series on them and Linda Lael Miller has a Christmas series on her “McKettricks”.  Richard Paul Evans has “The Christmas Box” collection along with several other Christmas books.  Melody Carlson and Mary Higgins Clark also have quite a few Christmas books.  There are also Christmas books with an Amish storyline.  If you need something with a little suspense, Heather Graham will give you some of the “edge of your seat” feel you crave.

Hallmark Channel has made a few books into movies.  Debbie Macomber’s “Mrs. Miracle” came out a few years ago and this year, Debbie Macomber’s “Mr. Miracle” and Sheila Roberts “The Nine Lives of Christmas” will come out.  So watch to see when these will be airing.

There are many more authors that I have not listed that have Christmas books.    Just come in and check some out, even if you don’t need any help getting in the Christmas mood.  They are fun, quick, easy reads for this hectic time of year.

I hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season,

Mary, Technology Room Manager

Me at the Overdue Open House

A Fellow came into the library the other day to send a FAX. He came up to the front desk and said, “Say, someone told me you can send a FAX from here, is the true?”

I said, “Yes, that’s true!” We discussed the price, $1.00 for the first page .50 cents for every page after that. You can receive a FAX for 25 cents a page We got to talking, and this fellow had never been in our library. So, I shared with him what we have to offer. For FREE.

For FREE, we have books of all kinds, newspapers, magazines, books on CD. We have comics and graphic novels. Books in Large Print, books for holidays, and books for children who can’t even read yet.

We have tax forms, Golden Buckeye forms, and you can register to vote here. Each month we offer a FREE magazine called THE BOOK PAGE that lists all the upcoming new books with interesting articles that will appeal to everyone.

We have laminating, for small and large items for $1.25 per foot.

We have classes to use the computers, a copy machine to print at 15 cents per page for black and white and 50 cents for color. You can copy info to a Flash Drive for free, and we will soon have them for sale. And ear buds if you want to listen to something on the computer. We have even have a notary for legal documents.

We have DVD’s and Music CD’s. When I told this fellow we have movies, he couldn’t believe we have them for FREE.  Children’s movies, and books on CD are free for them as well.

We have a Lego club, a Drama Club, and Storytimes for kids.

Lego Club

We have three different types of book discussion groups that meet at different times of the day and evening.

We have programs for children, teens, and adults, from ages 0-105.

We offer wellness health related meetings with the Union Hospital and the OSU Extension office.

We have an Inter Library Loan service, where we get an item that the Dover Library doesn’t have at no cost to you.

We have displays that change monthly. You can share your collection here at the library in two of our glass display cases.

We have the Friends Of The Library who help the library in so many ways, like helping to bring in authors to speak, helping to purchase items that the library needs to run smoothly. They also run THE BOOK CELLAR, open each Wednesday from 10-1 and Saturday from 9-12. You can pick up some gently used books, DVD’s, and other items for a very small charge. Don’t tell my family, but that’s where I buy my books that I give them for Christmas.

What the library does not have

We do not have an ATM machine.    We do not have a pop machine, and you can’t sleep here, sorry.   Oh wait, you can sleep here when we do our library lock-in for the kids and teens.

Teen Lock In

I hope you discovered a new service you can use here at the library! See you soon!

Thanks for reading,

Denise

Adult Services

Let’s face it–between work, school, and all the other hectic things going on, it can be hard to commit to working out regularly. When I had free time, I’d just as soon read a book or watch a movie as exercise. So, a couple of years ago I found myself wandering around the Internet looking for new ways to motivate myself to commit to exercising. Through my wanderings, I stumbled across EowynChallenge.net. This website provides different challenges based on the journeys taken by the characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The distances were determined by Karen Wynn Fonstad, and published in her book, The Atlas of Middle Earth. I thought it was the coolest thing! I have to admit, I am a MAJOR Tolkien nerd: I have read all of the books several times, own every movie, and always see the movie at a midnight release. That made the EowynChallenge the perfect way for me to motivate myself to exercise, because I could measure my distance against the distances traveled in my favorite books! I even started listening to audiobooks while exercising, so I didn’t “lose” my reading time.

A few weeks after I started the first challenge of walking from Bag End to Rivendell, I realized that it would make a great library program because it merges exercising and literature. Last year, we held our first Fit for Fall challenge, with about 30 participants walking nearly 350 miles in just over 3 months. Our version has a few tweaks–we base the distance on time so that people who prefer other types of exercise (running, swimming, raking leaves even!) would easily know how to count their efforts. Participants who completed at least 75% of the challenge received a t-shirt, and those who completed the entire thing (100 hours of walking or equivalent exercise!) were entered to win tickets to see the movie. Once a month, a group of walkers gathered at the library and took a walk through Dover, which turned out to be a great way to enjoy the fall foliage while also making some progress towards completing the challenge.

This year, we are hosting Fit for Fall 2014: The Return Journey. Like last year, participants are challenged to complete 100 hours of walking or equivalent exercise. This year, those who complete the challenge will have “traveled” with Bilbo Baggins on his way home from Rivendell to Bag End. Also like last year, we are hosting monthly “walking parties.” We just enjoyed our second walk through Dover last Saturday, and we have two more walks this fall on November 15 and December 13 at 10 AM. Whether or not you are participating in the challenge, I hope you will come out and join us one Saturday for a nice walk through Dover followed by a light snack. Like I said, it’s a great way to get out, see the fall foliage, and enjoy some great conversation. Hope to see you soon!

-Kathryn, Adult  Services